The seventeenth issue of Online Quiz Games - Time Service and Astronomy

2 November 2015

The Hong Kong Observatory not only provides meteorological services, but also is the official timekeeper of Hong Kong. The Observatory utilized a time ball as early as 1880's to provide time service to the public. With the advancement of technology, the time ball was dismantled in 1933. It has been replaced by much more accurate timing systems and since then, the platforms for providing time service have gradually been moved to radio, telephone, the Internet, etc.

Besides, the Observatory also provides astronomical services. Information like times of sunrise and sunset, moon phases, solar and lunar eclipses, tidal data, etc. can be found on the Observatory’s website. In recent years, the Observatory has installed all-sky cameras at various places of Hong Kong and launched a webpage for "Weather Information for Astronomical Observation" in collaboration with the Hong Kong Space Museum and the Department of Physics of the University of Hong Kong to facilitate stargazers in planning their astronomical observation activities.

Do you want to know more about this topic? Please come and join this issue of the quiz games. It will end on 15 November.

HKO's webpage:
http://www.weather.gov.hk/education/online_quiz/intro_e.htm

HKO's mobile webpage:
http://www.weather.gov.hk/m/online_quiz/m_intro_e.htm