Airconvent (Richard) has also posted a (briefer) report on the main Mersing expedition thread:
viewtopic.php?p=80958#p80958
First, a very big thank you to Airconvent for driving up and bringing me along! I had not planned to go there that weekend as I had reserved it for a possible trip up north to view Comet Panstarrs. So it was a nice bonus.
Equipment and accessories
I brought two telescopes. First, my 12 year old Meade LX-90 8" goto SCT; its first time there was around 2001 (soon after it was 'born'), so it was a case of the return of an old-timer (or, 'old bird'). Second, a Skywatcher 120mm ED which I had acquired from Kochu earlier this year, mounted on a Vixen Porta mount coupled to a Manfrotto heavy duty 475B tripod (tripod acquired a few yrs back from Weixing). Plus a Canon 15x50 IS bino. We set-up the scopes in the grassy area between the front of the chalet's wooden fence and the edge of the beach. Star-charts used were The Sky & Telescope Pocket Star Atlas, the Bright Star Atlas 2000, and the excellent Sky Safari Plus app on an Android smartphone with a layer of ruby red-film plastered over the device.
Here they are:
Conditions were unusual as:
(1) it was very windy throughout the night, with a constant strong wind from the sea. However, there was no dew whatsoever and indeed mid-way I decided to remove the long home-made dew shield from my LX-90 as we realised that it was akin to a sail in the wind which caused the objects in the eyepiece to vibrate slightly. Perhaps we were too near to the beach front, and in our previous years there in the main field we were shielded by the shrubs lining the beach. The wind kept blowing and flapping my home-made light shroud around my face that it made me quite irritable at times: apologies to those around me!
(2) there were no mosquitoes and indeed I did not spray any repellent or light any mosquito coil. Airconvent did spray some insecticide on the ground right at the start of the session, but I think it was more the wind that did the trick for both the dew and the mosquitoes.
Equipment wise, the LX-90 once again worked flawlessly, a tribute to excellent robust American engineering and construction by Meade. Set-up was quick and it did not miss a single object throughout the night on go-to, even at mostly 143x. As Airconvent said, we observed over 30 galaxies, pairs and triplets, each one identified by catalog number. Plus lots of other DSOs. More on this later. Eyepieces were a Meade 24mm SWA, a Pentax 14mm XL, a Meade 6.7mm UWA, an Orion Ultrablock narrowband filter, and a DGM Optics OIII filter.
The 120mm ED set-up was a bit shaky until I realised quite late in the night that I had forgotten to place the rubber-pads under the tripod legs (these are the black table pads that can be bought from a hardware or provisions shop - get a small/mid-sized one about 3.5x3.5cm wide and 2 cm tall); the reduction in vibration was very significant. Eyepieces were an Explore Scientific 34mm 68 deg, another Meade 24mm SWA, and an Explore Scientific 14mm 100 deg (tack sharp), plus 2x and 3x apo barlows. A Rigel Quickfinder was used.
Sky Conditions:
It was also a bit unusual that night as there were low cumulus clouds which seemed to appear and then disappear, or fly in and out of our area throughout the night. Airconvent thought that they were forming and dissolving and reforming as atmospheric conditions changed.
Notwithstanding, we did view dozens of DSOs esp galaxies clearly and as well defined objects. However, my favourite Sagittarius tea-pot area was muted as that part of the sky was somewhat hazy; I've seen it as quite a high-contrast object at Telok Sari quite a number of times before. One unexpected sight was the Coal Sack adjourning Crux: I've seen it just a few times at Telok Sari, and the last time was at least 5 yrs ago when the light dome in the south from Mersing was less. The Coal Sack was apparent enough that I saw it with little effort upon Airconvent pointing it out to me.
It was clear enough from 7.30pm to 4.30am for us to be viewing objects almost non-stop, except for a two 30 min periods at around 2am and 3am. It then got very cloudy and even drizzled at 4:30am: thanks to Airconvent and Jing Yi for helping me with the scramble to cover and keep the equipment! Just before leaving at 6:15am, I managed to view the Cygnus region through the 15x50 IS bino for 5-10 mins and saw countless pin-point stars in a huge expansive star field. Once again, I repeat that the Canon 15x50 IS bino is an excellent astronomical instrument, with wide flat-fields, sharp optics, long eye-relief, and large apparent fields of view; actually it works best on a tripod with the IS turned off.
Overall, sky conditions wise, I rate the night a 6/10 compared to the best I've seen there before.
Regions viewed included: Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Auriga, Perseus, Canis Major, Puppis, Vela, Carina, Crux, Centaurus, Hydra, Corvus, Leo, Virgo, Coma B., Ursa Major, Bootes, Scorpius, Ophiuchus, Serpens, Sagittarius, Hercules, Aquila and Cygnus. We mostly missed out on most of the pre-dawn constellations due to the heavy cloud cover at that time.
Objects:
(A) Comet. Yes, we did view Comet C/2011 L4 (Panstarrs) in the eyepiece of my LX-90 just after sunset (T+6), but it was only for 3-4 mins, and then it sank into clouds and went behind the chalet rooftops by the time others arrived from dinner. However, the coma was a very small disc, it was muted and I did not detect a tail. It was my 3rd sighting of the comet, the first two were here in Singapore (T-1 and T+5), when I did see the tail.
(B) Meteors: I saw only 1! Lucky Airconvent, who saw about 7 of them. I think I was too preoccupied with the equipment that night or just was plain not-so-lucky. At least the one I saw was a relatively bright greenish one 20 deg long, in the SE, and which traced back to the head of Scorpius.
(C) Quasar: I made my first ever observation of a quasar, mag 12.9 3C273 in Virgo, at 143x in the LX-90. That was also of course the furthest object I've ever seen, at an astonishing 2.4 billion light years away. No, there was no typo there: in our amateur scope we managed to see an object so far away that when the photons started journeying to Earth, complex cells didn't even yet exist on Earth (I think). I confirmed the sighting with charts that I had prepared before hand for this particular object. It appeared only as a white pin-point and indistinguishable in appearance from a typical star. Just imagine, after travelling for such an immense amount of time, the photons fell softly into our retinas in that one moment.
(D) Galaxies: Airconvent and I saw plenty. The most I've seen in one night, about 40-50 of them each identified by catalog number. The ones I recall seeing included (all with the LX-90):
In Centaurus: Centaurus 'A' (NGC 5128) of course.
In Corvus: the Antennae Galaxies NGC 4038 and 4039. These were seen as two faint but distinct lobes overlapping each other. One of the few times I've seen them.
In Virgo: M104 (Sombrero), was long with a distinct dust lane and core. Jing Yi, this is the one you saw; the usual suspect Markarian's Chain of 8 galaxies which I observed individually as bright and distinct members, namely M84, NGC 4388, M86, NGC 4435 and 4438 The Eyes, NGC 4461, NGC 4473, and NGC 4477. Also in Virgo, M87 the Jet galaxy (but no jet seen of course in an 8"), M90, M58, M59, M60, and NGC 4567/4568 the Siamese Twins.
In Coma Ber.: NGC 4565 (the Needle Galaxy, thanks to Kelvin for pointing this one out to us), which appeared somewhat similar to the Sombrero galaxy but longer and narrower, M64 (the Black Eye Galaxy), the M85 and NGC 4394 pair, M100, M98, M99, M88, M91, and NGC 4459.
In Leo: M65, M66 and NGC 3628 (the Leo Triplett) each of which were bright and distinct, with the NGC galaxy the larger and fainter of the lot; and M95, M96, and M105/NGC 3384.
In Ursa Major / Canes Ven.: M51 and NGC 5195 (the Whirlpool Galaxies, which were each bright with spiral structure surrounding the core, but I didn't really make out the connecting arm (Jing Yi, I think you also saw this), M63 the Sunflower Galaxy, M108, M109, M106 and M101.
(E) Planetary Nebulae: Unfortunately I only viewed a few of them. These included: NGC 3918 (Blue Planetary) in Centaurus, which didn't look all that blue to me; the very intriguing NGC 2438 (mag 11.5) embedded within the rich open cluster M46 in Puppis, seen as a light floating smoky ring: I hereby dub NGC 2438 as The Smoke Ring Nebula, and M97 (the Owl Nebula) in Ursa Major which was faint.
(F) Emission / reflection nebulae: the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) in the far south in Dorado: this was one of the first or if not the first times I've tried to see it at Telok Sari: it was low in the south, and was muted object but well featured with body and spider's legs (which Airconvent highlighted to me).
M42 the Great Orion Nebula in both scopes, Airconvent said that he saw the E and F stars in the Trapezium through the LX-90, whereas I think I saw only one of them, anyway the nebula was excellent as usual; we tried but could not make out the Horsehead dark nebula nearby (B33); Eta Carinae (NGC 3372) which was excellent as well with light and dark lanes; Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359) in Canis Major (which Kelvin pointed out to us), it was faint and featureless (time to book-in too); M17 the Swan Nebula in Sagittarius, a favourite of mine;
(G) Globular Clusters: the peerless Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) was excellent as usual at 83x, 143x, and 300x in the LX-90; M13 in Hercules was impressive too with very good contrast between the core and the outliers, with a ground sugary look; M92 in Her., M4 in Scorpius (unimpressive), and M62 in Oph.
Finally, whilst surfing amongst the myriad tiny pin-point tack-sharp stars with the 120mm ED and the ES 100-deg 14mm eyepiece at 4:15am, I stumbled upon what I thought was an as yet undiscovered comet! I let my wild dreams run for a while and kept hopes up, and asked those around me to bear witness to the event. Alas of course, a careful check with my Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas and the Sky Safari Plus app on my Android device later on showed that it was none other than a small faint globular, NGC 6287 in Oph. Now we know why Charles drew up his M catalog.
(H) Open clusters: M45 the Pleaides through the 120mm ED was a sharp bright cluster and I could feel and sense the glowing nebulosity around the main stars; M35 in Gemini was excellent; M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga, which I recall once seeing at Telok Sari through my 25x100 giant 45-deg bino as merely more condensed members of one never-ending super open cluster in Auriga; the superb pairing of M46 and M47 in Puppis in one field of view in the 120mm ED, a favourite of mine; NGC 3532 in Carina, also a favourite of mine, and M11 (the Wild Duck Cluster) in Scutum.
(I) Supernova remnant: M1 the Crab Nebula, was a fuzzy patch.
(J) Dark Nebula: As stated above, we saw the Coal Sack; however, tried but did not see the Horsehead nebula.
So there! A long-list (E&OE) of various objects all in one night. I slept in the car for about 30-40 mins at around 3.00am and I think Airconvent then ran up more M numbers with the LX-90. All-in-all it was a very productive night; a classic visual astronomy session.
Oh yes, we did conduct an impromptu side-walk for those other guests at the chalet who walked by us throughout the night; mainly Malaysian Malays I think. They were well pleased to look through the scope at some of the brighter objects and we also pointed out the constellations to them.
Thanks once again to Airconvent for the ride up there and back home, and it was nice seeing the others as part of Remus' group too!
Must try for Mersing next time...
