Mersing trip report (20-22 March 2015)

[starfinder]

I joined the March 2015 trip to Telok Sari (Mersing, Johor) organised by Remus. This is a brief trip report of my observing experience there.

I brought my Obsession 12.5" f/5 Dob (with a superb JMI mirror), direct transport courtesy of Jeremy, and spent two nights observing there (the nights of Fri 20th March and Sat 21st March 2015). New Moon was on Fri 20th itself. Also at Mersing were some of the usual suspects (veterans), including Remus, Jun Wei, Clifford, Jeremy, Yi Han, Ivan, KK, Alvin, Thomas, Geralddyn, Eric, and others including several students from NUS-Yale. Among the equipment users, us visuals were as usual out-numbered by the APers by around [edit] 2 to 1.

As some of you may recall, on Friday during the daytime, it was almost totally overcast in Singapore with very hazy conditions all round (even down to the horizon). So the prospects didn't seem promising, to say the least. When we arrived in Mersing, however, I was pleased to see that the skies were generally clear with a thin layer of high level clouds. The sky colour overall was light whitish-blue.

On Friday night, the skies were partly cloudy throughout the night, with an ongoing hide and seek being played out with the hapless observers down below gazing up. The transparency was poor, such that even in clear areas of the sky, only the constellation stars and probably other stars down to about mag 4 could be seen. DSOs were therefore mostly quite muted in the eyepiece. When the central bulge of the Milky Way in Sagittarius rose to about 45+ degrees at 5am+, it was faintly seen; this was very unusual for Mersing, where I've seen it countless times before as a very distinct and well-defined object.

Saturday night was much better, transparency wise. We had a good run non-stop from 8pm till around 1am, with mostly cloud-free skies then. DSOs were still somewhat muted, but much better than on Friday night, and even galaxies could be seen in the eyepiece. Thereafter, it was almost totally cloudy till dawn (well, I was asleep from 1 to 3am). There was even a rain alarm at 3am (to which I was awoken out of bed to), and I scrambled to deploy the rain cover with Thomas' help, but only to un-deploy it again 30 mins later when no rain drops materialised.

Anyway, over the two nights, I managed to carefully view around 60+ DSOs (deep sky objects). Before the trip, I had drawn up a list of 50 top targets, within a larger laundry list of about 120 objects for March. My list of objects were added as a customised Observing List in the excellent Sky Safari Plus app, which I highly recommend for all amateur astronomers. It is one very good astro app!

I'm also glad that I managed to do some 'side-walking' to the staff and other Malay guests at the resort who popped by for about half an hour, showing them some representative objects such as Jupiter, M42, M35 OC, M37 OC, etc.

The Obsession dob with the Argo Navis navigation system and Servo Cat go-to and motor tracking worked flawlessly (except for 2 instances where I let some cords/cables get snagged in the way). Last year, I did not use the goto and tracking feature, but I decided this time to activate the go-to and tracking (for which I had to lug along a heavy battery), as it would enable me to spend more time with an object by changing eyepieces/powers and comparing the views with and without filters, all the while not having to bother about keeping the object in the field of view. An added advantage was me not having to spend energy pushing the dob and keeping it in place all the time; this was particularly helpful after a few tiring hours of observing. Furthermore, whilst the scope was 'going' on its way to one object, I could then plan for the next one in the clear patches of sky.

The DSOs viewed through the scope included the following:

M42 in Orion: superb and dependable as usual, the Old Faithful of astro objects.

Tarantula Nebula (ngc 2070) in Dorado: very low in the southern sky and seen poorly.

Spirograph planetary nebula (IC418) in Lepus: small and bright, but I did not manage to view any tinge of red as some have reported. My first time viewing it, as I recall. It had a bright central star surrounded by a dark ring which was in turn surrounded by an outer halo.

M78 reflection nebula in Orion: a fairly small and unremarkable object.

Rosette Nebula in Monoceros (ngc 2237): I used a 34mm 2" wide field eyepiece and an OIII filter and managed to clearly see a distinct large banana-shaped patch of nebulosity on one side of the open cluster (I think it was the northern side, the left side in the eyepiece).

M37 OC in Auriga: rich in stars.

M35 OC (open cluster) and its sidekick the ngc 2158 OC in Gemini. M35 is excellent; it's brighter but slightly sparser (fewer stars) than M37.

M41 OC in Canis Major: brighter still than M35 but fewer stars than it.

The Inter-galactic Wanderer (ngc 2419 globular) in Lynx: very faint and sparse. Anyway, as it's 300,000 light years from Earth, it's something of an accomplishment to view it.

M46 OC with its embedded planetary ngc 2438 in Puppis.

M47 OC in Puppis, which was nicely paired with M46. M47 is brighter but with fewer stars than M46, and conversely M46 is dimmer but with higher powers it shows a richer amount of stars.

Ngc 2516 OC in Carina

Eta Carinae: it was very muted this time.

ngc 3532 OC in Carina: one of my favourite OCs.

M65/M66/ngc3628 Trio in Leo galaxies

M104 Sombrero glx in Virgo.

The Antennae galaxies in Corvus (ngc 4038/4039)

Markarian's Chain of galaxies in Virgo (well, just a few of them)

The Siamese Twins galaxies in Virgo (ngc 4568)

The Needle Galaxy in Coma (ngc 4565: I had seen it as a much more impressive object with the same scope before at Mersing).

M51 + ngc 5194 Whirlpool Galaxy in CVn

M3 GC in CVn: certainly one of the better ones.

Omega Centauri: the king of globulars!

Centaurus A galaxy (ngc 5128): with the dark lane 'hamburger patty' seen between the two buns.

M83 Southern Pinwheel galaxy in Hydra.

M5 GC in Serpens: this is a superb globular with intricate star lines radiating out of the central core, appearing as spiralling chains. One of my favourite GCs.

M4 GC in Sco: this looks like a hybrid globular and OC, with a distinct elongated core (bar). Very interesting1

M10 GC in Oph.

M12 GC in Oph.

M22 GC in Sgr: another favourite.

M8 Lagoon Neb in Sgr

M17 Swan Neb in Sgr: a favourite emission nebular. Picturesque as usual.

M11 Wild Duck OC in Sgr.

M24 Sgr Star Cloud: not as fantastic as before, due to the muted sky conditions.

M57 Ring Neb in Lyra: bright and detailed. Another Old Faithful, of planetaries.

M13 GC in Her: the best, but only in the north!

M92 GC in Her.

M27 Dumbbell Neb in Vul: bright, large and dependable too.

Ngc 6752 GC in Pavo (low in the south)

M1 supernova remnant in Taurus: a faint rectangular patch (best with 10mm eyepiece at 160x).

Ngc 3201 GC in Vela: a faint but large and sparse globular, interesting object.

M50 OC in Monoceros.

M79 GC in Lepus: faint.

NGC 2392 Eskimo nebula in Gemini: it has a very bright central star surrounded by a dark circle which is in turn surrounded by a mottled halo.

The galaxies M95 + M96 + M105 + ngc 3371 in Leo: easily seen. Ngc 3373 galaxy was faintly detected next to ngc 3371.

Ngc 2683 edge-on galaxy in Lynx: bright and mottled, with a star seen off the centre that could easily be mistaken for a supernova (for one moment I thought that I had discovered one!).

Ngc 2903 galaxy in Leo: bright, large, slightly mottled core.

M53 GC in Coma.

M107 GC in Oph: faint.

M80 GC in Sco.

*********

There! E&O E.

I would add that for the upteenth time, I tried to view the Horsehead again but failed to detect it. Or rather, I failed to detect this nothingness surrounded by a slightly less nothing nothingness. This was despite using different eyepieces such as a 25mm Plossl, a 20mm Pentax XW and a 18mm Baader ortho, and borrowing Alvin's Lumicon h-beta filter. Plus employing various tricks of the trade, including using a light shroud, taking deep breathes, averted vision, careful chart comparisons, etc. It's a complete hype of an object! Visually anyway.

Other non-successful viewings this time included the Veil supernova remnant in Cygnus (where I had seen it before from the same spot as a very distinct intricate object with an OIII filter), and the Vela supernova remnant near epsilon Vela. I would put this down to the muted sky conditions at the time of viewing.

All in all though, the two nights of viewing were quite productive and enjoyable. And with great company too!

[antares2063]

Nice report Gavin, I think we can safely strike off Horsehead Nebula as a visual object , after trying in August and Sept 2014 trips as well...haha

Cue Frozen soundtrack "Let it goooo , let it goooooooo"

Regards,
Junwei

[rcj]

thanks for the engaging report, Gavin! Am glad I "dropped by" to catch sight of the Eskimo and the "lesser viewed" Leo galaxies! Very quiet and nice servo cat motors too! Memorable trip.

[Airconvent]

That's a very BUSY night Gavin and a wonderful report! A pity I did not manage to join in as I was working overseas during that period. Hopefully will be able to join in May but looks like the haze is coming back already.
It's March! You did not try for a Messier Marathon?

[rlow]

I would add that for the upteenth time, I tried to view the Horsehead again but failed to detect it. Or rather, I failed to detect this nothingness surrounded by a slightly less nothing nothingness. This was despite using different eyepieces such as a 25mm Plossl, a 20mm Pentax XW and a 18mm Baader ortho, and borrowing Alvin's Lumicon h-beta filter. Plus employing various tricks of the trade, including using a light shroud, taking deep breathes, averted vision, careful chart comparisons, etc. It's a complete hype of an object! Visually anyway.

Other non-successful viewings this time included the Veil supernova remnant in Cygnus (where I had seen it before from the same spot as a very distinct intricate object with an OIII filter), and the Vela supernova remnant near epsilon Vela. I would put this down to the muted sky conditions at the time of viewing.

Nice report, Gavin.

The Horsehead Nebula B33 has been notoriously elusive though I have seen it in a 10 inch scope with H-beta filter & even 11 inch scope with Ultra-block filter. So it should be within reach of your 12.5" dob on a clear transparent night. But some people who observed together with me had tried many times but were unable to detect it. Maintaining dark adaptation or even individual eye physiology may play a crucial part of whether you see it or not. But keep trying, anyway.

The Veil Nebula can be seen in a 80mm scope with Ultra-block or UHC filter under dark skies, so the sky transparency that night must be quite poor and inappropriate for observing very low contrast objects like the Horsehead Nebula and Veil Nebula.

[starfinder]

A belated thanks all for your comments!

Rich: as I had drawn up a list of 100+ priority objects (in both the northern and southern skies), I decided to focus on them instead of attempting a Messier marathon. Anyway, it would not have been possible then to view all of the Messier objects since some of them (e.g. M31 in And and M33 in Tri) would already have set at nightfall. Btw, we do miss you at Mersing...

Remus: yes, it was good as always to have my sifu pop over to view thru my scope. That was indeed quite fun!

Junwei, RLow: maybe, just maybe I'll give that undeserving Horsehead one more try in future. I mean, not like us visuals are obsessed with it! It's just playing hard to catch. Thanks RLow too for the tips on the Horsehead and Veil.

Btw, for the record, I did also observe Nova Sagittarii 2015 No. 2 on those nights. I could see it with unaided eyes (spectacles excepted) in the Teapot. I also viewed it thru handheld binoculars. It was then reported to be at its initial peak of ard mag 4.3. Looks like this is becoming one famous nova.