look at the stars

a little late perhaps

steps here and there

i wonder what time it is

(rolling)

hey, a rock

~

astro camp was really fun. oo....

quotes:

(after some serious discussion at about 2.30 am)

sri: so, is that the book that you were referring to?
someone *shines torch* : that's a rock.

(in the middle of a taboo game - the word was "touch")

uly (to johannes): ok... you're a guy and i'm a guy. we shouldn't __ each other. stop __ me! stop __ me!
we consequentially burst out in laughter

there are a lot of fishes in the sky.

and hunters, and a telescope, and a microscope, and various other strange objects.

the black was densely sprinkled with white when we stepped off the van. it was... beautiful is an understatement.

we sat there on the pavement with red torches and m&ms: me, shi yang, jun yup, shudder, uly

orion rose dead east at 3am the first night we were there. jupiter was dimming all the way in the west. so taurus was just above and pilaides (spelling?) looked like a little cluster quite high up slightly to the north, next to picses and the bright square of pegasus. andromeda was a little blur in the corner of our eyes when we looked at it. to the north east was the river eridanis, rising and looping up then stretching to achernar. then came the bright sirius brushing past the trees. and soon the sun rose, washing them all out.


a view from the beach...

sleep, then lessons in the afternoon, which were quite enlightening and not at all boring. the food wasn't all that bad (though i realise that you can put seafood in.. a lot of things...) and we ate a lot of chocolate from the stall there. somehow trips always require chocolate.

we got to see jupiter move all the way across the sky the second night, next to sagitarius the teapot and the neat lines of scorpius. just before they set in the east we glimpsed venus and mercury, before they got covered by M0. M0 is officially the greatest enemy of all astronomers - clouds. the second night was spent mostly waiting for the cloud covers to clear. at least it didn't rain that much.

the milky way lies on scorpius and sagitarius, stretching from north to south. as scorpius set we saw the familiar pegasus and pileides rise, and by this time many were asleep. we waited for orion. and so it was the beginning again.

sleep... and a morning of mafia and taboo, napping on the van, rushing through customs and hoping that i wouldn't miss the plane...


there was a really nice field opposite the beach.


the sky was astounding in the evening.

the best parts of the trip: the stars and the conversations. we talked a lot, the few of us who took the same van. somehow we sort of stuck together. had a really good talk with jun yup and realised certain things, though i wonder what will come of it. had a lot of fun trying to lose exactly 42 times (we managed to keep this number until the pit stop on the way back... ) oh great i lost. uly's constant complaints of a need for showering and shudder's aversion to ants... shi yang singing and teaching me some fun games. we kept bursting out in to songs... viva la vida, yellow, drops of jupiter, accidentally in love. secretly creeping to the beach in the dead of the night... it was worth it, all the staying up and the mosquitos and the annoying bugs in the huts...


haha. and so we return, having learnt so much about the sky above and the people below it.

(the pic at the top is taken at the beach too... oo it was so nice)