We went to the BCCK (Borneo Convention Center Kuching) for the first time last night because we were attracted by the Sign Language Musical Stage Drama organized by TzuChi Kuching (a Buddhist Organization).

Now is the 7th month in Chinese Calendar, many Chinese thought it is  a ghost month but actually it is a month of filial (XiaoShun in Chinese, which means love and respect to parents) according to Buddhism.

It is a good time to perform the stage drama with the story based on The Sutra of Filial Piety.  They have put in a lot of efforts to make this performance a success.  The songs and the music were very nice, the sign language performance was amazing.

Most importantly the content of the Sutra of Filial Piety touched everyone’s heart, it let us know how our parents has taken care of us since we were in our mother’s womb, and explained that the relationship between parents and children.

Before the performance started, we took photos around, because they have set up some decorations, exhibitions and stalls selling books and CDs/DVDs outside the hall.

We also talked to a member of TzhChi to learn more about this event and their organization, and she gave us some souvenirs.

This is how the Borneo Convention Center Kuching looks like from inside the building.

We saw a news reporting scene.  It might be live-broadcasted on TzuChi satellite TV from Taiwan which called “Da Ai” channel.

Right before the performance started, we could see a beautiful sunset outside the building.  I took the photo before we went into the hall.

f/5, 15 sec, ISO 80, focal length: 45mm (approx. 252mm on 35mm equivalent), cropped, increased contrast.

The detail astronomy data of the photo above is as below:-
Time taken: 2010-08-11 20:43:36
Location: Kuching, Malaysia
Direction: West
Apparent Magnitude:-
1.  Venus: -3.4
2.  Mars: 1.5
3.  Saturn: 1.2
4.  Eta Virginis: 3.89

This is the first time I have ever taken pictures of the small objects in the night sky.  My other experiences are the moon, sunrise and sunset.

Last week, after I read a news from the newspaper about the 3 planets (Venus, Mars and Saturn) appearing very near to each other, I decided to take their photos and at the same time to test the capability of my camera.  I have waited for 3 days because it kept on raining.  Finally I got a chance to have a clear sky last Wednesday evening although the light pollution around me was heavy.

Since I used low ISO to reduce noise, I had to increase the shutter time, therefore I used 15 seconds to take the photo of the planets.

Well, you’ll never know something when you have never tried it.  There are 2 things that surprised me:-
1.  15 seconds of shutter speed is already enough for the planet to move and left a line on the photos.
2.  The camera can see more stars than the human’s eyes.

The question mark on the photo above is the star that I did not notice until I view it through my computer (zoomed).  Later I checked and knew that it is called Eta Virginis or traditional name called Zaniah , one of the stars in Virgo Constellation.  It has apparent magnitude of 3.89, which means it is supposed to be visible but I could not see it with my eyes because of the light pollution.

As you may know,  the brightness of a star as seen by an observer on Earth can be measured in apparent magnitude.  The smaller the number means the brighter a star is and vice versa.  The sun has apparent magnitude of -26.74, where as the limit of our naked eyes can see the darkest star of apparent magnitude 6.  With the help of optical or radio telescope, human beings are able to find the stars with high apparent magnitude up 30+.

f/4.4, 1/8 sec, ISO 800, focal length: 86mm(approx. 486mm on 35mm equivalent), heavily cropped, increased contrast.

My brother also joined my photo sessions of the planets, he took the photo above, and told me that there is something inside the Venus.  The noise is high, and I guess it might be out of focus.

We spent more than half an hour until the planets set into the building (instead of the Western horizon) because some buildings blocked the planets and stars.

Next, we pointed our camera randomly into the sky.  Long time exposure gave us the following effect.  Don’t be mistaken, they are not meteors.

Looking at the lines, I can feel that our Earth is moving all the time.

f/4.4, 60 sec, ISO 400, focal length: 86mm (approx. 486mm on 35mm equivalent), auto level.

f/4.4, 60 sec, ISO 400, focal length: 86mm (approx. 486mm on 35mm equivalent), auto level.

I have learned some theory part of astronomy and astronomy photography, but reading from books or webpages both give me different experiences.  I have never known that within 15 seconds, the stars have already moved silently across the sky but we didn’t feel it.

The darker lines on the photo above are the darker stars, I have never thought that there are so many stars in a small area of the sky.  With my eyes, I can only see 3 or 4 of them.

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I have seen the Milky Way with my naked eyes, have you?
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Milky way is the galaxy where our solar system is located.  From other galaxy it looks spiral, but we cannot find it in spiral shape because we are in one of the Milky Way galaxy’s arm.  I believe many people in the cities are unable to see the milky way.

Years ago, I saw it with my own eyes in Toowoomba, Australia.  It was a moonless midnight when the street lights were off.  I looked at the sky and found that there was a huge bright collections of dots  and random shapes of cloud formed a wide belt across the sky from the east to the west (Ecliptic path).  I was amazed because I have never seen it before in Malaysia.  And at that time, I didn’t even know that it is one of the arm of the Milky Way.  Later, I asked a friend from China who knows more about astronomy and she told me that it is the milky way.  And I confirmed that after I found the pictures from the Internet.

These few years, we went to the other part of Australia - Perth, but I did not see the Milky Way again because of the cloudy weather.  The Milky Ways is always above our heads, we can see either the inner arm or the outer arm at a time, but our Earth atmosphere does not always allow us to see it.

In Chinese, Milky Way has a beautiful name called- “YinHe” (means Silvery River).

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Wish List:-
1.   See the Milky Way on the sky again (not from books or Internet).
2.   Have a telescope that can connect to my camera.

We can understand the feeling of this cat’s owners who lost their cat that has accompanied them for years.

We have just lost our cat too recently, we feel sad but we did not put in such a big effort like this cat’s owner to find the missing cat.

We saw this advertisement on the first page of a newspaper for months, and weeks ago we even notice that the cat owners has put up banners at several location in Kuching, Malaysia.  Besides, they also use Facebook to spread the news and hope that they can get their cat back.

Days ago, there was an article on a local newspaper interviewing the owner.  From there, it mentioned that they have just moved to Kuching months ago.  From my past experience, I guess there was a possibility that the cat might try to go back to its previous home and get lost half way because it might be too far away.  If it is a short distance, I had seen a cat of my friend found its old home successfully across a few streets.

Although it is a local normal cat species, but I can see that how important this cat to its owners.  I hope that the owners can find this cat, and our twin cats can come back to us as well.

It is proven that Kuching people is really love kucing.  (In Malay language,  kucing means cat, and Kuching is also known as cat city.)

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An Experience Searching for Missing Turtle in Our House 

Beside we have lost our cats, we have an experience searching for a turtle in our house.  Months ago, I forgot to close the cover of the turtle’s house, and it climbed out and hided itself somewhere in the house, I was really worried that it will die because of starving.  I bet you will not be able to feel that feeling if you have never had a pet gone missing.

SiewPeng searched through the Internet on how to find a missing turtle, and told me that it might be hiding at somewhere dark like underneath the table or cupboard etc.  SiewPeng also told me that she found on Internet about a service in some other countries that provide counseling service to the missing-pet’s owners.

I searched for about 1 hour up and down and everywhere which I thought is possible until very late in the night, luckily finally I found it.  I told myself I will never forget to close the cover of the turtle’s house again.

What a worried feeling.  It is indescribable.

What is your feeling when the file you are downloading stopped at 99% especially for those huge download of a few gigabytes?  Frustration?  Wait?  Find other sources?  Or the worst case - lost patience and delete the file?  If the files were in compressed format such as zip, rar, iso etc.,  it might be useless even with a little bit of incompleteness.  Most people will wait, and hopefully it would complete one day.  I am lucky because it completed on the next day.

I guessed the server might have been overloaded since my download was not using a P2P downloading.  For P2P downloading, it is a different case, the only peer that share the file might be unavailable at the most important moment.

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P2P downloading of copyrighted material is illegal, but the download which I have done above is legal, because it is the video of Master JingKong who teaches Buddhism.  Most Buddhism material are copyright free, it even welcomes people to duplicate the copies and distribute to the public.

I am learning the “JinGangJing” or “Diamond Sutra” explained in detailed by Master JingKong.  I have tried to find the DVDs from temple but not found.  Luckily I found it on the Internet.  But I still have not finished download all of the episodes.  The total would be about more than 100 GB and I do not have enough hard disk space.

I hope I can watch the complete set of “JingGangJing” explanation by Master JingKong, and the download does not stop at the last episode.  Please tell me where I can get this set of DVD if you know, then I can save a lot of time for the downloading.

It does not mean that I will disappear for 1 month.

It can be 30 days,
it can be a fortnight,
a few days,
a few hours,
and also a few minutes
or even a few seconds.

Long time ago, I said “See you next month” to a colleague at the end of a month, he asked me if I were taking any leave and when would I come back.  I told him, I was going back on the next day because the next day is a new month.

At 31 Dec 1999, you can say, “see you next century“.

At 31 Dec of any year, you can say, “see you next year“.

At 28 Feb, 29 Feb, 30, or 31, you can say, “see you next month“.

To a friend who you may never meet again, you can say, “see you in the next life“, or “see you in another world (Heaven or the Pure land at the West may be)”.