Sengkang Fernvale Obs Sessions

[Airconvent]

Adding back your toys, Samuel? Missed your old Televue Ranger ?

[harlequin2902]

Televue Pronto.

Yes, I do miss it! The short tube 80 is nothing compared to it..

Anyway, it's still in Mr Chia's good hands

The skies are very clear tonight! More on that later.

[Airconvent]

Oops. Then the Ranger is Wira's then? Strange that these items that were so hot in the discussions previously, Pronto, Ranger, Takahashi 101 has all but disappeared. The trend now is on DIY super larger aperture Dobs. Not that i am complaining because large dobs mean nicer views but I do miss the "smal talk". I remember you with your first 60mm Tasco refractor slung like a swordsman sword at the back...haha

[harlequin2902]

Hi Richard,

Wira had a Televue Pronto too (green). Never saw a Ranger during my time here though.

Saturday, 2 May 2015

The skies cleared briefly at about 9pm, giving me an excellent window of opportunity to test my new Lumicon UHC filter with the Nexstar 8 on NGC 3372, the Eta Carinae Nebula. I have never observed this object before and was greeted with a beautiful view (~ 50x magnification) with its rich star field. However, I couldn't really observe any nebulosity at first, perhaps because Carina sits rather low from where we are and is caught in the skyglow. But when I attached the filter and looked through the eyepiece again, the background was darkened considerably and the nebulosity became very apparent! I never had much success in the past with a narrowband filter on a 3" and 5" scope and so I was really delighted with the astounding visual difference with and without the filter on an 8". Maybe I should be getting an OIII too (big hint to Alvin GRS ) since I like hunting down faint fuzzies

To top it off, I was blessed with the view of a sporadic meteor streaking across the FOV before calling it a night.

Monday, 4 May 2015

GOTO-enabled Orion short tube 80 first light!



Done indoors again due to the cloudy skies..

This scope is nowhere near my old 70mm Televue Pronto, but I appreciate its simplicity and portability, as well as how perfectly it fits on my Nexstar 8's mount, gifting it with GOTO capability.

Star test result was very worrying at first as astigmatism was very apparent. Stars would not focus into a point but into crosses. On one side of the focus, out-of-focus image was round. On the other side, it was oval. Really odd. As the lens cell is not collimatable, I tried to make some adjustments by loosening the focuser assembly at the other end and try to nudge everything back into alignment. It didn't work. Suspecting that it could be caused by a faulty star diagonal, I compared the supplied Orion diagonal side by side with the Celestron one that came with the Nexstar 8. I noticed that I was not getting the same view from both and the Orion one appeared slightly misaligned. I removed the mirror assembly from the Orion diagonal and noted straightaway that the mirror was not flat against the base but slightly raised. Carefully pressing it down into place, I popped it back into the short tube 80 and did the star test again. This time, it passed.

I then directed the scope towards familiar favourites NGC 4755 Jewel Box in Crux and NGC 5139 Omega Centauri in Centaurus. Aperture wins, so though the views through this little scope were nothing like what I got through the Nexstar 8, I enjoyed its wide and sweeping views of the sky.

I'm still waiting for the chance to bring both scopes out to the Sengkang Riverside Park on the next moonless and cloudless evening!

[Airconvent]

haha Samuel. You DO make me nostalgic. Looking at the same objects we all used to look at by default but have since moved on.
The only thing you have not done yet is stack barlows! I am so tempted to go out and try my Nexstar 6 but these days, too tired after work to do much except laze infront of the PC

[harlequin2902]

Monday, 11 May 2015

What a marvellous start to the week! Clear skies over at Sengkang Fernvale with splendid views of the southern skies!

Seeing that the sky looked really black today as compared to other sessions, I wasted no time in hunting for 2 Planetary Nebulae in the vicinity of Crux.

My first target was NGC 5189 in Musca. A.k.a the Spiral Planetary Nebula. Starting off with the Vixen 25mm SLV, I was quite sure that the Nexstar 8 had nailed it given the earlier tests on NGC 4755 Jewel Box, NGC 3532 Wishing Well, NGC 3766 Pearl Cluster, NGC 3372 Eta Carinae Nebula and NGC 5139 Omega Centauri. But I couldn't really see anything extraordinary through the eyepiece. Just stars. I tried increasing the magnification with the Vixen 15mm SLV and I noticed something faint near the center of my FOV using averted vision. I popped in the Lumicon UHC and ... there it was! It was still faint and you need to use averted vision to appreciate its irregular, longish structure. I increased the magnification further and observed it with the 9mm Nagler. I had no idea what this PN looked like, so to confirm that I was indeed observing what I was hunting for, I googled it and marvelled at the beauty of this fairly large and faint PN that I was observing with my own eyes through the scope!

My next target was NGC 5315 in Circinus. This PN is actually quite easy but you need to bump up the magnification. It is just next to a bright star in the middle of the FOV which the Nexstar 8 pointed to, and looked just like a star which couldn't be focused into a point. I pushed up the magnification to 315x with the Vixen 4mm NLV, with the UHC filter on and could detect its roundish shape. Its fairly bright so you can observe this with direct vision.

The skies are still clear, so I'm going back to observing these two objects, especially NGC 5189 and its interesting shape.

[Great Red Spot]

Samuel, I enjoy reading your ob session reports. Keep them coming!

[harlequin2902]

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

It's about 1.30am now as I'm writing this and Scorpius has got into a more observable position through my living room window.

I had to adjust my scope to manage the tighter viewing angle and make do with a one star alignment on Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, I can't see all the way up to Antares (means no M4 from my current position)

Tested the GOTO on M6 and M7, which ended up slightly off to the bottom but I went ahead with it, for my hunt for yet another Planetary Nebula, NGC 6302 a.k.a the Bug Nebula somewhere near the tail area in Scorpius.

This PN was quite easy to locate even at 50x without the UHC filter. An obvious faint fuzzy spot in the FOV amidst some faint stars in its neighbourhood. So even though the GOTO was slightly off, I managed to move it into the center of the FOV quite easily. Pushing up the magnification to 140x on the 9mm Nagler with the UHC filter, I could make out its bright core, and with averted vision, I could make out part of its fainter ends. If I didn't know what I was looking for, I may have mistook this for a bright galaxy.

The session ended with two Globular Clusters NGC 6388 in Scorpius and NGC 6541 in Corona Australis which were delightfully within my tight viewing angle. After viewing so many faint fuzzies this evening, these two relatively small GC were very easy targets!

Let's hope the weather in the evening can be maintained like this for the rest of the week.

This is one of the most rewarding sessions I've had so far since I re-equipped myself with a telescope I've never observed so many PNs before during my previous active cycle here! And this was also my first time observing NGC 4755 Jewel Box comfortably at high magnification of 315x with the 4mm NLV. It filled the small 45 deg FOV nicely with its glittering jewels with a bit of spare space around the sides(And all from within the comfort of my home too! Hope this doesn't make me lazy though )

[antares2063]

Will definitely try to see 5189 this weekend , thanks for the heads up!

Regards,
Junwei

[harlequin2902]

Friday, 15 May 2015

The sky was clear yet again over Sengkang Fernvale.

As I started rather late, I missed out on the usual targets in the Crux and Carina regions.

My first target was NGC 5643, a face-on spiral galaxy in Lupus. I wasn't sure if I was looking at it but I noted something unusual around 3 faint stars visible through the eyepiece. I steadily increased the magnification from 50x to 84x to 140x and finally to 315x. There was indeed something faint and fuzzy around those 3 stars but I still can't be sure if it's NGC 5643.

Anyway, I was thankful for the opportunity to observe two new objects:

NGC 6397 in Ara - This is a large and bright Globular Cluster where some of its brightest stars could be resolved by the Nexstar 8 even at low to medium magnification of 50x - 80x.

NGC 6231 in Scorpius - This is a bright and beautiful Open Cluster which is also known as the Northern Jewel Box. At first glance, I thought it looked pretty much like M6 the Butterfly Cluster. There's supposed to be some nebulosity around this cluster which I thought I managed to detect partially with an OIII filter at low magnification of 40x. But then again it could have been wishful thinking.

I re-visited NGC 6388, a small but bright Globular Cluster in Scorpius and this time observed it at high magnification of 315x with my 4mm NLV. Even at this magnification, the view was pleasing as it still appeared quite bright. Next, I went back to NGC 6541, a larger Globular Cluster in Corona Australis. It is not as bright as NGC 6388, but it was large and observed at 315x magnification again, I found that the Nexstar 8 could resolve some of its brighter stars.

That's it for my observing in the early hours of Friday. I hope the skies are clear later this evening when I setup for the youth at my church.

Wishing the group that is travelling up to Mersing today clear skies as well