IN the city, where electricity is the lifeblood, darkness has always been unpleasant and unwelcome. Darkness takes the comfort away and brings irritation; but knowing that switching off the lights for just an hour can help save Mother Earth in a great way makes things bearable. It is even more than bearable when an activity like a planet viewing session is available.
Last March 27, 2010, Earth Hour was again celebrated.
A lot of individuals, groups, and establishments participated in that event including Marco Polo Plaza Cebu.
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Instead of having an hour of nothing but just darkness and dimmed lights, the hotel organized a planet viewing activity led by Cebu’s very own Christopher Go, an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer who has received both national and international recognition.
Earth Hour was scheduled at 8:30-9:30 but the planet viewing which was held at the Grand Terrace of Marco Polo Plaza started at thirty minutes past six o’clock. The guests had the chance to have a glimpse of Mars, the moon and the planet Saturn.
Opportunities of seeing the planets do not really come very often, and it made the whole activity quite an experience especially for the kids. At nine o’clock, Mr. Go had a talk on astronomy and questions about our heavenly bodies and such were also entertained.
The Astronomer up close
There are some people who do the things they do because they have to, while there are also people who do the things they do because they love doing it. Christopher Go is an example of the latter. He is a certified businessman, he majored Physics in college and he does astrophotography and studies heavenly bodies as a hobby. It is not really the typical combination but that’s what makes Go’s lifestyle quite unordinary.
He became interested in astronomy during the last appearance of Halley’s Comet, more than two decades ago. He was still in high school by then. He then went into photography but his subjects were quite not the usual. Instead of taking portraits and landscapes, he took pictures of planets.
He continued studying heavenly bodies and taking pictures of them as a hobby. It was with that that he made his biggest discovery.
On the dawn of February 25, 2006 he discovered that the white spot Oval BA of Jupiter had turned red (it is now called Red Spot Jr. Or Red Jr.). He went online and published his discovery and the next thing he knew, he was all over the news. He was featured in different media outlets including BBC and ANC.
Also because of that discovery, he was given local, national and international recognition including the San Carlos Borromeo Award for Astronomy, Pasigarbo sa Sugbo Award given by the Cebu Provincial Government, Presidential Medal of Merit (which was awarded by Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo herself) and also the ALPO’s 2008 Walter Haas Award.
Mr. Go is also affiliated with international organizations like the Association for Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) which is based in the U.S., the Hubble Heritage Team, and the American Astronomical Society and its Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) to name a few. He also conducts around thirty lectures on astronomy a year both here and abroad. (Rea Mae M. Olaran)
