Great observation spots for a new resident in Singapore

[marc_d]

Hi All,

I'm just arriving from France for several years in Singapore. I have brought with me all my stuff including a Celestron C11 with a motorized mount... I used to use in France at countryside.
So, I would be happy to get some hints about observations spots in or around Singapore.
And to get also some general ideas about what can be seen from here.

REgards

[Gary]

Bienvenue à Singapour!

Compared to the French countryside, you will be shocked how light polluted the skies are here. You can try areas near to the sea like Changi Beach, East Coast Park, Labrador Park, ...etc, but the sky condition may not improve very significantly by travelling to such places. The darker areas of course do have lesser local light pollution.

But there will be occasional clear nights when the seeing is really good and moon/planets will look amazing high up in the sky in your C11! You will also get to see constellations and celestial objects nearer to the south which you may not get to see in France.

Weather wise, we are now in the inter-monsoon period followed by north east monsoon. So not the best period for stargazing but there may be occasional clear nights during this period so keep looking up!

Hope you enjoy your stay here and do share with us your stories of observing back in your home town.

[starfinder]

Hi marc_d,

Welcome to 'sunny' Singapore. If you're already here, rest assured that what's your seeing now, or rather not seeing, is unusally bad weather; I've just posted about it here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11456

The following is a brief reference to various viewing sites in Singapore. Please search around this forum for further reports on these places. I might make another post on viewing sites in neighbouring Johor State in Malaysia. For now, here is the info for Singapore:


Viewing sites in Singapore.
As you may know, it is hopelessly light polluted anywhere in Singapore, so we have to escape to Johor State in Malaysia for dark skies. The emphasis here is economic growth at nearly any cost, and so the more mega laser light shows there are that shine every night from our cash-generating casinos and wash out the natural treasures of the skies, the better. Nevertheless, the areas near the seaside have slightly better skies in regions over the sea. A very accurate and up-to-date online map resource may be found at URA's excellent map website: http://www.onemap.sg/index.html Note that Google Maps is sometimes out of date.


1. Grassy sea-side area at East Coast Park, near Carparks C4 and D1
(Updated 13 Feb 2013)
Park at either Carpark C4 or Carpark D1 at East Coast Park. Enter the carparks from East Coast Park Service Road. From Carpark D1 (park at the western/city end) it is about half the walking distance to the observing site as compared with Carpark C4. After parking at Carpark D1, you would have to walk about 100m towards the beach.

There is a suitable grassy area that is next to the beach that is "between" these two carpark regions and just sea-side of the drain/canal. There are good largely unobstructed views out to sea in the direction of the South, SW and SE from there; as well as views to the other regions (N, E and W) which are partially obstructed by trees.

Deep sky objects from this site are noticeably brighter and clearer than from the city centre.

Here is a map link to the area:
http://www.onemap.sg/?LW:Y&wO5d:IcIch_h ... ,IqbYR_b,b (Wait about 10 seconds for the zoomed-in map to fully load on a PC)

You may view a photograph of the grassy observing area here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10823&p=75629&hilit ... +c4#p75629

See this thread for more location info on the site:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8256


2. Labrador Park seaside promenade
This is a seaside promenade that faces out to the sea, with unobstructed views to the East, SE, South and on to the SW. However, the skies over the SW are heavy light polluted due to the lights from the oil refineries at Jurong Island.

Here is a map link to the promenade:
http://www.onemap.sg/?LW:Y&wO5d:JhaJJ_R ... ,JcIbc_f,b (Wait about 10 seconds for the zoomed-in map to fully load on a PC)
Labrador Park is off "Port Road", which is in turn off "Labrador Villa Road", which in turn may be entered from the southern end of Alexandra Road or from the western end of Telok Blangah Road.

Park at the carpark, I think it's Carpark 'B', then walk about 30m to the promenade. Note: do not park at the uphill carpark which is at Labrador Villa Road; that is a very different area. The promenade is quite a far drive in; do study the map carefully.

There are some lamps in the park, though the darker areas are on the left (eastern) side of the promenade. Here is a photo of the promenade which I took recently. Photo faces ESE, with South to the right.


For views to the North, walk to the middle section of the promenade where there are views to the North which are obstructed by trees only to around 20-30 degrees above the horizon. Elsewhere along the promenade there are plenty of trees blocking the North.

I was at Labrador Park about 3 months ago, and some deep sky objects like the globular clusters such as NGC 6441 (mag 7.1) in Scorpius were noticeably brighter and clearer at Labrador Park than from my home in central Singapore city. However, it is still an urban area, as is anywhere in Singapore.


3. Changi Beach Park, off Carpark 1
I attempted a Perseids watch last year from here. From the beach, there are unobstructed views to the North, NW and NE. It is quite dark there at night, and your company would likely be people de-stressing from city life by fishing from the beach.

Park at Carpark 1 (which is sometimes stated as "CP1" in the maps), which is off "Nicoll Drive". From the carpark, the beach is just 10-20m away. The left (western) areas are darker.

Here is a map link to the beach and carpark (Wait about 10 seconds for the zoomed-in map to fully load on a PC)
http://www.onemap.sg/?LW:Y&wO5d:hfqIh_a ... ,hqabh_a,b


4. Large grassy field off Old Holland Road
This is in central Singapore, in the Holland Road / Bukit Timah area. There is a very large grassy field about the size of 2-4 football fields, which is bounded by "Old Holland Road", "Holland Plain", and "Holland Link". You could enter the region from either turning off Holland Road (near where it meets Ulu Pandan Road), or via Blackmore Drive by turning off Bukit Timah Road.

Here is a map link to the area; the field is not shown but is merely displayed as a blank area. (Wait about 10 seconds for the zoomed-in map to fully load on a PC)
http://www.onemap.sg/?LW:Y&wO5d:JJhYf_a ... ,IhcJq_q,c

From the central regions of the field, there are unobstructed views above 10 degrees in every direction: N, S, E, W. Good for a meteor watch (for the brightest meteors only). Weather permitting of course!

Parking is difficult, since all along the roads there is no free or coupon parking (the roads there are marked with a Single White Line, so one may not legally park there). I think it's obvious to us astronomers that the authorities here tend to discourage any parking near large open fields, lest people watch the stars or camp overnight or do what else; they are control freaks! However, I think there is a small off-road area (as of mid-2012) off the western end of "Holland Plain" where one may park.

Here is a link to a Google Maps Street View of the field:
http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?daddr=1. ... 56,,0,4.06

[marc_d]

Hi,

Thanks for both of you for the detailed answers. So the observation conditions seem challenging.

What about hire a car and drive to Malaysia ? Do you know if they are nicer spots there. I mean, if I have to move a C11 with a big mounting device. It could be done on the WE with one night away from home.

So are there some obvious place near singapore reachable by car ?

Regards

[orly_andico]

There are a couple places in Malaysia - Sedili and Mersing - which are the usual places to observe.

Sedili is about 80km and Mersing about 160km away.

I prefer Sedili as the drive is much shorter. Either way you will waste most of your time clearing immigration at Woodlands.

I did not find Mersing to be substantially darker than Sedili, given how much farther away it is. So all things being equal, I'd go for Sedili.

Where do you live? there is at least 1 Whatsapp group where folks organize drives up..