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[Maddad]

Hello Keith! Welcome to the forum.

I've been to China a long time ago when I was a child. The family was being evacuated out of Vietnam (Around February 22, 1965) and stopped over in Tiwan (Our family picture tuned up on the front page of the South China Sea Press with the caption, "Refugees from Vietnam".) for about ten days on our return to Hawaii. I was 11 and snuck out and took a boat to mainland China for a visit. Stayed there for a few hours and returned without incident. The biggest memory was of thousands of people and feeling out of place with my crew-cut American haircut and the 3-piece business suit I was wearing. Over the year's I've often wondered why the Chinese guards never stopped me. They sure stared hard.

My interest in astronomy is more thinking and less observing. I have collected some astronomy pictures which I've posted on my own website, but they're professional, not something that ordinary people take from their backyards.

I'll look forward to hearing from you. Your command of our language is excellent, so you should become a valuable member. Talk more with you later.

David Madison

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Keith,

How great it is to read posts from someone waaay on the other side of the planet! We share the same skies and the celestial objects are friends to all who will appreciate them.

Naked eye astronomy was the way for thousands of years, and is still a good way to observe astronomical events. I find meteor showers quite entertaining, especially one's that produce fireballs and particle trails.

I haven't done a serious observational session since the early winter...it's just too cold. But hope to start again and share some time with my fellow Chicago Astronomers exploring the heavens through our light polluted skies.

Here's a simple question that I often thought about...

When one uses a keyboard in the Chinese lanquage, how does the transition of the western keyboard translate into Chinese? There are a limited amount of keys to assign the characters to, so how does it work out? Your command of english is very good. I am quite impressed by your skills.

Here is a site that translates one's name into Mandarin Chinese...http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html

My name appears to be:

I anticipate your observations and discoveries from China here on the forum often.

[Maddad]

xhgaohui said:

I then felt that exploring the outer space is the most exciting thing but also felt that it's really hard to do any contribution for an ordinary people.

There's a christian song that I really like called "Brother to Brother". It says that we make those contributions one person at a time. We do that in astronomy by sharing our excitement of the night sky with others - one person at a time.

That set of three stars for Orion's Belt you talked about also came to my attention. I was digging up information on the horsehead nebula and looking for a good picture of it. It's hard to see because it's just a shadow on a very pale backlighting. Anyhowsit, I also acquired a picture of the flame nebula wich is used as a signpost to look for the horsehead. There's a really bright star right next to the flame that's the easternmost star in the belt. When I looked again at my picture of the horsehead, I discovered the flame nebula in the very same picture in the bottom left corner. I had never noticed it before. I've got both pics at www.maddad.org/astronomy/nebula.htm

xhgaohui said:

I read your former posts here,and I think it'll do good to your thinking if you use your telescope to see something by yourself.Just consider if you like.

I've got a telescope. It's a tiny one, but I've viewed the Moon, Jupiter, its moons, and Saturn through it. My cat Bella was fascinated with it for a while. She kept climbing up on the barrel and scrabbling up to the wrong end to peer inside.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

means elite or perfect

I think Ima gonna stick with that!

Happy Spring Festival to all!! ;D