The Hunt for Comet ISON @ ECP @1/11/2013

[bornfree]

The night started with me meeting up with Antares and wife @ bedok. then we took a cab down to ECP hawker centre for dinner. which just so happen to be under renovation.. we later moved to McD to have dinner instead then saw Desmond then Faizal. we had quite a good chat and lots of laughters while waiting for 10pm, the time activities at the lagoon shd have ended and lights were turn off.

@10pm, we proceeded to the lagoon and set up our scopes. at first the skies doesnt seem promising as clouds covered the sky. then slowly the clouds start to disperse to show Pleiades @ Taurus . around 11pm, Orion starts to rise and we looked at the Orion nebula. Remus later joined in during his jog. then Antares said there is a 37-Cluster (ngc 2169) at the elbow of Orion. We then swept the area around the elbow to find it. i managed to locate it using the newt but not the lomo mak. it is a really small but cute cluster. and the stars seems to form the number 37. hence the name. then i wondered, is there a 69-cluster. a cluster forming the number 69. we also had a good view of jupiter just rising above the horizon. shortly, Remus started to jog back. the skies were clear until almost 2am, then clouds and lightning came creeping by in the distance, enveloping almost the whole sky.

we then took a break at nearby McD til nearly 3am. next we moved to the empty spot near jumbo seafood. the southern skies were clear and we found the winter Alberio and another similar double star. among other star clusters. the southern pleiades also eluded us. and we learnt quite abit from Antares.

when Mars has risen quite high, we started the main objective. hunting Ison. unfortunately, it too has eluded us, probably because Sg is still just too bright. @530am, we call it a day and packed and went home.

[superiorstream]

Well,cant get it even with a 6-ins refractor--trying my luck only.My past expperience--only can see it when magnitude is 5 or smaller.Our sky glow and light pollution made searching for comets extremely difficult.Good try anyway.

[antares2063]

yeah passing clouds and high clouds sort of killed our chances for Ison, Mars was playing hide and seek with us. Earlier on from 11pm to past midnight it was better

Superiorstream : thanks! hope someone can report seeing it in sg soon..aha

[Johndepro]

No invite me

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[Gary]

Nice observation report bornfree! Glad you guys managed to spend some enjoyable time under the stars. How's the performance of the newt (6 inch I assume?) compared to the LOMO when observing Jupiter at roughly the same magnification?

[bornfree]

@John, sorry, not alot of ppl was told of the event as well. due to the erratic weather, that's why it was not informed to alot of ppl. after the monsoon season, we will try to have more obs session.

@Gary, no fight. LOMO's optics were awesome!! junwei is still regretting letting go of the OTA.. after yesterday's encounter with the LOMO Mak Astele 133.5 i can say, i am holding off my Mak purchase until much later when i can star hop better. plus now have an itch to look thru a portaball. any portaballers coming out with their baby for a little starlight waltz?

[Johndepro]

Haha...no problem

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[antares2063]

Not exactly a public event...just a last min rush planned ob session for me and jusing and desmond-T..we stay in east side..not exactly mobile as we dont have car...hence it wasnt posted here.

Anyway like what birnfree mentioned...once monsoon season over...will ob more..im sure u dont wish to travel far distance with a mount and scope to discover sky has turned crappy upon reaching ecp...we executed evacuation drill of about 700m to reach shelter when there was alot of lightning.

Also at 6am...ecp has very very few taxis...was worried we cant get home for a while

As for the Lomo Maksutov, im ever grateful to cloud_cover for the temp loan ..its like an old friend before i went on a hiatus from astro..heh. optics wise its very excellent for planets and splitting binaries..managed to see two diff pairs of colured stars..one in Canis major. Dso wise the f.o.v abit narrow but can still fit except for wide clusters like M45

[Dark Neptune]

ISON is now about magnitude 8 and slowly on its way to reach magnitude 7.

M4 is almost mag 6, and even in my 130mm SLT it's hard to find it. So I guess we all should try waiting middle of this month for less disappointments?

And also, of all times, the weather come and screw things up. Haiz.

[cloud_cover]

M4 is an extended object, meaning that it'sof some soread-out size, as opposed to a single star wwhich is a point object. As such the Magnitude needs to be divided over its area to give it's true surface brightness. Its not Mag 6
You should compare to a star, of which Mag 6 can be achieved in my 50mm bino on any decent night The problem is that ISON is near the sun hence low on the horizon. Places like ECP/Changi would be better to view.
I'm glad you're having fun with the LOMO. Its my best travel scope, having an excellent combination of aperture, quality and portability.