I look forward to bringing educational and fun experiences in Asia to my granddaughter Mila, who lives in Oklahoma, USA. She can learn about the world vicariously through all my adventures. I got a flat stuffed toy to join me. She is reversible. One side is a little girl, with angel wings and the other is a ladybug. I call her LadyB. I sent the same toy to Mila, which she can name as she sees fit. My Chinese name is Gonggong (公公), which means grandfather in Chinese.

I want to also share my China/Asia life with other youngsters and adults around the world, so enjoy the stories. Hopefully you can show them to others.

ADVENTURES IN ASIA WITH LADYB AND GONGGONG
Story #16: Taiwanese are serious star gazers! Check out this mountain astronomy center.
Ren’ai County, Mount Hehuan, Taiwan Province, China.

Dear Granddaughter Mila,

In Story #15 (https://chinarising.puntopress.com/2025/01/01/adventures-in-asia-with-ladyb-and-gonggong-story-16-our-first-christmas-and-road-trip-in-taiwan-province-15-short-photos-and-clips/), you got a great first look at Taiwan’s magnificent mountain range, which towers up to 4,000masl (meters above sea level). On our way up to Hehuan Mountain, we came across an amazing discovery: a very well-equipped astronomy center at 2,760masl! “IDA” means it’s a proud member of the International Dark Sky Association, so the viewing must be really good (https://darksky.org/),

It not only has a large light-protected platform for star gazers to set up their gear, but it also has a large diameter telescope observatory, with sessions for the public to look through it,

The viewing platform is supported by a themed façade showing the solar system, with each planet’s symbol and distance away from the Sun, called an astronomical unit (AU), which is the distance from the Sun to Earth, ~150,000,000km

I love the Chinese names for the planets, which go back for thousands of years,

Mercury: Water Star

Venus: Gold Star

Earth: Land Sphere

Mars: Fire Star

Jupiter: Wood Star

Saturn: Soil Star

Uranus:Sky King Star

Neptune: Ocean King Star

I haven’t quite figured out Wood Star and Soil Star, but there you go…

We’re excited to go look through the big-aperture telescope, which is only about one hour from Puli. To look through it for 1.5 hours is only €/$4.50 (NT$150), or you can watch star-related movies in the theater, or set up your own gear on the viewing platform for the same price. For about €/$10.00 (NT$350), you can have an astronomer give you a guided tour of the night sky (€/$1.00 = NT$33.00). Yuanfeng means Hawk Summit,

When we moved here two months ago, I brought my Zeiss 8×56 binoculars, thus can already get started. I bought them in 1988 , right after your grandmother Maflor and I got married (your mother was born 3.5 years later!), back when they were still made in “East Germany”. Back in the day, I had a good salary, so the $1,000 price tag didn’t bite so much. Yike! $1,000 then is worth $2,280 today, which makes them a bargain. I swore I would never lose them. So far, so good! Fans are very proud owners, even taking short video clips to show them off (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dLx71bIj5k).

I didn’t have room for my Astroscan telescope in October, but will definitely be bringing it when we go back to France to visit family and friends later this year. They quit making them in 2013, so I’ll never give it up (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroscan).

This Taiwanese astronomy center has a full schedule of activities, so there’s much to explore here. Obviously, the times during the day are to observe the Sun and maybe the Moon.

They have a cute stele upon entering with two doll statues sitting in front of a sky photo. It says in Chinese, “Ren’ai County Welcomes You” and crowns itself as a “Starry Sky Mountain City”,

It’s rare to find such a nice astronomy center catering to the public. You can see how happy LadyB is to have visited the place,

Mila, to get started, have your parents teach you to sing the timeless song, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. Maybe that’s where my passion for the universe got started! I’ve been nuts about star gazing since I was in grade school…

Love, Grandfather Gonggong