Xavier Tan (28/2/24): I initially thought the astronomy CCA would be boring, however, after the first session, i have gained a new appreciation for the CCA. Today, I (with my friend Aidan) made slides for topics based on the question: "Why should we go to space?". The activity was intresting and I am happy I got the opportunuty to bond with my partner and introduce myself to my CCA mates.
Xavier Tan (6/3/24): Prior to the presentsation, i was nervous and scared, i feared that people would make fun of me, however, afterwards, I have gained new skills and more experience for presenting. I have also learnt about intresting competitions I could take part in. The competitions looked intresting and I believe I can participate in them.
Xavier Tan (27/3/24)
We have learned about the solar system's planets while making notes about it. Afterwards, we did a fun tower defence activity with questions about our learnt topics. We found it fun to learn more about the planets we know.
Before this, I thought I knew everything about planets; however, I have learnt things I had never known existed; one of these is AU, which is a unit of measurement based on the distance of the Earth from the sun.
Afterwards, I learned more about the solar system while bonding with my CCA mates in an activity.
Xavier Tan (3/4/24)
Today, I have learnt about spherical trigonometry. In spherical trigonometry, we can find the angle at which the distance between two objects is. We also learned about the spherical sine and cosine rules, which can be used to find values A, B, C, a, b, and c. Furthermore, we have reviewed topics like the 3 and 2 body rule, the Roche Limit, the equinox, the Lagrange point and many more. Although this activity was more mundane, it allowed us to understand the topics that would be important further on.
Xavier Tan (24/4/24)
Today, we learnt about how binary star systems work. One thing that I found interesting was blueshift and redshift (doppler shift). I found these interesting because I had originally thought that the colours of stars were based on their temperatures. Afterwards, we used Blooket; we were asked multiple questions. I found the quiz fun and interesting as I could test what I had previously just learnt.
The NSTMF Gravity Lab activity was fun, too! I got to create binary star systems, allowing us to understand better how binary star systems form. Overall, I found this Astronomy CCA session quite useful, and I would enjoy going to more.
Xavier Tan (8/5/24)
Today, I learned about EM waves and their use in telescopes and astronomy! I found it interesting as I didn't know microwaves, gamma rays and X-rays were used. What surprised me the most was that microwaves and X-rays are used in some radars. Prior to this lesson, I believed that the only application of microwaves and X-rays was to cook food and see body parts and bones. However, afterwards, I learned that microwaves and X-rays can also be used in telescopes.
I also learned about antennas and how they worked. It was interesting as I had never known how antennas worked. Afterwards, I saw telescope designs and used antenna length calculators to calculate antenna lengths.
Overall, this lesson was both entertaining and informative. I hope all other astronomy sessions from now on will also be as fun.
Xavier Tan (27/6/24)
Today, I learnt about orbital mechanics. I found it interesting due to all the terminology they used for it. I also learnt how Kepler got his 3 laws. It was interesting as it allowed me to see how he found the laws in the perspective of Kepler himself, as well as terminology like "Arch Minutes."
Overall, this lesson was rich and full of information, I hope I get to learn as much as I did today.
Xavier Tan (10/7/24)
Today, I learned about galaxies and how some of them form. I really found it interesting as it gave me a better understanding of how and why galaxies are the way they are. One thing I didn't know before the session was the existence of "Ring Galaxies" which are galaxies that are thought to be formed after a smaller galaxy moves through a larger one.
We also played Blooket. Unfortunately, I only got fourth place.
In conclusion, this session was really interesting and fun. I hope I get to learn more about galaxies and how they work in future sessions.
Xavier Tan (31/7/24)
Today, we learnt about phenomena in space and on earth, the most interesting being the Solar and Lunar Eclipses; I found these interesting as I hadn't really understood how Penumbras and Umbras worked before the session. Afterwards, we did a Kahoot and I almost got into the leaderboard. After the Kahoot game, we were taught about sidereal time, which means with respect to the stars, it was created due to the earth being spherical and, therefore, having an extra rotation when viewed by outsiders.
Xavier Tan (23/8/24)
Today, I did an examination/quiz for astronomy, the quiz has included many topics from my previous lectures. This marks my final session for astronomy this year. Time seemed to pass so fast, it seemed just like a month ago when I had my first session, however, a whole year had passed! Overall, I have learnt many new topics and concepts over this year and I hope to be able to apply these topics in my future work, I am planning to participate in astronomy competitions in the future, hopefully next year will be as great as this one.
Xavier Tan (8/1/25)
Today is the first astronomy lession of the year, today we went through the programmes for the CCA and different things. I am interested in taking the general class FCC exam.
Xavier Tan (12/2/25)
Today, I did, along with my teammates, a presentations about why we should name more planets after gods and if our biggest priority should be asteroid mining or detecting nearby asteroids. It was fun and I hope people enjoyed our presentation. Afterwards, we went through presentations about impact craters before taking an activity. The activity was a quiz about the earlier topic of impact craters that was pretty challenging, I couldn't get on the leaderboard but I tried my best. I hope the other astronomy lessons will be as fun as today.
Xavier Tan (12/3/25)
Today, along with my teammates, created a solar system with a habitable planet called "HabibiAmir63" which orbited around a star called "some active nuclear waste". It was a fun activity as we could learn about what made planets habitable while making goofy and silly names for the planets and stars. We actually managed to get 2nd place, which was shocking because I didn't expect my goofy solar system to get 2nd place, especially among the other solar systems. I hope my other astronomy sessions can be as fun as this one.
Xavier Tan (2/4/25)
Today, due to the fact there was no program for the people who did not sign up for any program, I was forced to sit in a room and listen to a bunch of talking (yapping) about topics that I neither know nor heard about. Also, we did a random paper that for some reason had numbers and symbols comparable to ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
Xavier Tan (23/4/25)
Today, we did a multitude of activities. Ranging from finding stars and galaxies from their coordinates, to finding elements from the Energy of the emission lines in a graph. The activity I found most challenging and possibly entertaining(?) was when I had to find elements based on the Energy of the emission lines in the graph (as mentioned before).
Xavier Tan (30 /4/25)
Today, we learnt about galaxies. We learnt the different types of galaxies from Spiral Galaxies to Elliptical Galaxies and how they formed. Afterwards we played a round of Blooket and through the means of sheer willpower and my immense luck, me and my teammate, Aidan could score the 1st and 2nd place respectively. Afterwards, we also had to do slides on a random topic, the topic we did was "Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies are the most common type of galaxies in the universe, how come we didn't know of this fact until now?". We did have to rush the presentation but I think it went well. (I hope.)
Xavier Tan (7/5/25)
Today, we learnt about quasars, black holes and galaxies, as well as how they form and about accretion disks. Afterwards, we did some activities, like viewing a simulation of a mars rover landing and tracking an asteroid or creating a binary star system. We then played another game of blooket, which didn't go that well. I didn't manage to win because of the other players and now I hold an eternal grudge against a chicken with the name of "Golden Guard" (i'm joking, obviously.) but it was fun and I enjoyed it.
Xavier Tan (14/5/25)
Today, we learnt about galaxies and how they formed, as well as the elements that galaxies are composed of. We didn't really do much today, though we did get to walk around since the people had to do a photo shoot in the place we were occupying. We also watched some videos about the topic of galaxies which did partially make up for the fact that there was a major noticable lack thereof of Kahoot or Blooket games.