Penumbral Lunar Eclipse in Hong Kong on November 30

This year’s third penumbral lunar eclipse will occur in Hong Kong on the afternoon of 30 November. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon only enters the penumbra of the Earth but not the umbra. During the event, the Moon will become slightly dimmer. A special feature of the coming lunar eclipse is that the eclipse will begin before moonrise.

The eclipse will begin at 3.30pm and end at 7.56pm, with the maximum eclipse occurring at 5.42pm, which will be four minutes after moonrise. The whole process (from moonrise to the moon leaving the penumbra) will last for two hours and 18 minutes.

As the elevation of the Moon will be rather low in the sky during the eclipse, it’s best observed from somewhere with an unobstructed view towards the east and northeast horizon.

The next lunar eclipse observable in Hong Kong will be a total lunar eclipse on May 26, 2021.

images: HK Observatory

Art Basel Postponed from March to May 2021

Art Basel today postponed its Hong Kong fair, which was scheduled to take place in March 2021, to May 2021 in response to the ongoing impact of the Wuhan virus pandemic and related travel restrictions.

Adeline Ooi, Director Asia, Art Basel said: “We believe shifting the fair to May is the right decision given the current development of the pandemic and its impact on international travel restrictions. By taking the decision early, our aim is to support our galleries in advance planning for their 2021 programs. We very much look forward to hosting our show in May next year and to welcoming gallerists, collectors, and art lovers back to Hong Kong at that time.”

The 2021 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from 21-23 May, 2021, with preview days on 19-20 May.

Art Basel
Date: 21-23 May, 2021
Venue: HK Convention and Exhibition Centre
Tickets: tbc

Update on Social Distancing Guidelines…

Professor Sophia Chan, Secretary for Food and Health has announced new and updated Social Distancing Guidelines, Mandatory Testing Rules and Airport testing for those from High Risk Countries that are effective on November 16th at 0001hrs till November 26 at 2359hrs.

Restaurant and Bars:
  • Restaurant dining hours will be from 0459-2359hrs.

  • No more than 4 people may be seated on one table at restaurants.

  • No more than 2 people may be seated at one table in bars, pubs and nightclubs.

  • Masks must be worn when not drinking or eating.

  • Bars and Restaurants will be required to only operate at 50 per cent of seating capacity.

Sportsgrounds:
  • Masks must be worn when exercising indoors including public skating rinks except when here is a distance of 1.5 meters or doing exercises with little physical contact.
  • Swimming pools will be limited to 50% Capacity.

Hotels and Guesthouses:

The government is looking to imposing new requirements that include:

  • Limiting the number of guests in each room to no more than four persons. (Those living in the same household will be exempt).

  • Requiring all visitors to guests rooms to register personal details with the hotel before going to visit a room.

  • Temperature checks of all guests entering the hotel.

  • Hotel and Guesthouses must arrange for cleaning and disinfection of all rooms after each check out.

  • Make hand sanitizers available for all guests.

  • If the hotel accepts quarantine guests, these guests must be separated on separate floors.

  • The responsibility that quarantine guests do not leave their rooms during their quarantine period.

  • In addition, the government is also looking to tightening the rule on deliveries for any person in quarantine.
  • If the person in quarantine needs food or games or anything from home these items can be placed outside the door of the guest room on the basis there is no face to face contact.

  • If the person in quarantine (such as a minor) requires the company of a carer (with prior permission from Department of Health), this person will be treated like a quarantined person. The carer will not be allowed to leave the room and must remain inside until the end of the quarantine period.

Group Gatherings:
  • Group gatherings can not be more than 4 people.
Mask Wearing Requirement:
  • There are no changes in the mask wearing rules.
Compulsory Testing Cap 599J:

This additionally gazetted caption allows the government the right to impose compulsory testing.

  • This type of testing may be used to test persons who work or live in the same place as a confirmed person. The government may also use this regulation to test individuals who work in a particular occupation or even those to provide a day 12 test when arriving back in Hong Kong from abroad.
  • Individuals who are required to be tested under 599J can either choose to be tested by the Department of Health or a private laboratory.
  • Any person who does not comply with the testing notice will be fined HKD 2000.
  • A further compulsory testing order will be issued for a person to be tested within a specific timeframe. Failure to comply will result in a fine of HKD 25,000 and 6 months imprisonment.
Arrivals from High Risk Countries:
  • All persons including Aircrew arriving from countries designated as high risk must be tested for Covid-19 upon arriving in Hong Kong. Everyone from these countries including aircrew have to wait for their results at a location designated by the government.
High Risk Countries currently designated include:
  • Bangladesh, Belgium, Ethiopia, France, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Pakistan, The Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America
Banning of Flights:
  • Currently, there is a rule set when 5 or more or 3 people on two flights test positive the government suspends the airline and flight for 2 weeks. Professor Chan said the government is looking at reviewing this rule and may change the threshold as well as the length of the ban. There has been no decision on this matter yet. 

Virtual Parade, Actual Pride

In March of this year HK Pride Parade applied to the police for a “letter of no objection” for the 2020 procession, as of the start of November a letter has not been issued.

The organising committee of the 13th HK Pride Parade have decided that if the public procession and assembly are not approved police, the event will be held online this year.

Here and Proud

The theme of the 2020 parade is Here and Proud which the organising committee envision as:

Hong Kong should be a liberal and diverse place that belongs to us. All along, the liberty in Hong Kong is renowned for shaping the place into a colourful and vibrant international city with diverse cultures.

As such, the development of the equality movement has made LGBT+ into one of the rays of iridescence that Hong Kong, the Oriental Pearl, radiates. The support for equal rights for LGBT+ is ever increasing as the dazzling sight of the rainbow flag can be seen waving proudly amongst 18 districts. Freedom and diversity are the mutual pride of each and every Hongkonger.

The Hong Kong Pride Parade 2020 hopes that each and every one of you who yearns for freedom and diversity could support and join our pride parade this year. May freedom and diversity be sustained in our society, may we achieve equality and justice in the future, may each and every one of us be Here and Proud.

Rainbow Hot Air Balloon

The invention of hot air balloon in 1783 not only allows humans to fly, it demonstrated that impossible dreams could become reality with perseverance. Thus, we should let our dreams take flight.

Can a diverse, inclusive, non-discriminative society become reality? This year is the 13th Hong Kong Pride Parade and the key visual is the ‘Rainbow Hot Air Balloon’ revealing the different flags for sexual minorities, past mascots of the Hong Kong Pride Parade and the Lion Rock – symbol of Hong Kong.

The Sky Lantern is/was the embryonic form of a hot air balloon, in the past it spread messages far and wide, today it carries our dreams and prayers.

May we rise from the Lion Rock in the ‘Rainbow Hot Air Balloon’, longing for freedom, diversity, equality and justice to be shown to everyone.

HK Pride Parade

Theme: Here and Proud
Dress Code: A Touch of Rainbow

The links to the Livestream event will be available on the HKPride Facebook page, Instagram and Youtube Channel.

Websitehkpride.net
Facebook Page: fb.com/hkpride
Instagram: instagram.com/hkprideparade
Telegram Channelt.me/hkpride
Twitter: twitter.com/HKPrideParade

Hong Kong Pride Parade 2020
Date: 1pm, 14 November, 2020
Venue: online
Tickets: Free

Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, 7 November, 2020

They died for our freedom and we should never forget..
At the going down of the sun…
And in the morning…
We shall remember them

Volunteers young & old, were selling poppies on the streets of Central on 7 November, 2020.

Poppies can be obtained at the following location:
Temporary Poppy Depot at Room 3505, The Landmark Edinburgh Tower, Landmark Atrium, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong (Tel : 2713 3315).
Opening hours: Mondays-Fridays 9am-5pm

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Poppy-Appeal-7-November-2020/i-b9VtNq5

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Poppy-Appeal-7-November-2020/i-4Z9GKMS

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Poppy-Appeal-7-November-2020/i-xw3b78Z

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Poppy-Appeal-7-November-2020/i-W7LgLdn

Images: Royal British Legion Hong Kong

Remembrance Day 2020 – Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day

We wear a poppy
On Remembrance Day,
And at eleven
We stand and pray.
Wreaths are put
Upon a grave.
As we remember
Our soldiers brave.

The Poppy Appeal in Hong Kong

Poppies can be obtained at the following location:

Temporary Poppy Depot at Room 3505, The Landmark Edinburgh Tower, Landmark Atrium, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong (Tel : 2713 3315).
Opening hours: Mondays-Fridays 9am-5pm

Saturday 7th November 2020 – Poppy Day.
The streets of Hong Kong Island from 9am – 12:15pm.

For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

 – Laurence Binyon (2014)

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

– John McCrae

Mars Upclose…

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released a trove of almost 100,000 images of the red planet. Captured by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) onboard the Mars Express orbiter the images were taken between 2007 and 2020.

There are also images of the release of the Beagle 2 lander in 2003. While the images have been released for scientific study, the public can browse them as well.

The image archive has hundreds of photos of Mars taken from orbit, showing the huge range of geographical features and diverse formations found on the planet. In the collage of images here, you can see everything from dust and water over the north pole (first image, top row), to an unusual cloud formation called the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (second image, top row), to a double cyclone raging over the planet’s north pole (fourth image, top row), to the enormous structures of the Tharsis Volcanoes and Olympus Mons (third image, second row), to the Valles Marineris canyon system (third image, third row).

The VMC was originally intended to observe the release of the British Beagle 2 lander, transported to Mars by ESA in 2003. However the lander disappeared after its deployment and its exact fate remained unknown until 2015, when NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera captured its location. From the images, engineers could see that Beagle 2 landed safely but failed to deploy two of its solar panels, meaning it was not able to communicate with Earth.

Despite the failure of the Beagle 2 mission, the VMC was repurposed in 2007, and has been used to capture images for various scientific papers about Mars.

Note that the images have been adjusted for sensor ‘noise’ and variations in pixel sensitivity and the results are stunning.

Image: ESA Planetary Science Archive