The Astronomy Fiesta 2019 was organised by the Astronomy Club from 17 June to 19 June 2019 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus. Themed ‘The Sons of Sun’, the fiesta aimed to create awareness and provide basic knowledge about astronomy and solar system to the attendees.

Present at the opening ceremony were Astronomy Fiesta 2019 Chairperson Andrew Ng Jian How, UTAR Astronomy Club Advisor Ir Dr Teoh Hui Chieh, Department of Student Affairs’ (DSA) Clubs and Societies Unit Manager Hedwig Anne Ng Mei Li and students.

“I hope everyone will learn something and enjoy the fiesta during these three days,” said Andrew Ng in his welcome speech. Dr Teoh said, “When we look at the models, we don’t just look at the beauty of it but learn something about the planets too.” “I hope all of you will have fun while learning more about the planets and its surroundings,” she added.

The ceremony continued with the presentation of token of appreciation by Dr Teoh to the sponsors of the event, namely YPL Australia and EAORON, and to the student representative of Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) Vasan Wei Sheng and student representative of Heriot-Watt University Ong Tse Yuen.

Vasan (in red) and Ong receiving a token of appreciation

The opening ceremony was officiated by (from left) Andrew Ng, Dr Teoh and Hedwig

The fiesta lined up a variety of activities for the visitors including talks, exhibition, games and workshops related to astronomy.

Upon entering the hall, the visitors had the opportunity to witness a handmade Sun model, planet models and constellations made by colour lights in the exhibition area. The exhibition also provided lots of information regarding astronomy. Other than that, hands-on activities were also available in the form of games and workshops.

A talk on “Black Hole M87” was conducted on the first day of the fiesta by Mohammad Zamri, the Officer of National Planetarium Malaysia Science. He explained that the Black hole M87 was named after the 87^th object collected by Messier. The talk included a visual representation of the first image of the black hole, the constellation of Virgo and the visual wavelength image of Messier 87 with bright core, jet and globular clusters. He added, “Astronomers can find the intensity of x-ray and wave radiant.” The infrared image of M87 from the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is usually used by the astronomers, was also shown.

Zamri giving his talk

On the second day, Fong Keng Yin the Vice President of Star-Finder Astronomical Society gave a talk titled “Information of Universe”. He began his talk by saying, “Do you know that the Stonehenge circle in South London is actually an ancient architecture built using astronomy?” The discovery and knowledge of astronomy came through the civilisation of human being. The optical data needs to process data systematically, whereas, in digital photography, data is processed into numbers using Logarithms. He added, “In the 21^st century, women were not allowed to come out so they analysed the data by coming up with all the classification of the stars.” There was also a video shown towards the end of the talk that gave participants an understanding on the brightness of the sun and sky.

Fong sharing his knowledge

Before the closing ceremony, a prize-giving ceremony was held for five winners who had successfully completed the sliding block puzzle. The prizes were presented to the winners by Andrew Ng. A short video was also played to summarise the three days of fun at the fiesta during the closing ceremony. During the closing speech, Chairperson of Astronomy Fiesta 2019 Andrew Ng thanked the advisor for the opportunity given to organise the fiesta; the participants for their support and the organising committee for working hard throughout the past 10 months to make it successful. He also mentioned that the committee managed to break the record of the previous year by hitting a count of 1,004 participants this year.

To mark the end of the event, the lights in the hall were dimmed. The closing ceremony ended on a high note where all the committee members and helpers gathered for a group photo.

Students reading the info in the exhibition area

Students making their own bookmarks

A student playing maze planet

Students participating in booth games