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Saturday,
02 August 2003. Time: 7:30 pm. I'm on my way home. Sauntering along the pathway lining the Chinese Gardens toward
the MRT station, I notice swarms of people on the pasture-like expanse. A few synthetic, stylish, colorful portable-tents
dot the vast outfield. I see a few tripod-mounted objects. From a distance, they look like video cameras. The overall scene
is a riot of colors and sound, punctuated by the magic of light and shade.
On the fringes, there is another boxing ring-like area, but with chairs, tables,
loudspeakers, loud music, volunteer-type youth.
Must be some movie shooting. Or, perhaps, a television programme shoot? Or
a commercial? Oh, maybe some promotion gimmick. Possibly, yet another credit-card hard-sell.
Nope. A few steps ahead, at the MRT entrance, is another 'base camp', with
volunteers courteously explaining some stuff to curious, eager onlookers.
Heck, what the hell is going on?
A few quick queries later, it transpires the goings-on have nothing to do with
hell but heavens.
An astronomy show, organized jointly
by a local astronomy group and students of Singapore's various polytechnics, is on. Seems like a modest one. But the sheer
electric atmosphere (pun intended) acquires astronomical proportions.
I am told I can go have a dekko at
Mars! And Jupiter. And a zillion other celestial objects.
The distance between Mars
and Earth now is the shortest in 60,000 years! That is, if Outram MRT were Mars, then Chinatown MRT would be Earth. So close,
so to speak. Only, the two planets, like every other celestial object, are constantly drifting away in their orbital
paths. It will take hundreds
of years for these two planets to come this close to each other again. That's why, astronomical societies the world over
are celebrating the event by way of awareness programmes, observationscamps, etc. Singapore is not lagging. (See
the "wonderful info" section for more info.)
The young guides out there in the
meadow, manning the professional-grade telescopes (not video cameras), would
be more than happy to share knowledge and show me around the universe.
FREE of cost! Phew! Irresistible.
Cosmos fascinates
me. Well, I could be wrong, but I think there may not be a human being who would
turn down an offer of losing himself in stars. (We all grow
up, don't we, admiring and wondering about the moon and the stars, thanks to mothers who invoke the beauty of the
moon to finish feeding their reluctant kids.) On a personal note,
I try not to miss, as far as possible, news reports, TV bulletins and Internet coverage of celestial spectacles
like eclipses, periodic comet and meteor shows, asteroids smashing into our planet, new discoveries in the solar
system and beyond. In fact, during my college days, a self-built
telescope had pride of place in my study.
Little did I know Mars Watch
2003, besides opening the floodgates of memories, would prove manna from heaven this Saturday evening.
Click here for page 3: COSMIC REVOLUTION
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