November work and walks

In hindsight, I wonder how I managed to squeeze in all these other activities while working way overtime in preparation for an overseas conference…

All hyped up from the first recent re-discovery of the bioluminescent mushrooms, we organised a trip for colleagues and friends:

Then came the night of the Leonid meteor showers last Wednesday. We first drove to the Tampines biking trail, following the recommendations of the local astronomical community’s list of 5-star star-spotting locations, but having found it too bright from ambient light, we then made our way towards Tanah Merah, finally camping out on Changi Beach. It wasn’t the best, but at least the skies were relatively clear from 4-6am and we could see the stars. A pity there’s no escape from the lights in Singapore, unless you try the offshore islands.

We spent close to four hours before dawn staring at this patch of sky. Between four of us we saw about 20 Leonid meteors, including an uber-cool white fireball, but alas none were captured on camera.

(See this version with the constellations mapped out)

Went down to check on the mushrooms the following night again. Not that many this time round, so I shot other things:

Bark scorpion

Went back to work on Sat morning and after everything was finally over (for me), more night romping.

Sunset at Lower Pierce

Explored a new area – Upper Seletar. Found a couple of weirder versions of common things:

Predatory katydid with raptorial legs

Limacodid moth caterpillar

Tiger beetle

Sunbeam snake

More of this month’s photos on Flickr.