East Coast Park Obs session - 21/6/2014

[antares2063]

Thanks to those who came and joined in...seldom see so many scopes at once at the coconut patch , sky was clear from 7pm till around 10pm ,.... sharing some pics here:

(Unfortunately I forgot to check my lens when leaving for dinner , I ended up with a 28mm MF lens..hence some of the pics taken in the dark are out of focus)


















Mariner also did a 5 mm eyepiece shootout on Saturn with his C9.25 SCT btw 4 diff 5mm oculars, shall wait for him to post his result here. ;)

[Sivakis]

Thanks antares!

It was great to put faces to names and yeah, nice night and lots of scopes that grew as the night wore on! Too bad the clouds came in after 10+.

Finally had a chance to get first-light from my AT66ED and the CG4 mount - man, lots to learn on how to use an EQ mount...... also great to see Saturn through Malcolm's (sp?) and Remus's scopes - amazing stuff!

[Mariner]

Think I got more than what I bargained for with my little shootout. The 3 main EPs featured that night:

1) University Optics 5mm HD
2) Pentax XO 5.1mm SMC
3) Televue Nagler 4.8mm Type 1

Target: Saturn

Scope: C9.25 (F/l 2350mm)

There were some mixed reactions. The first round saw a clear winner in the Pentax XO, giving a higher output and contrast compared to the others. A second round saw some actually prefer the view of the nagler but the seeing was quite bad then with thin clouds marring the view. A quick comparison with a Takahashi LE 5mm and the XO edges it out just with that little bit. A TMB 6mm Planetary got thrown into the fray as well and the view was also quite similar to the XO (with a larger AFOV as well) but then again, the clouds did ruin the seeing.

Of the initial 3, the XO was a clear winner in my book for the contrasty views. The Encke division was clearly visible along with the cloud belt on Saturn. The Tak and TMB don't lose out much and are good alternatives since the XO is no longer in production and quite hard to get a hold of.

Great Star Party organised by antares2063 and great support from fellow Singastro members. Hope for better skies for the next round.

[Gary]

@Mariner - Thanks for sharing your eyepiece comparison report. Seeing Encke division through a C9.25 must be awesome!

[antares2063]

Haha I hesitate to call it a star party, just an observing session. The last time, (1 year ago, also in June), only me and Peter Loo and 1 guy were there...

but it was pretty cool to see so many scopes deployed at once..and meeting of new pple catching up with kakis and astro-talk. (plus some world cup talk as well)

regards,
junwei

[Airconvent]

Wow..saw a lot of familiar faces! Bring back memories when all singastro outings had reps from SP, NP, NUS, NTU, etc...haha Those were darker skies too.
Now all we see is MBS! Good of you to organise one junwei!