During the past weeks, I couldn’t help but be engrossed with astronomy and the stars and the far reaches of the universe. Diliman Preparatory School’s mobile digital planetarium had been released by customs of several weeks. Now local astronomers were busy studying the capabilities of the accompanying software and hardware, which made the planetarium the first and only fully interactive planetarium in the Philippines.

After attending my fifth viewing this morning, I still learned many more bits of information about our night sky, and astronomy as a field.

For instance, a Filipino amateur astronomer, Christopher Go from Cebu, discovered the  second of Jupiter’s red spots in early 2006. Other astronomers worldwide confirmed the discovery, actually the change of the spot’s color from white to red, and was eventually dubbed Red Spot Jr., or Red Jr. The history and developments on Jupiter’s Red Spot Jr. are recorded on http://redspotjr.christone.net/.

Some days ago, I had searched the net for the Digitalis website, and excitedly downloaded a sample astronomy simulation software Nightshade, and had fun experimenting with images of the sky on my PC. Coupled with the free sample astronomy curriculum, one can easily get engrossed in self study about outer space. Stellarium is another planetarium program, in Open Source, that can also be used on regular computers for astronomy classes.

Of course, these are too far behind the technology of the Digitalis software that  powers the interactive presentations at Diliman Prep’s mobile interactive planetarium.

The local astronomers said enough about how they were not only getting used to the many varied features of the Digitalis program, but will soon be inputting the localized images that will enable more Filipinos to relate and understand astronomy.

We found out this morning that while many of us are more familiar with the formation and names of constellations based on the Roman gods, various cultures had looked at the same skies for millenia, and had interpreted and formed their own images from the heavenly bodies based on their day to day life. We were showed simpler formations in the shape of a house, or standing person, or a box among the cultures of Indonesia, China, Polynesia or the American Indians.

We also learned how constellations can be recognized as asterisms or as illustrations, and that these can vary greatly from culture to culture, as they recognized shapes among the heavenly bodies from their day-to-day lives.

Filipino folk lore had referred to Orion’s belt of three stars as Tatlong Maria — Mariang Mambabalut, Mariang Magmamane, and Mariang Magtuturon (or whatever). The astronomers hinted that they will be inputting more localized interest topics into the presentations to include perhaps the local astronomers and imagers who have discovered several of the heavenly bodies, and have been cooperating with the international community to leap and bound farther into the deepest recesses of the universe.

We also learned how constellations can be recognized as asterisms or as illlustrations, and had downloaded to my laptop,

I can’t wait till my next opportunity to view yet another presented in the mobile digital planetarium, for I’m sure that even with my own revitalized interest and research  on the universe, I will still acquire a few more its of information about the nature of our universe.

I am sure that my interest in astronomy now is not a coincidence. And beyond the willingness to ride the waves through this most interesting phase of my life, I have awakened a keen desire to remember knowledge that I know we all already possess. For we are star people, ever connected to the universe that we continue to understand with our limited minds. Deep inside though we know that every bit of new information brings us closer to a better understanding of ourselves.