Welcome to NUS Astronomical Society!

W. Somerset Maugham, an English writer, wrote: “In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.” One can then infer that if one lives in urban Singapore, that one should love darkness and starlight is an absurd fact indeed.

And still, you are here. Among the millions of websites you could have stumbled upon on the vast internet, it is here that you stopped. You might already know it in yourself that this simple love for starlight, for the infinite darkness of space, the intricacies of natural sciences, the soothing voice of Carl Sagan (or of Stephen Hawking, whichever you prefer) are among the many reasons one could cultivate a passion in astronomy.

Astronomy is one very old science. As a hobby, many would argue that its adherents are diminishing by the day. Even so, year after year, we discover among many students and professors an undying interest in this oldest science known to man. Even in this place where the sky is cloudy most of the time and the city night lights engulf us, we find that there are still many ways one could enjoy astronomy the same way ancient men had. Take a stroll on a cooling evening and look up, you might be able to chance upon a delicate crescent Moon, the brilliantly shining Sirius, or that deep red Mars that may harbour secrets of extra-terrestrial life.

Life for an undergraduate is rather hectic. You might not ever get to take that stroll, for you are busy rushing from lecture theatres to tutorial rooms, and when you are not you bury yourself in Central Library until 9PM to study (and to avoid that peak-hour train ride). And yet, be it stargazing, musing about one’s existential crisis in this grand Universe, or simply arguing about the eventual fate of Higgs bosons, we can be sure there is someone here who shares it with you. It is in this place that we can sit down together and gaze at the night sky, look upon supernovae exploding millions of light years away and wonder how long it takes for those photons to reach us. It is in this place where we write poems for black holes, paint nebulae, and engineer telescopes, all at the same time. For many of us, astronomy is, and forever will be close to our hearts, as it is more than a science and more than a club – it is a place where we belong.

And with that, let me once again welcome you to NUS Astronomical Society. If nothing else, we hope you can empathise with Ptolemy when he said, “Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day, but when I follow the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the Earth.”

Clear skies,

Anne Nguyen

NUS Astronomical Society