DART and Hera

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Four years ago, on 23 November 2021, I published a post titled “The DART Mission,” about NASA’s attempt to crash a spacecraft into a small asteroid in an effort to divert its orbit. The launch would take place the next day, and the crash was planned on 23 September 2022. So I ended the post with: My next update about DART will probably be in October next year.

Here is finally that update ;-). Let me start with an image from that blog. Didymos is an asteroid, a Near Earth Object (NEO) and even a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), although there is no risk of collision with Earth in the next hundred years. A tiny moonlet Dimorphos, orbits the asteroid and was the target for the mission.

After a successful launch on 24 November 2021, DART arrived at the asteroid on 26 September 2022, about 11 million km away from Earth. How to direct DART to hit the tiny moonlet (about 150 m in diameter)? DART must do that itself with the help of its built-in camera DRACO. Four hours before reaching Dimorphos, still about 90.000 km away, DART became autonomous, using DRACO for navigation. Here is a photo taken by DRACO, 2.5 minutes before impact, the last picture where Didymos is still fully visible.

NASA collected all the pictures taken by DRACO and combined them into a time-lapse video. It shows the final 5.5 minutes, ten times faster, except for the last 6 images, which are shown in real time, every second. The “shakiness: in the beginning is a result of minor course corrections. The last image could only be transmitted partly because of the crash. A fascinating video.

The collision of DART and Dimorphos was a frontal one, so it reduced the speed of the moonlet a little but. This would cause Dimorphos to move a bit closer to Didymos with a slightly shorter period (see the first image above). Before the impact, one orbit of Dimorphos took about 12 hours. I wrote in my 2021 blog that the impact was expected to shorten the period by about 10 minutes. So it was a surprise that after the crash, the period of Dimorphos became 34 minutes shorter! In the appendix I explain how they could measure this, from Earth!

The explanation for the large reduction, was that the speed reduction of Dimorphos was not only caused by the crash of DART, but also, and even more, by the material blown away from the moonlet, causing an additional recoil.

How do we know that there was a lot of debris ejected by the crash? Because there was an eyewitness!

DART had on board a tiny spa craft, called LICIACub, which it released two weeks before reaching Dimorphos. This LICIACub had two cameras on board to take pictures of the crash and its aftermath. Here are two of the pictures. The left picture was taken 156 s after the impact, the right one after 175 s. The crash caused a lot of moonlet material to be ejected, probably leaving a crater in Dimorphos.

DART was very successful . It demonstrated that impacting asteroid could divert its course, important if ever an asteroid would be on a collision course with Earth.

n. October 2019 I published a blog Will an asteroid hit Earth?, after frightening reports of an impending asteroid collision with Earth appeared in the tabloid press. in that post I explained that the reports were sensational and not true. But catastrophic collisions have occurred in the past and may happen again in the future, so Earth must be prepared. NASA has its Planetary Defense program and so do other Space Agencies.,

In the context of this Planetary Defense, an ambitious collaboration started around 2013, between NASA and ESA. the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) project. Two missions, DART by NASA and AIM (Asteroid Impact Mission) by ESA. AIM was to become the eyewitness, launched earlier than DART and going into orbit around Didymos, from where it could observe the impact and its aftermath.

The AIDD mission is shown below. AIM (lower right) is already in orbit around Didymos and has released two CubeSats and a Mascot lander which is hovering at the moonlet, here still called Didy-moon.

A fascinating project. But already a few years later, in 2016, ESA had to cancel the AIM mission, because Germany was unable/unwilling to contribute its portion of the funding. NASA decided to proceed with DART anyway and managed to include inro the spacecraft a CubeSat, which could act as an eyewitness. In my blog about DART, I wrote: As an European, I feel rather ashamed.

Then, in 2018, ESA came up with an alternative for AIM, called Hera. Basically, with the same mission, only reaching the asteroid in 2026, four years after the impact of DART. Here is an artist’s impression. It shows Dimorphos, with a very pronounced crater, the result of the crash. Two CubeSats are shown. No lander, but one if the CubeSats may land on the moonlet at the end of the mission.

Hera was successfully launched on 7 October 2024 and is now on its way to Didymos, where it will arrive in late 2026. In 2022 The atseroid was 11 million km away from Earth, but Hera has to travel nuch farther, abou 190 miilion km. In the video you can follow the trajectory of Hera. On12 March 2025 the spacecraft has used a gravity assist from Mars to get the right course to Didymos. In the vidoe Hera is the orange dot and Didymos the red one.

During the flyby Hera took fascinating pictures of Mars and its small moon Deinos.

When Hera arrives at Didymos, it will go into orbit around the binary asteroid. Spacecraft has landed on asteroids and crashed into them, but never gone into orbit. It needs careful navigation, much of it autonomous. Hera will study the crater formed by the impact of DART and investigate the properties of Didimos and Dimorphos. A fuill programme for the planned 6 months of the mission.

Appendix

You may wonder how astronomers discovered that Didymos had a companion, the tiny moonlet Dimorphos. Even with large telescopes, the asteroid shows as a tiny speck of (reflected) sunlight. In 2003 scientists noticed that the brightness of the speck of light varied periodically, showing tiny dips. They concluded that there had to be a companion transiting the asteroid, passing in front and at the back! They could measure the period to be 11 hours and 55 minutes, before the impact, and 34 minutes shorter after the impact.+

This image shows the effect, in an exaggerated way. The big dips are when Dimorphos passes behind the asteroid, the smaller ones when it transits before the ateroid, blocking a bit of its light.

The actual effect is so small that the scientists need advanced techniques to filter the data.

Putuo Village

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When Aric suggested to go on an overnight trip to Kulai, I didn’t even know the location of that town. Actually, it is in Johore, near Johor Bharu, a 4-5 hour drive from where we live! He said that we would visit the Putuo Village, which features an interesting Chinese temple.

It is not really a village, located in a bamboo forest, quite far from Kulai town. There was a cafe where we had coffee and some snacks.

The temple is next to the cafe.

To enter the temple, we had to cross a bridge over a canal, decorated with lanterns in rainbow colors.

There are two guardians at the entrance, one male and one female. See if you can spot the difference.

A big surprise for me. A huge dragon made of bamboo hung from the ceiling in the entrance hall. No surprise for Aric, as this was why he wanted to visit the temple in the first place, his zodiac sign being a dragon.

Later, I read on the Internet that this work of art was only placed here during the CNY 2024, a Year of the Dragon. Made by an Indonesian craftsman who worked on it for six months. An amazing creation.

Entering the main hall, there were more surprises. The temple is dedicated to Guan Yin, the goddess of compassion in Mahayana Buddhism, but here she is shown as the female manifestation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The other surprise was the bamboo architecture, which reminded me of Gothic cathedrals in Europe. Fascinating.

The beautiful statue, with eighteen arms, is the largest in Malaysia. At the back of the hall, there is another statue with even more arms.

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We bought a candle, and I offered it to the goddess. Out of respect, although I am not a Buddhist.

In the court, there was a wishing tree. You have to throw the red ribbon up and hope that it will get caught in one of the branches.

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We bought one, and Aric managed to get it stuck, after several tries.

It was a pleasure to walk around and enjoy the serene atmosphere. Everywhere colorful rainbow flags. There was also a gallery with prayer wheels.

We found a traditional statue of Guan- Yin. Aric is bathing the (baby) Buddha, a traditional ritual during Wesak, the Buddha’s birthday.

A separate shrine for the God of Wealth, -important for Chinese devotees. The dragon looks fierce and unfriendly.

After spending quite some time in the temple, we went to the second attraction of Putuo Village, the Purple Bamboo Valley. In a picturesque bamboo forest, several attractions have been constructed, often utilizing bamboo, making them perfect for taking pictures. We paid a small entrance fee,

Sun and Moon in the bamboo forest.

Very attractive and peaceful.

Concrete steps allow you to climb several attractions. The snake statue is probably a new addition, because this year is the Year of the Snake. We visited the valley on a weekday, and there were not many visitors. Of course, we took many pictures.

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The forest also has some shrines. The decoration is about the Mid-Autumn festival and may be temporary.

The temple is only a few hundred meters away and connected via a walkway, decorated with rainbow flags.

After spending many hours in the Putuo Village, we were a bit dehydrated. Before going to our hotel in Kulai, we went to a cafe for an ABD and a rojak

Our hotel was in a new part of the town, a very small room, but clean.

Using the WIFI in our hotel, I searched for more information about the Putuo Village. It began around 2005 as a small Buddhist site dedicated to Guan Yin. Around 2015, a major renovation started, using local bamboo. This renovation is continuing. The name Putuo comes from Mount Putuo, a sacred mountain in China, the “residence” of Guan Yin. Many temples there, and also a famous Purple Bamboo Forest.

We decided to visit the temple again the next morning, after breakfast in Kulai.

We were curious about the bamboo architecture and about how the dragon was made from bamboo.

Here are two details of the dragon. The whole creature has been “woven” from bamboo! Absolutely amazing.

About the architecture, it looks like the roof of the temple is supported by bamboo. But when you look carefully, you will see that behind the bamboo there is a metal structure. And the fanlike “pillars” may have been filled with cement, for strength.

We found a scale model of the temple in the entrance hall. Aric managed to take a picture inside this model.

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In a Chinese temple, you will often find divination tools to gain insight, guidance, or answers about the future. This Mahayana Buddhist temple is no exception. On a table, we found two examples, Poe blocks and Chinese Fortune sticks. The Poe blocks have a flat and a curved side. When you throw a pair on the floor, while making a wish, it matters how they fall, flat side up or curved side up. One flat, the other one curved, is positive. The fortune sticks are numbered, you shake the container until one stick falls out. Then you read the message.

Another interesting shrine is the Datok Kong shrine in the temple grounds.

We walked around the temple to admire the architecture. Notice the Datok Kong shrine, next to the temple. Those shrines, dedicated to a local deity, were built before the construction of the main temple started.

After this second visit, we left a bit reluctantly for the long drive back home. Altogether, we drove more than 700 km in two days, but it was worth the effort.

Apophis and Ramses

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Besides eight planets, our solar system has a huge number of smaller astronomical bodies, mainly asteroids, but also comets and dwarf planets. They are collectively called Minor Planets, and data about their properties are collected by the Minor Planet Center in a database. At the time of writing this blog, the monumental database contains 1,478,907 objects, with new discoveries added daily. Most objects are asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, but there is an important subcategory, the Near-Earth Objects (NEO), that come close to Earth. Their number in the MPC database is now 40,146, also daily increasing. When asteroids in this category have orbits that cross the orbit of Earth, and are large enough to cause substantial damage in case of a collision, they are called Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA). At the moment, their number is ~2500, with an estimated ~2000 not yet discovered.

This beautiful image, published by NASA in 2013, show the orbits of the ~1400 PHA’s, known at that time.

On 19 June 2004, the Pitt Peak National Observatory discovered a “new” asteroid. It got a provisional designation 2004MN4 in the MPC database. In a recent blog, I explained the coding used by MPC. The M stands for the 2nd half of June, the N for the number 13, and the 4 means 4×25. This asteroid was the 13 + 4 x 25 = 113th asteroid, discovered in the second half of June 2004.

But 2004MN4 was not an ordinary asteroid. After its orbit was calculated, it became clear that it was a NEO and even a PHA, with a small probability (2.7%) that it would hit Earth on 13 April 2029. More accurate calculations of its orbit showed that it would not hit Earth, although it would come very close, and there remained a possibility that it might hit Earth exactly 7 years later, on 13 April 2036.’ The asteroid got a permanent number in the MPC database (99942) and was given the name Apophis, the Egyptian god of the underworld, the enemy of the sun god Ra.

The possibility of a hit in 2036 remained a matter of concern, and in December 2009 I read in the Guardian about a Russian proposal to send a spacecraft to Apophis and modify its course away from Earth. The newspaper had this impressive artist’s impression of what could happen if Apophis were to hit Earth. Click on the image for a link to the Guardian article.

This was the first time I read about Apophis, and I was curious to know more. I had just started blogging, and in January 2010 I published my first post: Will the Earth be hit by Apophis in 2036? I got a few comments from readers and published a second post a few weeks later: Again Apophis, with more details and an explanation why in 2036 it would be again on 13 April.

In the following years, accurate calculations of Apophis’ orbit showed that also in 2036 the asteroid would not hit Earth, not even in the next 100 years. Actually, none of the known PHA’s will hit Earth in the next century!

But on 13 April 2029, less than 4 years from now, Apophis will pass Earth within about 30,000 km. That is closer than the orbits of the geostationary satellites. An asteroid crossing our own backyard, what a unique opportunity!

In July 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) proposed a mission to Apophis. It got the name Ramses (Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety), to be launched between mid April and mid May 2028 and to arrive at Apophis in February 2029 . It would then measure properties of Apophis before, during and after the flyby. It would also deploy two so-called CubeSats, miniature spacecrafts. One of them might try to land on Apophis. Here is an artist’s impression of RAMSES, the two CubeSats and Apophis, about 30,000 km above the surface of Earth.

Preparations for the mission started in July 2024 with partial funding by ESA. In August 2025 JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, decided to collaborate with ESA and received funding from the Japanese government. RAMSES will be launched on one of their rockets.

Would RAMSES receive full funding by the European Union? Those decisions are made by the ESA Council meeting at Ministerial level, this year held in Bremen, 27 November. The result:

The largest contributions in the history of the European Space Agency, €22.1 bn

Three missions have been approved. So It means green light for RAMSES, which now has to be built on a very tight schedule, within two and a half years! But it makes sense, because RAMSES is part of ESA’s Planetary Defense System. Apophis is not dangerous, but another asteroid might be in the future, and inthat case fast action is critical. It explains the “Rapid” in the name of the mission.

This will be the first post about RAMSES, just to celebrate that it has been funded.

Taiping October 2025

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My fourth visit to Taping this year! The main reason was the 9 Emperor Gods Festival. But it so happened that my friend Lay Chun celebrated her birthday, and she invited me to her birthday dinner. On Monday, 27 October, I took the MRT and ETS to Taiping. The train was fully booked. And freezing cold.

From the station I took a Grab to Hotel Furama; I always have the same room; it feels like my second home.

I went out for my lunch and walked to the Peace Hotel, where I had my Char Kway Teow. After Lay Chun introduced me to this stall, I became a regular visitor.

A few days earlier, there had been heavy rain with flooding and evacuations in several regions around Taiping, but now the weather was splendid, so I decided to walk around a bit. One of the reasons I love Taiping is the mixture of beauty and decay. Here are two examples. The beautiful Peranakan house on Jalan Stesen and a ruin, which also has its charm..

I passed the former Perak Railway Headquarters (later the PWD department), which was recently destroyed by fire. The third fire in a heritage-related, abandoned building in the last three years. Very suspicious, in my opinion. More about the “Shame of Taiping” later in this post.

PWD building 2025
Rest House 2023
Majestic Cinema 2025

Before returning to my hotel, I relaxed for a while at the Lake Gardens.

One month ago, Siang Malam reopened after the rebuilding. I was interested to have a look and when I mentioned it to my friends, they liked to join. Pleasant atmosphere, quite a big crowd. I had Wantan Mee, not bed.

The 9 Emperor Gods Festival is held during the first 9 days of the ninth lunar month. The main procession is on day 8, and the firewalking is on the final night. In 2019, I watched the procession for the first time. Click here for a report. I found it so spectacular that I came back in 2023 (report here), so this was my third time. Again, I was the guest of Ng Teng Hin and Bok Kin, in the townhouse of Ng Boo Bee, Teng Hin’s ancestor..

The Ng family always prepares an offering table. When the procession passes the house, they stop for a while and perform rituals.

Here are two short videos about the procession..

A few more pictures. The piercings were less extreme than in 2019 and 2023 but still fascinating. Mostly tongue and cheek piercings

After the floats and devotees had passed the house, I walked slowly back, again encountering the procession. Here, a float is passing the clock tower. The other picture shows Kavadi carriers taking a rest. The Hindu Navaratri festival takes place in the same period as the 9 Emperor Gods festival, and the procession has devotees from both religions.

Devotees are always supported by helpers, who carry a stool if they need to rest.

The floats can be large and are often impressive.

Later that evening, I was picked up from Furama by my friend Goh for the birthday dinner. Lay Chun had invited 17 guests and booked two tables. A delicious mix of Chinese dishes, the picture shows six of the eight courses

At the end of the dinner, of course, there was the traditional birthday cake.

The next morning, I had breakfast with Yeap and his wife. Indian food/

I was interested to (re)visit the old New Club Swimming Pool and asked Yeap if he would like to join me. The last time I visited the pool was with my friend Halim in 2019. The path starts near the Indian temple, just before the bridge. It’s an easy path that, in a few hundred meters, brings you to the pool.

After a few more steps, we reached the swimming pool. It was built in the early 19th century exclusively for New Club members. After the New Club built a new swimming pool near the club building, the old swimming pool was abandoned, but Yeap told me that in the seventies, as a teenager, he. had still been swimming here, organised by his school/

The pool was heavily silted, and the buildings (changing rooms, a canteen, etc) were long gone, but as a memory from the past, the pool could become an interesting heritage attraction..

In 2019, my friend Halim posed as a diver, and I did the same this time. In 2019, the pool was not yet silted!

Small steps lead to an upper terrace. We did not explore further and walked back to the road.

The Indian temple and the romantic footbridge

Next, we had a look at the Kempe Club, visited by me in 2019 (report here) when it was still used by old-timers. Now locked, but still in good condition. Yeap, a Rotarian, told me that the Rotary Taiping had used this club for their weekly meetings.

In the afternoon, I went out for lunch at Ansari Cendol, taking a different route. Again the charm of Taiping, a mixture of beauty and decay.

I like this kind of mural better than the huge “official” ones.

On my way, I passed the replica of the Pasar. At the moment an empty shell. Will it ever become a market again?

At Ansari, this time I had not only a cendol, but also a pasembor.

I walked back along Jalan Stesen. Two years ago, an ambitious plan was launched to transform the Rest House and the adjoining buildings (Perak Railway building) into a boutique hotel. Click here for the Facebook page. But until now nothing happened; it seems that there is a permission issue, with possibly racial undertones.

Officially, both buildings have been fenced off, but access was still possible, as I have shown in several earlier blog posts. As a result, homeless people have been staying in both buildings. Since earlier this year, the Rest House has even a real entrance gate. I went inside and noticed that the resident had parked his motorbike inside the compound..

The complex next to the Rest House, the former Railway Headquarters, consists actually of two buildings. A two-story timber structure, dated to 1885, and a two-story brick building, added later. It is this brick building that has been damaged by fire. The timber structure, shown below, had its own resident, access via a small opening in the fence.

No sign of a resident this time. I sneaked in to have a look at the murals.

No fire in this building, but for many years it has been a ruin, the courtyard has become a jungle. At the back, you can see the facade of the brick building..

Here is the brick building, where the fire raged. Too dangerous to enter, but I could take some photos from the outside. Left the Cross Street facade, right the main facade at Jalan Stesen.

The brick structure is still solid, but the roof is destroyed. Inside, it was vandalized years ago, and the wooden flooring was stolen. That’s why I assumed that no resident would live in this building.

But there is one location, outside the building, near the counter, familiar to many Taiping folks, that shows traces of human presence. Notice that there is a suitcase, a mattress. and some clothes.

I walked back to my hotel. Again, the charm of Taiping, the mixture of beauty and decay.

The beautiful Larut, Matang & Selama Land and District Office, a design by Caulfield, completed in 1897. One of the few heritage buildings maintained by the authorities, most of the other heritage buildings are preserved by private initiative.

On the other side of the road, the Kwangtung Association building, with a huge mural on its side facade.

The FMS restaurant (on the site of the former Raja Rest House) and the Silver Jubilee Jetty. Walking around in Taiping is always a pleasure.

In the evening, I went with Yeap and his wife to the 9 Emperor Gods Temple in Tupai for the firewalking ceremony. Waiting for them, I walked to the nearby Peng Loong kampong. The kampong had a bad reputation, but it is now peaceful.

The Tupai Temple is the oldest 9 Emperor Gods temple in Taiping, and attracts a crowd of devotees and other visitors during the festival.

During the nine days of the festival, devotees eat vegetarian food. In and around the temple compound, there are many eateries. We had dinner there, the traditional fare, nee rebus, curry mee, all vegetarian..

I had a look at the firewalking place, where they were busy preparing the embers. It is a small stretch, between the two black flags, where the devotees will walk..

I also visited the temple.

There are many rituals in preparation for the actual firewalking. Here is a video.

Preparing for the actual firewalking. The guy with the yellow “apron” is the leader and the caretaker of the temple. Notice the red glowing of the embers!

A video shows better what firewalking is. Some devotees walk slowly, even carrying a kid. Others run as fast as they can.

Teap told me that many devotees stay in the temple during the nine days and showed me the dormitories, with people going home

After the firewalking. preparations are made to send off the Emperor Gods.

A fascinating ceremony! Before I went to sleep, I needed to relax a bit at the Lake Gardens.

The next morning, I had breakfast with my friend Foo, Chee Cheong Fun at the Circus Grounds, , one of our traditions.

Later, he picked me up from Furama and dropped me at the station. I am fortunate to have good friends in Taiping!

Amelia Earhart, one more time.

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Recently, I was in Taiping with two Dutch friends. They loved the Lake Gardens and enjoyed the food. I also showed them the impressive mural of Amelia Earhart, the famous American aviator.

Here, I am standing in front of it.

I pointed out the text on the mural:

Amelia Mary Earhart, the first woman to fly solo around the world stopped to refuel at the Taiping Aerodrome in Tekah on 20th June 1937.

And I told him that Amelia Earhart actually never landed in Taiping.

Of course, Mathew was surprised. I gave him the link to my blog, Did Amelia Earhart land in Taiping?, written three years ago. In that blog I had demonstrated convincingly that she had never landed in Taiping and had not even the intention to do so. Although there was some publicity in the press, no action was taken by the relevant authorities to correct the mistake and I decided to let it go.

Mathew was intrigued and, back in the Netherlands, he searched in Delpher. a Dutch newspaper archive for more information about Amelia Earhart. He found many clippings, in Dutch language of course. I will describe them in the appendix.

Singapore also has a newspaper archive, NewspaperSG. I had used it often to find information about the history of Taiping. But I never searched for information about Amelia Earhart. Now I did! Here is a direct link to the June 1937 database.

Almost immediately I found what I was looking for. In the Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle of 21 June. Here it is

On 20June 1937 Amelia Earhart left Bangkok for her flight to to Singapore. The aerodromes of Penang and Alor Star made preparations in case she decided to land at either of them. At 2:35pm a message from Alor STar said that she had passed over. In Penang there was hope she might land there, but after about 45 minutes …

… a message was received from Taiping to say that Miss Earhart’s machine had passed over that State.

This should end the controversy. Will the relevant authorities take action this time and modify the text on the mural?

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APPENDIX

Amelia Earhart’s solo flight around the world was global news. Even more so in the Netherlands, for several reasons. In 1934, the KLM had won the prestigious handicap race, London-Melbourne. The flight of the “Uiver” caused a lot of enthusiasm. In those early decades of aviation, Fokker, a Dutch company, dominated the civil aircraft industry. And Amelia Earhart’s flight plan included Bandung in the Dutch East Indies. a Dutch colony (now Indonesia).

Here are a few newspaper clippings collected by Mathew. I have added the English translation (in blue italics) and some comments of my own

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Sumatra-bode, 19 June 1937

Amelia Earhart’s Flight
Akyab, June 18 (Aneta). Amelia Earhart arrived from Calcutta and departed for Bangkok at 6:4 GMT, but after battling the monsoon for two hours and failing to establish radio contact with the bearing stations in Rangoon and Akyab, she returned. The return trip occurred during a heavy thunderstorm. Amelia Earhart encountered dense cloud cover, while visibility was poor over the desolate coastline, one of the most treacherous factors on long-distance flights.
Earhart will continue her world flight on June 19.

The original plan was to fly from Calcutta to Bangkok with a refueling stop in Akyab. But she had to battle the monsoon weather and was forced to return to Akyab. The visibility was so bad that she didn’t dare to fly over land where suddenly a hill might appear. Instead, she followed the “desolate” coastline.

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Algemeen handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indie¨, 21 juni 1937

Amelia’s World Flight.
Arrived in Rangoon.
Rangoon, June 19 (Own service). —Amelia Earhart arrived in Rangoon on Saturday morning.She took off from Akyab three times. After the first takeoff, she turned back.After this, she tried again, but again, due to bad weather, she turned back. Finally, the third time, she succeeded. Upon her arrival in Rangoon, the round-the-world flyer declared that the Akyab-Rangoon leg was the worst of the entire trip.

The next day, the weather was even worse. No way of reaching Bangkok. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she managed to land in Rangoon and stay overnight there.

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Nieuwe Apeldoornsche courant, 21 juni 1937

Amelia Earhart to Bandung
Won the Rangoon-Singapore route of the “Ibis” and an English plane.
Amelia Earhart, coming from Rangoon, landed in Singapore. She arrived ten minutes ahead of the KLM plane, the “Ibis.” The two KLM and Imperial Airways airliners took off from Bangkok at the same time as Amelia Earhart. The brave pilot said she had made a bet with the airline pilots that she would cover the distance from Bangkok to Singapore the fastest. Laughing, she took a picture of the “Ibis” as the plane landed at the airport after her. To continue her flight around the world, Amelia Earhart left for Bandung, in the Dutch East Indies, last night.

On 20 June the weather improves and Amelia Earhart reaches Singapore, after a refueling stop in Bangkok. A bit earlier than the Ibis and the English plane, but the story about a bet is fake news and will be corrected later. Notice how this newspaper, based in the Netherlands, writes that she left for Bandung “last night”. Amelia avoided flying at night, she left Singapore early morning on 21 June, Different time zones… 😉

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Het nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indie¨, 21 juni 1937

WHERE WAS AMELIA EARHART…?
Last Saturday, wild rumors circulated in a small circle in Bandung that the daring American ocean aviator Amelia Earhart, who was on a round-the-world flight over the British East Indies, would be honoring Bandung with a visit. The Royal Netherlands Air Force (KNIL) agency here had received word that Lady “Lindy” would most likely land in Andir on Sunday, or yesterday during the day. However, it was not to be.
An Aneta report,distributed via the Nirom, informed the public yesterday morning that Lady “Lindy” had only arrived in Rangoon last Saturday afternoon, after having taken off from Akyab three times previously; however, the exceptionally bad weather forced her to return to Akyab an equal number of times.
Last night we received a telephone message from the KNIL agent here, Mr. L. Mees, in Bandung, stating that Miss Amelia Earhart is expected in Andir Monday morning (today) between 8 and 10 a.m.

A nice article from a newspaper in the Dutch East Indies, where people are anxiously waiting in Bandung for her arrival on 20 June, until they are notified about the delay in Burma.

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Dagblad nieuwe Hoornsche courant, 21J une 1937

Amelia Earhart in Bandung.
BANDUNG, JUNE 21 (Aneta—A.N.P.).
Amelia Earhart arrived in Bandung at 1:56 p.m. local time.
Further information.
BANDUNG, June 21 (Aneta—A.N.P.).
The aviator Amelia Earhart landed in Bandung this morning at 10:56 a.m. on her round-the-world flight. She circled above the airfield for fifteen minutes, presumably because the various signs on the ground were obscured by the low-hanging clouds. Then several aircraft from the aviation department took off and landed to show Amelia how to land. There was great interest at the airfield. The “Bandung Vooruit” association offered flowers. Miss Earhart will stay here for three days, as KLM has the only equipment in Bandung where it can have the instruments of its modern aircraft thoroughly overhauled.
Miss Earhart will visit the Tangkoeban Pra-hoe this evening.

On 21 June, Amelia Earhart lands in Bandung. Notice that the arrival time is given twice, with a strange difference of three hours. The report contains one interesting detail, which I have not found elsewhere, that local aviators took off to help her land because low-hanging clouds obscured the landing signs on the runway. Amelia stayed three nights here, so the KLM workshop could thoroughly inspect her plane. Therefore, she had time to be a tourist and visit the Tangkoeban Pra-hoe , a famous volcano near Bandung.

+++++++++++++++++

Dagblad nieuwe Hoornsche courant, 21J une 1937

No Bet
BATAVIA, June 21 (Aneta—A.N.P.).
The commander of the “Ibis,” Mr. Stork, reported that Amelia Earhart, after taking off from the airport in Singapore, returned there due to engine trouble. She was still there when the “Ibis” took off. Regarding reports of a so-called friendly competition between Amelia Earhart and the KLM “Ibis,” he stated that competitions are never held with KLM aircraft, and moreover, the Rangoon-Singapore route for the “Ibis” was completely different from that for the American aviator. The “Ibis” made stopovers in Bangkok, Penang, and Medan, where delays occurred for refueling, food, mail, and loading, while Amelia Earhart—except for a stopover in Bangkok—flew directly to Singapore. It should also be noted that the “Ibis” had a speed of 270 km/h, while Amelia Earhart, with her Wasp Junior engines, had a speed of 237 km/h. The entire betting story must therefore be considered completely false.

In the same newspaper, a correction of the “bet” story. The pilot of the “Ibis” explains that there has never been a bet. The Ibis was a commercial airliner; it had to make two intermediate landings, in Penang and Medan. In a direct competition, the Ibis would have won, because the machine was faster.

My blog post will end here. Amelia Earhart stayed in the Dutch East Indies longer than planned (repairs, sickness), then continued to Australia and New Guinea. On 2 July, she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, started for the long flight (about 20 hours, more than 4000km) to Howland Island.

Where they never arrived. Most plausible explanation is that the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. But there are other possibilities, including several conspiracy theories.

A Photo Map of Taiping

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In my latest report about my ‘second hometown, Taiping. August 2025, I mentioned that I was working on a project to show my numerous photos of Taiping on a location map. That was a big job. Here is version 1.0 of my Photo map of Taiping. You can also click on the introduction page below. Here is a manual.

My first visit to Taiping was in 2002, but it was only in 2014 that I started using a smartphone with built-in GPS to take pictures. In the introduction page the left column shows the years, only 2021 is missing, because of COVID. You can select one or more years. In the right column, you can select one or more categories. In the introduction page above I have selected year 2025 and the category ‘nature’. Part of the map is show (green markers).

Here is the map for 2025 with all categories selected. There are 10 categories at the moment, all with their own color code.

Abd here is the map with all categories and all years selected. More than 1500markers. Not advisable , it gets messy, although of course you can zoom in. Loading the map will also take quite some time.

It is better to select a limited number of categories and or years. Here is a map of heritage photos. You will see that some official heritage buildings are missing, and other buildings are marked heritage, because they are old and look good. It is a bit arbitrary.

In this map, I have selected hotels/restaurants (yellow markers) and the category ‘social’ (light blue markers). This category is more personal, photos with myself in it, or friends.

Here is the map with ruins and abandoned buildings. I am a fan of ruins, and Taiping has a lot of them. For abandoned buildings, I have sometimes added a question mark. Notice the concentration of black markers around the buildings on Station Road, just left to rot, one of them the Rest House (1894).

The “Shame of Taiping”, as I call it, zoomed in. Together with other markers to show that there is more in Taiping than ruins. The white markers show museums, the blue markers are for murals.

Finally, here are the houses of worship in Taiping and its surroundings (purple), combined with the cemeteries/graves (grey).

I named this Photo Map of Taiping version 1.0 because it is still a work in progress. I am looking forward to suggestions and comments.

Malaysia Day 2025

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As Malaysia Day this year was part of a long weekend, with many people traveling, Aric suggested to visit the Sky Walk in FRIM, expecting not too many visitors. It was many years since I visited FRIM, the last time was in 2015. After paying a few Ringgit for parking and entrance fee, you could roam around freely and enjoy the wonders of this man-made (!) rainforest. In 2005 I attended a weekend organized by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) who had a bungalow in FRIM. It was about orienteering, and I explained how to use GPS. It was the first time I found the Kapur trees with the fascinating crown shyness Here is the trip report, MNS Orienteering weekend at FRIM

I was hoping to visit the Crown Shyness again, but friends told me that nowadays you have to book a guided tour (RM 150 for 10 pax). A lot has changed at FRIM. A small part has been rebranded as Kepong Botanical Garden; the main part can only be visited on a guided tour. In the GE screenshot, I have roughly indicated the boundary of the Botanical Garden. First, we went to the main FTIM entrance, where security guards told us that the Sky Walk was in the Botanical Garden.

After paying a few Ringgit , we entered the Garden. Well maintained, but without the charm of a rainforest.

Usually, you have to book tickets for the Sky Walk online, but the website was down, so we just tried our luck. When we arrived at the ticket office, we found that it was closed for a lunch break, from 12 pm to 2 pm. But there was a cafe in the garden, not far away, so we decided to have a drink and a snack there.

At 2 pm, we walked back to the Sky Walk. If you look closely, you can see one of the towers in the left picture..

We had to fill out indemnity forms first before we could buy tickets. Ticket price for locals/nonlocals is RM 15/40. RM 5 discount for local seniors. An extra RM 5/10 if you want to climb the observation tower, which of course we wanted to 😉

The Sky Walk has a total length of 259 m and is supported on 8 towers. When you look up under the towers, it is hard to believe that you can actually walk on those narrow walkways. On Google Earth, the circuit is clearly visible. The circuit is one way, anticlockwise, starting at 12 with the observation tower at 6.

This is the exit; the entrance is at the other side. There was one family before us and later a few more people arrived. A good decision to choose Malaysia Day.

It is a stiff climb first to reach the first walkway.

The Sky Walk is a solid construction, very different from the earlier canopy walk. Of course also less romantic.

Halfway, there is the observation tower, 50 m high. Not suitable when you have a fear of heights. Notice the Malaysian flag on top of the tower, and Aric next to it, proof that we actually made it to the top.

A spectacular view of the KL city skyline.

As there were no other people yet, we could stay for some time and take pictures.

What a wonderful view. We were so lucky that the sky was clear

Climbing down the tower and continuing our walk

Almost at the end of the Sky Walk.

Even with the solid construction, only 5 people are allowed at the same time on one stretch of the walkway.

We spent less than one hour at the Sky Walk. Worth the money, a memorable experience.. Before going home, we had a refreshing Ice Kacang near the main FRIM entrance. Ming’s Ice Kacang and Coconut Stall, very popular, people were queuing.

Later that evening, we walked to the Rymba R&R for a small celebration of Malaysia Day with a few Bukit Lankan hikers. The Rymba R&R is a nickname for a meeting place, just around the corner from where we live, lovingly created and maintained by Pathman (blue shirt) and his friends. Nice company.

A nice Malaysia Day with a beautiful sunset

If you are interested in FRIM, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, click here for an interesting article:

Taiping, August 2025

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My third visit to Taiping in 2025!. This time, the main reason was to visit the painting exhibition of my friend Halim..He is suffering from MND (Motor Neuron Disease), can not speak anymore, is confined to a wheelchair, but is still full of energy. He started painting again as a hobby and held a solo exhibition in the Taiping Clock Tower on 9 and 10 August,

On Sunday, 10 August, I took the ETS to Taiping. My favourite coach, C, has a canteen, but this time, I prepared bread and coffee at home.

In Taiping, my friend Yeap picked me up from the station. and after we had lunch, he dropped me at the Furama hotel. I took some rest and had a look at the Majestic cinema, where recently there had been a fire (see my June 2025 post). There was now no police tape, so I had a look inside. Empty space, the fire had destroyed the roof. Was it arson?

It is a short walk to the clock tower. I was welcomed by a lady, who turned out to be Halim’s daughter. There were a few other visitors.

Halim’s painting collection.

When I told the lady that I was a friend of her father, she called him, and soon he arrived. We have been friends for many years, and I have bought two of his paintings that are now decorating my study.

More visitors arrived, it was a very joyous meeting. Mission accomplished.

It has become a tradition that Yeap and I meet for breakfast during my Taiping visits. He asks me what kind of food I would like and then he chooses a location. This time a new one he had found on TikTok(!), the Roti Bakar Arang Fadzil House, a Malay eatery in Tupai. Not bad, I had my favourite roti goyang.

When I mentioned to him the fountain in the Lake Gardens, recently restored and redecorated, he said, let’s have a look.

The original plan for the next two days was to show the attractions of Taiping to my KL hiking friend, but there had been a change of plan, so I had two “free” days 😉 As I had visited Taiping already in June, I decided to do something different, explore the Lake Gardens. For the last few years, I have always walked the Raintree Walk, but never the rest of the gardens. I also wanted to have a closer look at the fountain.

During my walk, I took many photos. Instead of some photos here, I decided to show all of them in a special page on my website, using my (fading) programming skills. The page is still under construction. It works like this: click on the screenshot below, and you will open the page with a map of the Lake Gardens. When you click on a green marker, you will see the photo taken at that location. Click on the photo and you will see the picture on a larger scale. You can zoom in and out on the map. Later, I may add photos of other locations in Taiping and add captions. Comments are welcome.

After leaving the Gardens, I followed Jalan Kota, passing the Public Library, one of the Taiping heritage buildings. I went inside for a while,

I also passed one of the huge Taiping murals. Well done, but just using the wall as a canvas. Those huge murals are a specialty of Taiping murals, not really my favorite.

The Land and District Office is the most prominent landmark of Taiping, a reminder of the glory days of Taiping when it was the capital of Perak. The small building opposite was a personal landmark for me. Lian Thong restaurant, where I often had my breakfast. Pity that it has been sold and renovated, losing its charm.

I had a late lunch at Prima, where I unexpectedly met Yeap again. Taiping is a small town. Back to my hotel for a well-deserved rest, I had walked more than 9000 steps. In the evening, I met Indra, who had been very active with the restoration of the Ceylon Association heritage building on Station Road. Some time ago, he messaged me about another restoration project, the Sri Sithi Vinayagar Temple, built in 1924 by the Ceylon Tamil community of Taiping. I was interested to have a look and Indra was willing to take me there. Also located on Station Road, near the Sikh Gurdwara.

The temple is dedicated to Ganesha, and inside the temple compound, there is a beautiful sculpture of Ganesha with his parents, Shiva and Parvati.

Indra presented me with an interesting book about the temple. We met the priest, who put a pottu on our forehead. Last May, after finishing the renovation, a consecration ceremony was held the Kumbhabhishekham. Hinduism may well be the most complicated of the major world religions.

There was an interesting table outside the temple with the “Nine Planets.” Did the Hindu religion already know about Planet 9? No, at home I Googled for the Hindu nine planrets, The official name is Navagraha. The nine heavenly bodies represent the Hindu deities influencing humans. They are Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (the 5 planets known in antiquity) plus two more of the Moon, too complicated to explain here. Interesting and beautiful.

After our visit we had some snacks in an Indian restaurant, the Sri Annapoorana Curry House. Worthwhile to come back next time for a full meal.

I just mentioned Lian Thong as my personal landmark. During my many visits, I became friendly with its owner, Teoh, and we kept in touch after he sold the restaurant. We met for breakfast the next morning in a kopi tiam near Novotel. We had a fascinating conversation about Taoism. Teoh is Chinese-educated and dedicates much of his time studying the Tao writings.

How to spend my second “free” day? A considerable part of the Lake Gardens is occupied by the Taiping Zoo. I must have visited it in the past, don’t remember much, so I decided to go again. I took a Grab and paid RM 8 for my (senior) ticket.

The Zoo was disappointing. Maybe the reason was that my timing was wrong, around 2 pm. It was a hot day, and most animals were smarter than I and were resting in their shelters.

No tiger to be seen. I walked around and took many photos, which are included in my picture webpage.

Walking back through the Lake Gardens, I took more photos. This is the famous zigzag bridge, more on my webpage.

I was dehydrated and needed a beer, together with a late lunch. Later that evening I had dinner with my friends Lay Chun and Kar Seng.

The next morning, I had breakfast at the Circus Grounds, CCF with my friend Foo. Another valuable tradition..

My plan was, on my way back home, to stop at Ipoh, stay overnight, and meet a heritage contact. But last minute that morning, he WhatsApped me that he had another assignment and could only meet me at dinner. I was quite upset, cancelled my hotel and bought a ticket Ipoh-KL. I had lunch at the New Club with Bok Kin and Teng Him, who then dropped me at the station

.I had a few hours to spend in Ipoh. I know Ipoh reasonably well, click here or here, so I took only a few pictures. Here is the iconic railway station.

The impressive town hall. Compared with Taiping, Ipoh has an amazing number of beautiful heritage buildings.

The Birch memorial. When I bring friends to Ipoh, I always tell them that the two roads on both sides of the memorial were originally named Station Road and Post Office Road. Now they have been renamed Jalan Dato’ Sago and Jalan Dato’ Maharaja Lela , the killers of Birch. I also point out the whitened historical figure on the frieze and ask them if they know who it is .

There are plenty of heritage buildings in Ipoh Old Town. Left the Chung Thye Phin Building (Arlene House) and right the former Straits Trading Company building, now a bank.

Details of those buildings

This time, no pictures of the pasar replica, the ruined heritage buildings, the infamous Amelia Earhart mural. And no Ansari chendol. But still interesting and always nice to meet friends.

Alien attack in November?

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The Sun, a UK tabloid, published on 17 August an article titled: A MYSTERY++ object tearing towards Earth at break-neck speed has raised fears that ALIENS are on their way here with these two pictures

That sounds scary, right? What is happening?. Here are the facts.

The “Mystery object” was discovered on 1 July 2025 by ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System). ATLAS is a cooperation of earth-based observatories that continuously watch the sky, looking for moving astronomical objects. ATLAS started in 2015 and currently five observatories are taking part. They specialise in looking for smaller asteroids that may impact Earth and can only be detected when they are close. a last alert. Until now they have found 1241 Near-Earth asteroids, of which 110 were potentially hazardous. But also other objects were found, 106 comets and 4847 supernovae (which don’t move but change brightness)

The object found on 1 July is a comet, but it is causing huge excitement in the scientific community because of its extremely high speed. That means it comes from outside our solar system, will be slightly deflected by the Sun, and will escape again. Here is its (hyperbolic) orbit. The (animated) image comes from Wikipedia: 3I/ATLAS

The Wikipedia article contains a massive amount of information about 3I/ATLAS, a proof of the excitement caused by its discovery. Two more pictures from Wikipedia, the original discovery photo (animated gif) and a detailed photo taken by the Hubble telescope on 21 July.

The fuzziness of 3I/ATLAS in the Hubble picture is characteristic of a comet. The icy nucleus is hidden in a coma, water and dust evaporated by the solar radiation. That’s why the present estimate of its size is very inaccurate ( between 0.32 and 5.6 km). The comet will reach its perihelion (closest distance to the Sun) on 29 October and will never come closer to Earth than 209 million km (on 19 December).

Until now, three interstellar visitors have been detected: 1I/’/Oumuamua in 2017, the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov in 2019, and now 3I/ATLAS. In my blog post of February 2018, Oumuamua, I discussed in detail the first interstellar visitor. Now we have another one.

So, why the consternation in the popular press and the social media, like here or here or here. Google for 3I/ATLAS alien and you will find more links.

In my Oumuamua post, I wrote: “Of course, there are people who are wondering if it could be a spaceship”. Basically, it was one man who suggested this, Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist at Harvard University. He was widely criticised by the scientific community. He even wrote a popular science book about it: Extraterrestrial. The consensus is now that Oumuamua is just a physical object.

Avi Laub must have an obsession with alien life. Within weeks of 31/ATLAS’ discovery, he published an article, Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology? Here is a quote (bold by me):.

As largely a pedagogical exercise, in this paper we present additional analysis into the astrodynamics of 3I/ATLAS, and hypothesize that this object could be technological, and possibly hostile as would be expected from the ‘Dark Forest’ resolution to the ‘Fermi Paradox’

He also has a blog and wrote two posts about 3I/ATLAS, on 17 July and 5 August . And two weeks ago, he was interviewed by FOX 10 Talks. Click on the screenshot to watch the video. The interviewers are in awe that, for the first time, they have a Harvard professor in their program.

When Loeb is right about 3I/ATLAS, that it might be an alien, hostile spacecraft, what about November? Here is a possible scenario.

The spacecraft, disguised as a comet (!), reaches perihelium on 29 October. If you look at the animated GIF above, you will see that Earth is then on the other side of the Sun, so 3i/ATLAS will not be visible to us. During that period, the spacecraft will change its course and when it is visible again, it will come to attack and destroy us!

Just when I was ready to publish this post, I came across this website: Elon Musk: “It’s Confirmed, The 3I ATLAS is an Alien Space Craft!”. I am sure the mention of Musk is fake, only meant to attract more viewers. But the YouTube video on the website is fascinating, a mixture of science and sc-ifi. Click on the screenshot to watch the video.

Don’t worry. It’s a comet, not a disguised alien spacecraft.

Here is a promise. If humanity is still alive after November, I will write a post about the Fermi Paradox and the Dark Forest. And about my solution, the Rare Earth hypothesis.

Stabat Mater

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In 2012, I published a blog about Stabat Mater, composed in 1735 by Pergolesi. In that post, you will find more information about this beautiful composition, one of my all-time favourites. Many composers wrote music for the Stabat Mater, one of them being Antonio Vivaldi. In 2024, I wrote another post, Antonio and Andreas, about a recording of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater by countertenor Andreas Scholl.

A few weeks ago, I found on YouTube a compilation of six Stabat Mater compositions, by various composers, from Palestrina (ca 1590) to Arvo Pärt (1985). Here it is, Pergolesi and Vivaldi are of course included, but others were unknown to me. Click on the screenshot to watch the video.


I decided to search for more Stabat Mater compositions and soon found this amazing site: The Ultimate Stabat Mater Website. A Dutch music lover, Hans van der Velden, started in 1992 to collect Stabat Mater CDs. Five years later, his partner, Hannie van Osnabrugge, created the Ultimate Stabat Mater Website. The site is now managed by the Ultimate Stabat Mater Website Foundation, created in 2020. At the moment, the site has more than 300(!) CD recordings of the Stabat Mater, with lots of information about composers and compositions. Click on the screenshot below for more information about the history of this monumental website.

There are many ways to access the information, alphabetically, by country, or chronologically. I used the chronological option to look for Stabat Mater compositions, composed in the 18th century, when the transition took place from Late Baroque (Handel, Bach) to Classical (Haydn, Mozart).

I found 50 composers of a Stabat Mater. Amazing. Only those are listed where a CD exists, so there have been more. Most of them are unknown to me. I selected a few that appealed to me. Of the four 18th-century giants, only one (Joseph Hayden) composed a Stabat Mater. The other three (Handel, Bach and Mozart ) composed religious masterpieces, which I have in included in the following list for reference.

1712 Antonio Vivaldi

According to Wikipedia, Vivaldi composed the Stabat Mater in 1711, with a premiere in 1712. Written in haste, only eight stanzas of the hymn are used, and the music for the first three movements is repeated for the second three. Still, it is considered one of Vivaldi’s early masterpieces. There is only one soloist, originally a castrato, nowadays sung by a countertenor or a contralto. The Ultimate Stabat Mater Website gives 1727 as the year it was composed.

There are numerous recordings. I have chosen Jakub Olinski’s Here is a screenshot, click on it to watch the YouTube video. Olinski is not only a brilliant countertenor, he is also an experienced breakdancer. Click here for his role in another work by Vivaldi; you may be shocked.

1723 Alessandro Scarlatti

Alessandro Scarlatti is famous for his operas, but he also wrote religious music. In my post Dixit Dominus, I mentioned him. His Stabat Mater was new to me; I found it on the Ultimate Stabat Mater website. It is beautiful music.

He was the father of Domenico Scarlatti, who wrote 555 keyboard sonatas, but also composed a Stabat Mater for choir, without soloists.

1736 Giovanni Pergolesi

Originally, Pergolesi composed the Stabat Mater for a male alto and a male soprano (a castrato!), customary in his days. Nowadays most recordings are for (female) soprano and either contralto or countertenor. I found this delicious recording by a boy soprano and a boy alto.

1741 Handel (Messiah)

Handel, one of the great composers of the Late Baroque, wrote numerous religious works, but never a Stabat Mater. In 1741 he wrote the Messiah, for me his most impressive creation. Here is a recording by the Choir of King’s College in Cambridge

1749 Bach (Hohe Messe)

Bach also did not compose a Stabat Mater (although he used Pergolesi’s music in his Psalm 51 . The greatest of all Baroque composers wrote many religious works. In 1749 he wrote the Hohe Messe. Here is my favourite recording by the Thomaner Choir in Leipzig

1767 Joseph Haydn

The transition from Baroque to the Classical Period took place around 1750. Haydn represents the early Classical period, and when you listen to his Stabat Mater, the differences are obvious. It was on the Ultimate Stabat Mater website that I discovered it. Beautiful music. The recording was made during the COVID pandemic, without an audience.

1781 Luigi Boccherini

Boccherini was an Italian composer and cellist. I knew and liked his string quintets, but I discovered his Stabat Mater only in the compilation mentioned above. I liked it so much that I decided to write this blog post. He belongs to the Classical era, but is a bit of an outsider. His Stabat Mater still has a Baroque setting, in my opinion.

Actually, he revised it in 1800, adding two more voices. and an ouverture. I prefer the original version.

1791 Mozart (Requiem)

Mozart didn’t write a Stabat Mater, His most famous religious composition is the Requiem Mass. started in the year of his death, but not completed. So many recordings on YouTube, how to choose one? Here is one, recorded in the Condertgebouw in Amsterdam. I lived around the corner for 25 years.