Cats who teach me to fly…

Mel and I went to Semakau Island last Saturday for stargazing. We pitched a tent and stayed overnight. I have never heard about Semakau Island. Our government is so amazing to have created the Semakau Landfill. I have learnt that our waste is incinerated by our four incineration plants, which are Tuas, Tuas South, Senoko and Ulu Pandan.  The waste is then burnt into ash and shipped to the Semakau Landfill.

I expect Semakau Island to be kind of smelly and dirty. However, it is the opposite. It is a fantastic place. There are trees everywhere. Clean and green.  I felt like I was on a holiday when I was there.

The picture on my right was taken from Semakau Island on the 9th of July at 6.40pm. The sun was setting and I felt so wonderful. Mel and I and a lovely old couple had a fantastic dinner by the sea. We all brought our food. We saw birds which we hardly see in Singapore flying above our head.

Since it was a National Day rehearsal that day, we also saw air planes flying in the sky and helicopters that carry our flag turning in circles in the sky. I was wondering why until Mel told me that It was not time to fly themselves to the performing venue and that was why the planes and helicopters circled around the area, waiting for instructions to fly across the venue.

The picture on my left was taken from Semakau Island on the 10th of July at 7.30am. The sun was rising gracefully and I just love it.

On the whole, the trip was an eye-opening experience for me. I was amazed to see the craters and mountains on the moon through a super clear telescope. Mel and I were both astonished. I just couldn’t get my eyes off the moon because I have always read about astronomy. I not only read, I get information and updates about astronomy from various sources such as DVDs, YouTube and the NASA website. I read about Mars and learn about how the Rover works. Am now looking forward for Juno to visit Jupiter.

Besides the moon, we even saw Saturn and Jupiter. OMG! Can you believe it? Saturn is as still as a rock, so is Jupiter. I actually expected to see asteroids,  rocks, dust or meteoroids flying around haha… These planets are so still. Well, indeed, they are dead planets. A place where no life form exists. I wish I could take a look at the hubble space telescope too. However, we were far away from its track that night.

Besides the moon, Saturn and Jupiter, we also saw constellations such as  Sagittarius, Scorpion, the Jewel Box, M6 and M7. We were able to look deeper into the sky. I also wish I could see stars within stars and galaxies within galaxies – Nebula, Milky Way, Black Hole etc… Well, how can it be possible without a hubble space telescope? That is why I didn’t invest in a telescope.

Stargazing at Semakau Island really was an eye-opening experience to me. I had a fantastic trip. I believe Mel and I will further our adventure in astronomy.