A tenacious amateur student of astronomy has been rewarded for his near obsession with star-gazing by having one of his photographs of Saturn published in the August issue of the US magazine Sky & Telescope.
Yen Yi-cheng (
The rare photo was made possible only after Yen successfully overcame atmospheric disturbances to capture the image, which was then digitally enhanced.
Yen, an astronomy buff, has not always had the same success here on earth as he has in his other-worldly endeavors: he flunked out of the prestigious National Kaohsiung High School after failing almost every subject he took because of his star-gazing.
Yen then transferred to a less prominent high school but his fascination with astronomy showed no signs of abating.
As a high school student, Yen rode his motorbike nearly two hours from Kaohsiung City to National Cheng Kung University located in Tainan City once every week to pour over astronomical reports.
Particularly drawn to information on the stellar spectrum, Yen spent three years researching and developing a homemade spectrographic and star analyzing equipment.
The homemade equipment was voted one of the most outstanding pieces selected from more than 1,000 entries at the 49th World Youth Science Research Competition sponsored by the International Sci-Tech Exposition Association of the United States in 2000.
The same equipment also won Yen a NASA honorable-mention award, an honorable-mention award from the Optical Society of America, and an Eastman Kodak Company First Award.
Yen said academic performance at school is not everything, although he will try hard to finish his university courses.
"The point is that I have found a niche for myself -- astronomy, " Yen said.
Currently a division director of the Kaohsiung Astronomical Society, Yen has been busy with research work and lecturing at the astronomy clubs of several high schools in the Kaohsiung area.
Yen has recently been observing and studying Mars. By late August, Mars will be about 191 million miles closer to the Earth than normal and will appear more than six times larger and shine some 85 times brighter. This will be the closest that Mars has come to our planet in nearly 60,000 years.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS