Mersing trip - September 2016: The Visual Bonanza Trip

Alright, this is for sharing of your observation experience. Or, if you are arranging gatherings, star-gazing expeditions or just want some company to go observing together, you can shout it out here.
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antares2063
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Mersing trip - September 2016: The Visual Bonanza Trip

Post by antares2063 »

Having signed up for the trip early august, I waited eagerly for this weekend to come. Luckily there seems to be no haze this year from Indonesia.
This trip had the bulk of the participants coming from SP Astro Club. A moderately large group this time (I think total number of participants was around 35). Here is a brief breakdown of the gears this trip ,please forgive me if I missed out any:

The Astrophotographers / Imagers

- Astrophysics Starfire 130EDT on Paramount PMX
- Pentax 75 SDHF Takahashi EM-11
- Canon DSLR on SWAT-200
- Canon DSLR on Skywatcher Star-Adventurer

The Observers / Visuals

- Celestron 8 SCT on Orion Altas EQ mount
- Celestron 8 SCT on Nexstar mount
- Celestron 6 Newtonian on EQ mount
- Takahashi FS 102 on Vixen GP mount
- Borg 67FL on Half Hitch Hitch-hiker Alt-az
- Takahashi FS60 (blue ed.) on Half Hitch FTQ Alt-az
- Sumerian 12 Alkaid Dobsonian

Upon reaching Srikandi chalet on Friday late afternoon we were greeted by an unexpected sight. Gray clouds as thick as the ones shown in Independence Day (1996 film) were rolling in from the west. Suprisingly, the clouds continued on their way without raining and we heaved a collective sigh of relief.
Here are some of the interesting targets we caught over the 2 nights in no particular order.

NGC 6453 , GC , Scorpius. A globular cluster located in the outer rim of the famous M7 open cluster aka Ptolemy’s cluster. We managed to use it as sort of a sky condition gauge as it is a pretty dim globular. Viewing it as one of the first few targets on the first night easily gave us hope that the sky conditions good.

NGC 6369, PN, Ophiuchus. Also known as the “Little Ghost”. Had to increase magnification using a 10mm eyepiece to view it easily. Appearance-wise it resembles the Famous Ring Nebula M57 in Lyra but much smaller and definitely dimmer.

NGC 6334, Emission Nebula, Scorpius. Aka the “Cat’s Paw”. Having seen the Prawn nebula earlier in the June trip, I was confident that this favourite imaging target can be pulled into view by the dobsonian. My first time trying to attempt viewing this and lo and behold, 3 faint fuzzy patches covering a large part of the sky came into view. As this nebula is quite large, a low power eyepiece and UHC filter is recommended.

NGC 7789, OC, Cassiopeia. Aka “Caroline’s Rose or the Rose cluster”. This cluster was given the name by the famous English observer duo William and Caroline Herschel. Very aptly named as the loops of stars and swirling dark lanes within the cluster makes it resemble a rose in bloom. No imagination needed, most of the trip participants who caught this sight agreed that it really does look like a rose from top view.

M17, Emission Nebula, Sagittarius. Aka “Swan nebula”. A favorite target and crowd pleaser. Caught this on the second night as I was too preoccupied on the first night. UHC filter recommended. Viewing this at medium power was unforgettable. The curving section behind/below the buttock of the swan was visible. Alvin gave it the analogy that the swan was passing gas, and it’s a very accurate description of what we saw ;)

NGC 6888, Emission Nebula, Cygnus. Aka “Cresent nebula”. UHC filter also recommended to spot this faint wispy structure. To me , it looks like the Euro dollar symbol minus one line. Also when looking for this object, its very esay to get confused in the nebulosity of gammi Cygni/Sadr. Still the area is very rewarding for visual observing.

NGC 55 , Galaxy, Phoenix. Caught this object on the second night. In the eyepiece it looks very elongated and the striking feature of it is that one half section of it is brighter than the other half.

NGC 247, Galaxy, Cetus. Another galaxy with an interesting appearance. There is a moderately bright star right superimposed in to the left side of the galaxy. To me it makes the galaxy appear as a comet, with the superimposed bright star “pretending” to be the comet nucleus.

Neptune. Printed out a star chart especially for this challenging planet. Even at 320x magnification with a 5mm Eyepiece, it appears nothing more than a small bluish disk. Those who viewed it on the first night reported the colour as either a pale blue or as a slightly deeper blue. Whichever shade of blue it is, I find viewing the blue planet to be very soothing. Coincidentally, Neptune is at opposition with Earth this weekend. Starhop from delta Aquarii to locate this far flung member of our solar system.

NGC 281, Emission Nebula, Cassiopeia. Aka “Pacman nebula”. UHC filter required to see this nebula easily. I seem to see a dark void that looks like a quadrant , so that I guess it’s the open mouth of the pac man.

NGC 1535, PN, Eridanus. Aka “Cleopatra’s Eye” Finally after trying and failing to observe this object so many times during past mersing trips, I finally caught it on the second night. Spotted it using a 10mm eyepiece. The ovalish shape is very obvious and I think there are some spikes that protrude from it giving it the appearance of eyelashes. Will relook this nebula in future as I have now finally seen it and know how it looks like in the eyepiece view.

NGC 2169, OC, Orion. Aka “The 37 Cluster” One of the most intriguing clusters to showcase to first timers. 2 groups of stars adjacent to each other one forming a number “3” with more zigzag and one group forming a “7” which is abit more like a question mark. Had much fun showing this to the SP members on second night.

NGC 7317-7320, Galaxy cluster, Pegasus. Aka “Stephan’s Quintet”. This extremely challenging target was shown to me by Gavin using his dob few years back in Mersing. I remember it as being a small grouping of 3 indistinct whiffs of smoke. First night Alvin and I got “lost” searching for it as it not well mapped out in my starcharts. We started from NGC 7331 (a bright galaxy in the Deer Lick Group) but kept going in circles without any success. Luckily, Remus has a planetarium software in his Imaging laptop that showed that region in high detail. Second night I finally managed to locate the “slanted trapezium” and called Alvin, Koko, Yihan, Gary, Remus, Clinton, Anh to all come take a look. At magnitude 13-14, this is really pushing the limit of what the dob can pull in, but there is definitely something ghostly there within the trapezium. I think we spent close to an hour viewing and comparing viewing experiences for almost an hour on this extremely faint target.

Anyway here’s the rest of what we saw jotted down in my mini notebook:
M22, M7, M6, NGC 6231, M4, NGC 6144, M27 Dumbbell and M71, NGC 7000 (north American nebula, the Gulf of mexico portion is easy to see), Veil nebula both halves (the jagged comb/smile and the wispy witch’s broom, NGC 7293 (Helix), M11 wild duck, NGC 253 Sculptor galaxy with the companion globular cluster NGC 288), Perseus Double cluster, NGC 7662 (Blue snowball nebula, very bright and very cute), M1 Crab nebula, M55, M80, M74, M33, M31+M32+M110/Andromeda galaxy and companions, M16 Eagle, M41, M78, M79, Rosette nebula was the last object I rushed to view before the sun rose on Sunday morning.

Closing notes: Thanks once again to Remus for being the organizer. This trip was definitely a success in terms of sky quality with almost 1 and a half whole nights of good sky. Many sporadic meteors were spotted and I think at least 3-4 fireballs. The oohing and ahhing of a spotted meteor is always constrasting with those who missed it because they are looking elsewhere. Also thanks to Alvin for helping me to do star testing collimation tweaking using bright stars on both nights. I didnt take any photos of the night sky but i will share my sunrise shots another day.


Regards
(zombiefied) Junwei
Last edited by antares2063 on Mon Mar 19, 2018 6:17 pm, edited 3 times in total.
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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antares2063
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Re: Mersing trip - September 2016: The Visual Bonanza Trip

Post by antares2063 »

1) Arrival and setting up on Friday
Image

2) Sunrise on saturday morning
Image

3) Solar observing on saturday through Koko's Pentax SDHF 75 with Zeiss! Solar Filter
Image

4) My observing list of stuff to try (after 2 nights of dew)
Image

5) Sunrise on sunday
Image
Last edited by antares2063 on Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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Re: Mersing trip - September 2016: The Visual Bonanza Trip

Post by Airconvent »

Cool, Junwei! Looks like you have a really awesome night sky during the trip. With a 12" Dob for catching photons too! :)
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Re: Mersing trip - September 2016: The Visual Bonanza Trip

Post by geyes30 »

Reports like these give people like me something to look forward to when my kids are old enough for me to travel!!!
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antares2063
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Re: Mersing trip - September 2016: The Visual Bonanza Trip

Post by antares2063 »

richard: Lucky this time round. the earlier 2016 trips I went (May and June) had so so weather and haze from local mersing fires.

Cyrus: yeah! hope you can go soon in future :)

regards
Junwei
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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