Discovery of sOlar Eclipse

When i was young, i always excited about astronomy news. Solar eclipse, Lunar eclipse, meteorite shower, planet discovery... , would alway catch my attention. I remember when I was in primary school, I made a 'pin-hole box' (forgotten what it called) to view my first solar eclipse. It's an indirect way of viewing solar eclipse. However it didn't turn out well, so I used a negative filmstrip to view it directly instead (advise not to try this). And that was the first time i saw it. It was so cool...cause the sun was setting soon.

This year in Singapore, the first solar eclipse will be on 26th Jan 2009, which means it falls on the first day of Chinese New Year! Imagine the late afternoon, the sky becomes darker... it makes me think of my fav drama "Heroes". Haha. This eclipse is an Annular Solar Eclipse of Saros 131 series. Up to 80% of the sun will be blocked by the moon. If interested, you may actually go to Singapore Science Centre Omni-threatre @ at Obseratory at 4pm (website:http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/solar-eclipse-viewing-singapore-science-centre).

The eclipse will start at 4:30 p.m.
Maximum Eclipse at 5:49 p.m.
Eclipse ends at 6:58 p.m. (which means that the sun will be setting too..! so cool!)

Solar Eclipse happens when the moon is in between the Earth and Sun. An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon. More info about solar eclipse, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse

However, some Chinese believe that watching solar eclipse will bring bad omen for the entire year. But I believe we are lucky to be in Singapore to view the solar eclipse.

Anyway a very important note, please do not view the sun directly with naked eyes. Your rod and cone cells can't take it. Unless you like this solar eclipse to be the last thing for you to see on Earth, please wear solar glasses or using some safe viewing methods to view the eclipse.

Information on Year 2009 SOlar eclipse: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2009.html#2009Jan26A

Lastly Happy Chinese New Year, Happy Holiday..!

Discovery about Mouthwash

Recently, ks sent me a link and told me about this news:

Mouthwash linked to cancer

I was like oh gosh... I have been using this product for the past years... though not every frequent. From the website, it said that mouthwash products might increase the risk of oral cancer due to the alcohol in the Mouthwash products.

I have not searched for the related journals, therefore I'm not sure how true is it. However a quick search over the net, you will easily find alot of links related to this topic. One of this link is:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24896583-5001021,00.html

So for the time being, it's advisable to stop using any mouthwash products. And now you have to brush your teeth cleaner...!

Discovery your Limits

This is just a short entry regarding about the sports around the year. Below is a newspaper article that someone posted it online.

It is really getting more surprising looking at how many running events are organised around the year. Are Singaporeans really getting addicted to running..? It seems that organising big running events are the next thing in town... People may start asking why people are paying so much money for running when they can run for free. Tee, goodies bag, unique route, more recognised, testing ur limits..? Perhap just for fun...

Sport for Life. Stay Healthy ;)

Discovery of Southern Ridges

The second day of a Year 2009 first exploration is the Southern Ridges Trail.

After some research on the internet, I discovered there's no one website that can give a very comprehensive guide on the Southern Ridges. So I recommend some of the websites which are really helpful if you are going to southern ridges for a try. There are also maps available on the website for you to download.
- Deadpoet's Cave
- Eudaemon
- National Park

Southern Ridges trail starts from West Coast Park to Harbourfront Mrt. Alternative, u may also start from Harbourfront Mrt and end at West Coast Park. The Npark website states it's a 9km stretch of trail, but we believe is definately more than that. The Southern Ridge will pass through West Coast Park, Clementi Woods, Science Park, Kent Ridge Park, Hort Park, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Mt Faber Park.

So pls wear comfortable clothings and shoes. Caps and umbellra if u need one. Water is important pls bring plenty of it. No worry abt toilets, there will be along the way in the parks. You may bring snacks along but pls dispose it properly.


For our trail, we started from NUS Central Library, hence skipping the West Coast Park and Clementi Woods.

First of all, we had to find the way to Kent Ridge Road. We managed to find the hidden red brick stairs and eventually led us to the Kent Ridge Road. Walking along that road, we didn't manage to sight the British Military Guard Post. The good thing was we spotted the Kent Ridge Commemorative Plaque.

However, its location was NOT at Prince George's Park as stated on the map. It was at the junction of South Buona Vista Road. At this junction, you could choose to go by the Science Park Drive or South Buona Vista Road. We took the route by the South Buona Vista road which aka the "99-turns" due to the nature of the road had many turns like Initial D racing route.

We eventually reached the Kent Ridge Park. However if you wanted to have lunch before continuing, just walked a little more and u could have the famous duck rice.




At Kent Ridge Park, lookout for the tank exhibit and the memorial plaque. The park is quite quiet and have a great scenery view of the southern islands. We followed on the trail and led to the Canopy walk.

At the end of the Canopy walk, we saw this Reflection of Bukit Chandu. It is one of the tourist attraction. The admission fee into the mansion is $2. There's also the Peak Mansion nearby.



From there, proceed to the Hortpark was tricky. We actually went the wrong way, until we decided to walk back to the mansion and luckily we found the way to hortpark. It was actually right next to the canopy walk exit and was well-hidden. There also isn't any signboard to tell u where to continue.



We followed the zig-zag pathway down and reached the HortPark (Horticulture Park) which was actually part of the Floral walk. Take your time to explore this place. It was really a beautiful park which consisted of many different garden themes. Highly recommended..!

Followed the signboard led us to the Alexander Arch. Then we walked on the metal bridges through the Forest walk. If you were lucky, you might spot a durian. Till the end of the Forest walk, was the zig-zag elevated steel walkway which led to the Hilltop walk (Telok Blangah Hill Park).

We walked up to the terrace garden. This is the place where Mediacorp like to film. We also had no chance to check out the Alkaff Mansion as it was still renovating. Finally, the trail led us to one of the highlight of trail, the Henderson Wave. The scenary was really magnificent.

At the end of the bridge was the Mt Faber Park. The scenery was also as beautiful as the rest. We walked pass the Grand Jewel Box cum the Cable car station. There were signs around showing the way of Southern Ridges.

Lastly, we had reached the Marang Trail. It's nothing except many steps of stairs. So if u start from Harbourfront, u have to climb up all these stairs before u can enjoy the scenaries. Afterall, it was a great workout and exploration. Feel free to try it out. ;) Hope this will act as a simple guide.

Year 2009 DISCOVERY BEGINS

The start of a brand new year begins...

Let's start with some 2009 Resolution, I shall:
- update this blog as much as possible
- backtrack some of the entries that i suppose to blog during the dec.
- explore more stuffs in Life and Nature.
- Look at more different aspects in life
- change the blogskin.

Commitment to this blog should be a year.
This blog should officially starts now...

Let the journey begins..