Ancient Chinese Star Map: Please Decode

This is an image I found at Facebook. In fact this is the 1st occasion I stumbled at this.
It is supposed to showcase the ancient Chinese map of Earth. It portrays northern hemisphere and it is a part of Chinese Dunhuang Star Atlas from 649 to 684 d.C.

I would like to investigate more on this and I see some Chinese characters written on the image.
I shall be more than glad if I could find someone out there, who is able to translate them to English.



In fact it's a worthy cause and I request our readers to find more about this and let the others know about the findings as well.

Just go to Google and do some research.

Comments are always welcome !

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Spaceport: A Reality by Next Summer | Virgin Galactic Will be Ready

It seems that Western US will be more and more popular in the times to come, as the world's first ever rather primordial Spaceport is planned to be set-up in the frontier, starting from today 19th June 2009. Today will remark the beginning of an extraordinary episode of space travel, and to be precise space tourism in fact. New Mexico will provide the house to this first commercial spaceport, enabling a wide range of global citizens to go beyond Earth's limits.

This imaginary picture depicts of the completed Spaceport, named as Virgin Galactic. The groundbreaking ceremonies will start with a flyover by the White Knight Two, which is the Mothership that will transport the tourist aboard towards heavens. Perhaps it might be possible to find famous tycoons waving to their friends saying "I'm gonna go to heavens for a while, let's join" in the recent times with the unveiling of the Virgin Galactic.


It's highlighted that the waiting list for the upcoming voyages has been extended with the names exceeding 25o people already. The list is supposed to continue rapidly as the establishment of Virgin Galactic is now in progress.

The runway will be finished by next summer whereas the corresponding terminal and hangar will be completed by the December 2010, giving hopes for a soon tour amidst the orbits.
Meanwhile companies such as XCOR Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace are developing spacecraft for $95,000 flights. However it's expected that the costs will drop as there are many options. Furthermore there is a launching pad from the terminal and it is prepared for 20-foot rockets, which have been used for scientific research purposes during last 2 years.


If you are located near to New Mexico, why not drop by at the groundbreaking ceremonies,which are free for public to attend?

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Latest Astronomy Podcast of http://SkyLK.com Kaguya & Endeavor News

I was again privileged to contribute for yet another astronomy podcast, courtesy of SkyLK.com.
In fact the podcast was scheduled to be recorded online via Skype in the night of last Saturday, the 13th June 2009. However there we 3 pod casters online, namely the two webmasters of SkyLK.com Hasitha Karunarathne and Madusha Dedigamuwa, together with me. We had planned to focus on 2 latest topics, which were the Kaguya's Lunar Impact and Endeavor Shuttle's delay, which was reported to us a short while ago. Unfortunately due to a certain technical problem, (In fact it was my mike, which was not performing properly) we postponed the podcast to next evening.

However, by that time we had flocked to Hasitha's home and recorded the podcast there.

The podcast started with the news of Kaguya, as Hasitha Karunarathne was carrying it out.
During the podcast, Madusha Dedigamuwa described the early attempts for impacts with Moon, such as by Chandrayan 1 if India and the latest image analysis data, of the impact, Actually there was a faint flare/ flash shapped in high sensitive telescopes. He also explained how the JAXA's ( Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) Selene project carried out the missions towards the very end of Kaguya.

I, Prasanna Deshapriya explained the existed situation of Endeavor Shuttle, as the launch had been delayed, due to a reported hydrogen leak. In fact at that time it had been delayed till the following Wednesday, that would be today, the 17th. Further I spoke of the objectives of the mission that was to install 2 modules to the Japanese Science Kibo Module and the replacement of the Japanese astronaut Koichi Wataka aboard the ISS(International Space Station) by NASA Flight Engineer Timothy Copra.

You can listen to the Podcast here

http://www.skylk.com/en/astronomy/podcast/125-eps-7-kaguya-and-endeavor.html

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Astronomy News: Kaguya Crashed into Moon

Having orbited Moon for almost 2 years and having completed its mission successfully, Kaguya the Japanese Spacecraft, crashed on the surface of Moon last Wednesday, leaving the Earthlings its cherished memory as it make flashes of flares upon smashing into the Lunar territories.

Having snapped for each 0.6 seconds this series of images, features how the collusion took place. If you look carefully, you will probably notice the flare being brightly visible on the second image (center). The third shows a much faded-away image while the flare seems to have been disappearing when it comes to the last image of the series.

(Image: Jeremy Bailey/University of New South Wales/Steve Lee/Anglo-Australian Observatory)

Credits go to the observers at Anglo-Australian Telescope.

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IYA 2009 Astronomy Sri Lanka Blogger Onair

Hello Everyone!

I'm getting back to you after a while and some pause. Thanks a lot for those who sent comments enclosing feedback. Well now I'm gonna tell you about a privilege that I was entitled to, as per my title of IYA 2009 Astronomy Sri Lanka blogger.

In fact, I was invited for an astronomy-related radio program, broadcast in local Radio. The recordings were held at SLBC (Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporations) in the evening of last Saturday, the 6th.

I took part to the recordings together with 2 of my astronomy colleagues, who are namely Pulasthi Shyamika Kanatthage and Hasitha Karunarathne. It is important to say that latter is a webmaster of SkyLK, an astronomy related website, featured in Sinhalese.

The program was "Taru Widu Saraniya" translated :Wisdom of Astronomy. The radio broadcast is conducted by Chinthaka Weerakoone, a 3rd-year medical student of University of Sri Jayawaradanepura, Colombo. Tharu Widu Saraniya is broadcast once a week on Wednesdays from 4:30 pm onwards in the local radio channel "Swadeshiiya Sewaya" via FM 90.3 and 97.3
Actually this astronomy broadcast is a part of a children's program called "Lama Pitiya" and the main goal is helping the children, teenagers and students, to improve their knowledge in astronomy.

Well, we discussed onair, a bunch of important things on that day. In the initial stage we started from new trends and updates of global astronomy and then moved on to different aspects, like the Nebulae, Lunar stuff and Anti-matter plus the inadequacy of optional energy source, faced by developed states.

Moreover it's glad to highlight that there's such a method for the listeners, to receive free star-maps, and stand a chance to win an astronomy book, by answering the question, asked in the end. Meantime, I would like to thank Mr. Chinthaka Weerakoon, the conductor of "Taru Widu Saraniya", the producer, assistant producer, the technical team, the staff of SLBC and all others, behind the voice. It's my firm conviction that Taru Widu Saraniya will continue to be the best astronomy radio program in Sri Lanka.

May you long live, Taru Widu Saraniya!

I think that there should be more programs like this everywhere, and more often as it's already the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA 2009)

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