still there... partial lunar eclipse night can't even see moon...rlow wrote:Yes, you can join us, as long as your superstition is broken...can i come? just kidding....
Mersing Trip 23th Sep. 2006 Registration (Clouded out...)
Mersing Trip 23th Sep. 2006 Registration
Hey, if anyone still wants to go to Mersing, I'm willing to give up my spot. Just found out I will be entertaining clients till late on Friday and don't relish mixing a hangover with a long bus ride on Saturday. please post here if you are interested.
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coolgeek84
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 10:56 pm
Hi all!rlow wrote:Lastest update:
At the last Mersing trip, the foreigner passport-holders took more than 2-3 hours to clear the Malaysian customs; in the end, we only reach the ob site at 10pm! In view of that, on behalf of the rest, I would like to suggest to Arief, Jiahao and Arjun to share a taxi to clear through the Customs faster, then board the minivan after the Malaysian customs.
I managed to remember my password finally -_- Its not often that you see me posting in forums anyway :p
Anyways, Richard, you guys really took 2-3 hrs clearing customs? Because I for one, personally never experienced any delay longer then 1 hour. I can firmly say that as I have been to Malaysia countless times and at all sorts of timings.
Maybe it was one bad experience?(hopefully :p) Anyways to avoid trouble to others I am perfectly fine with departing early if required =)
Regards,
Arjun
Arjun
Comp Eng
NTU
Comp Eng
NTU
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jiahao1986
- Posts: 474
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:59 pm
- Location: Clementi
Here I made a brief observing plan for myself, from constellation to constellation, mostly deep sky objects. Most of these are objects I've successfully observed with my 3" f/12 refractor back in China, some are the ones I failed to locate, and some I dream of observing. The plan is roughly based on time sequence. Anyone having their own interesting targets please post it in the thread so that everybody can be well prepared for what to see.
If you find this version hard to read, just download the Word version, which contains all the graphs
Draco:
NGC6543: Cat's Eye nebula. Bright planetary nebula, whose central star is as bright as 11th mag. Perhaps you guys' large scopes can make out the cat's eye shape. It also has a faint outer shell, which is well within the capacity of your scopes, but maybe the altitude is not high enough in Singapore.
Besides, for Saturday night, comet 177P/Barnard is very close to this nebula. Now the comet is reported to be 9th mag., but coma diameter is close to 10'-low surface brightness, so maybe rather difficult.
Hercules:
M13, M92, NGC6210(bright but small planetary nebula, not much structure)
NGC6500 & NGC6501: This pair of 12th mag. galaxies are located very close to a 7th mag. double star, which is a yellow-blue pair with a seperation of 2.6". They together form a interesting double-double in high power. Worth trying.(I knew this from Cloudy Night forum, haven't tried it myself)
Ophiuchus & Serpens:
Pluto!!!: Anybody can find a detailed finder chart for that??? A must try if weather permits! Our retired planet...
Barnard's Star: Anybody wanna see it this time? Make a sketch and do a comparison 30 years later to see its 'fast' movement
M5, M9, M10, M12, M14, M19, M107, NGCxxxx(All globular clusters, see if we can find and resolve everyone of them, but maybe no time)
NGC6240: The Rumpled Starfish Galaxy, knew from Skyhound website. A chellenging 13.8th mag. object for 10" and larger scopes. However, probably no hope to see the starfish shape, may not be worth trying.
Scorpius:
Antares: One of my favorite double stars. Great difference in brightness makes it a challenging and interesting target. Do give it a try.
M4, M6, M7...: All beatiful clusters
NGC6032: Bug Nebula. A famous planetary nebula right? Too low for my lattitude in China. Hope we can see its bug shape through the large scopes.
Sagittarius:
M8, M16, M17, M20, M22, M24, M28...: Too many M beauties to look at...
NGC6522 & NGC6528: A 'double-globular'!!! These two 10th mag. globulars are only about 20' from each other, absolutely in the same field of view at low power. NGC6522 is bigger and much closer to us by 25,000 light years!!! Yet, so close in the eyepiece...amazing!
NGC6822: The Barnard's(or Barnard's???, can't remember) Galaxy. An irregular galaxy said to be very similar to SMC. The listing magnitude is 8.7, but very low surface brightness. Didn't make it with my 3" refractor in China. However, it is said to be a good target for binoculars??? Will try.
By the way, along have a look at M11.
Lyra:
M56, M57, double-double
Cygnus, Vulpecula, Delphinus & Sagitta:
North American, Pellican, The Veil, The Cresent(didn't make it with my 3") of course
M27, M29, M35, M71 Albiero of course
NGC7006: A tiny little 11th mag. globular in Delphinus. Very cute. Worth trying.
NGC6826: The Blinking Nebula-a bright planetary nebula. It did 'blink' in my 3". The nebulosity would disappear and reappear as you blink your eyes. Don't know how it looks like in larger scopes.
NGC7026: The Cheeseburger Nebula. Only appeared as a no-stellar object in my 3". Hope we can see the cheeseburger shape in larger apertures.
NGC6939 & NGC6946(NGC6939 belongs to Cepheus, while half of NGC6946 belongs to Cephus too, haha): One of my favorit pair!!! A open cluster and a galaxy in the same field of view!!! Just amazing even if I can see no detail in the low surface brightness galaxy. NGC6946 is known as a very active galaxy - over ten supernovae were observed in last century!!! I observed my firt supernova, 12.8th mag. SN 2004et in it in Oct. 2004 with my 3", good old memory~~~
Cepheus:
Mu Cephei: William Herschel’s Garnet Starj. Probably nothing redder than this star? Just red, very red. Also a variable star.
NGC6939 & NGC 6946: Same as above~~~
NGC7023: A reflection nebula. The reflection comes from the central 7th mag. star. Didn't make it with my 3". Someone said it looking like dew on the eyepiece. Will try again this time.
NGC7510: A tiny cute open cluster. It appears fairly like a rat in sketches made by large apertures. However, wasn't very impressive in my 3". Worth trying with larger scopes.
Cassiopeia:
M52 & NGC7635(The Bubble Nebula): Can we see the Bubble Nebula??? Worth trying.
NGC147 & NGC185: Two faint elliptical galaxies. These two are actually satellite galaxies of M31, believe it or not?! Barely seen and barely in the same field of view in my 3" Again an amazing sight to me. Don't miss this pair.
NGC281: An emission nebula. Barely seen in my 3" when it was high in the sky. Not sure whether if we can see it here. Maybe too low to be seen.
NGC7789: One of my favorite open clusters, like it better than the Wild Duck! This monster is huge, 25' diameter!!! Consisting of hundreds of faint stars of similar brigtness. In my 3" scope, I could 'fell' the existence of hundreds of faint stars in the nebulosity, amazing~~~
Pegasus:
M15: Containing one of tonight's big chellenge - Pease 1, a planetary nebula in the globular! It has been observed with scopes as small as around 10". The method is to use a O-III filter, 'blink' the view with it. The filter will dim the other stars, leaving the planetary nebula unchange. I can't find a finder chart. However, it will be more convincing if we do a blind search!
NGC7331 & Stephan's Quintet: NGC7331 is a bright and easy target. The thing is to see if we can see the spiral structure of it using large aperture. The Stephan's Quintet is quite close to NGC7331. Can we see all of these four colliding galaxies with the 10"???(NGC7320 is a foregroud galaxy, though the brightest). Another big challenge.
Now let's go back to the south to wait till Andromeda rises higher?
Capricornus:
Neptune: See if we can see Triton?
M30: The faintest M globular?
NGC7009: Saturn Nebula. It appear elongated in my 3" refractor and it resembles Saturn very much in my ETX observing in NTU. Hope to see more detail using larger scopes.
Aquarius:
Uranus: Try the four bright satellites.
M2: A nice bright globular. Hope to resolve it with my ETX.
NGC7293: FFFamous Helix Nebula. However, I couldn't see the center hole with my 3" in China, maybe because it was not high enough in my latitude. Look forward to seeing more here~~~
Sculptor:
NGC253 & NGC288: A galaxy and a globular in the same field of view of binoculars! The galaxy, NGC253, is a real beauty in my 3", though no details can be seen. There is sure to be a lot of detail in larger apertures.
NGC254: Probably the most 'Southern' galaxy I've seen in my latitude. Though not very impressive, I could barely see the core. The galaxy is adhered to a 7th mag star, which is a little interesting.
NGC300: Too southern for my latitude to see. However, it is said that it is easy to see the spiral arms of this galaxy? Anyway it looks quite like M33 in the photo. Worth trying.
Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy: Said to be a extremely difficult object. Visibiliy highly dependent on transparency. Well, let’s have a try anyway.
Cetus:
M77: I just love this. A tiny little galaxy right beside a 10th mag star. Just interesting in my 3”. Don’t know how it looks like in a larger scope~~~
NGC246: A relatively large planetary nebula. I couldn’t see the nebulosity with my 3”, only a few stars in it. A O-III filter is said to improve the visibility greatly, and it should look beautiful in large scopes.
Pisces:
M74: Rated the most difficult M objects. However, easily seen in my 3”. I wonder how they came to this conclusion. Again, hope to see the spiral arms in large scopes.
Comet 4P/Faye: This periodical comet is close to M74 on Saturday. Now it is at mag. 11.5, an easy target for all the scopes to present on Sunday. Hopefully we catch two comets that day!
Andromeda & Triangulum:
M31: For this observing session I want to try something more challenging on M31 – search for the globulars belonging to it!!! I think some of you should know G1 in M31. HST once took a famous photo of it, resolving it into single stars.
There are 9 globulars in M31 brighter than mag. 15. Maybe we just try the four brightest around 14th mag. – G1, G76, G280, G78. According to other observers’ reports, with telescopes larger than 8”, 13.7th mag. G1 can be seen as a non-stellar, globular-like object, while other three remain star-like. However, though G1 is the brightest, it might be the difficult to locate as it is far from the galaxy. The other three are easier to locate, but fainter, especially in the glow of the galaxy. So our first target would sure be G1. I will attach two finder charts in the following thread, and I have marked my potential method to locate G1. In the chart you can also see the other three globulars.
M33: For this, try if we can see emission nebula NGC604 in M33.
M76: Again in many catalogues people list it as a very difficult M object. I have spotted it in mediocre sky condition. The elongated shape is easily visible under dark sky. Larger aperture should reveal the small dumbbell shape easily.
NGC404: A challenging object because it is very close to 2nd mag. Beta Andromedae. Didn’t make it with my 3”.
NGC891: An ideal side-on galaxy. Barely visible in my 3”. Hope we can see the dark band using larger scopes.
NGC7662: A easy bright planetary nebula, known as Blue Snowball Nebula. Looked gray and featureless in my 3”. Hope can see the blue color and some structure in Mersing.
Too tired today, can't finish. Maybe continue tomorrow.
To be continued…(?)
If you find this version hard to read, just download the Word version, which contains all the graphs
Draco:
NGC6543: Cat's Eye nebula. Bright planetary nebula, whose central star is as bright as 11th mag. Perhaps you guys' large scopes can make out the cat's eye shape. It also has a faint outer shell, which is well within the capacity of your scopes, but maybe the altitude is not high enough in Singapore.
Besides, for Saturday night, comet 177P/Barnard is very close to this nebula. Now the comet is reported to be 9th mag., but coma diameter is close to 10'-low surface brightness, so maybe rather difficult.
Hercules:
M13, M92, NGC6210(bright but small planetary nebula, not much structure)
NGC6500 & NGC6501: This pair of 12th mag. galaxies are located very close to a 7th mag. double star, which is a yellow-blue pair with a seperation of 2.6". They together form a interesting double-double in high power. Worth trying.(I knew this from Cloudy Night forum, haven't tried it myself)
Ophiuchus & Serpens:
Pluto!!!: Anybody can find a detailed finder chart for that??? A must try if weather permits! Our retired planet...
Barnard's Star: Anybody wanna see it this time? Make a sketch and do a comparison 30 years later to see its 'fast' movement
M5, M9, M10, M12, M14, M19, M107, NGCxxxx(All globular clusters, see if we can find and resolve everyone of them, but maybe no time)
NGC6240: The Rumpled Starfish Galaxy, knew from Skyhound website. A chellenging 13.8th mag. object for 10" and larger scopes. However, probably no hope to see the starfish shape, may not be worth trying.
Scorpius:
Antares: One of my favorite double stars. Great difference in brightness makes it a challenging and interesting target. Do give it a try.
M4, M6, M7...: All beatiful clusters
NGC6032: Bug Nebula. A famous planetary nebula right? Too low for my lattitude in China. Hope we can see its bug shape through the large scopes.
Sagittarius:
M8, M16, M17, M20, M22, M24, M28...: Too many M beauties to look at...
NGC6522 & NGC6528: A 'double-globular'!!! These two 10th mag. globulars are only about 20' from each other, absolutely in the same field of view at low power. NGC6522 is bigger and much closer to us by 25,000 light years!!! Yet, so close in the eyepiece...amazing!
NGC6822: The Barnard's(or Barnard's???, can't remember) Galaxy. An irregular galaxy said to be very similar to SMC. The listing magnitude is 8.7, but very low surface brightness. Didn't make it with my 3" refractor in China. However, it is said to be a good target for binoculars??? Will try.
By the way, along have a look at M11.
Lyra:
M56, M57, double-double
Cygnus, Vulpecula, Delphinus & Sagitta:
North American, Pellican, The Veil, The Cresent(didn't make it with my 3") of course
M27, M29, M35, M71 Albiero of course
NGC7006: A tiny little 11th mag. globular in Delphinus. Very cute. Worth trying.
NGC6826: The Blinking Nebula-a bright planetary nebula. It did 'blink' in my 3". The nebulosity would disappear and reappear as you blink your eyes. Don't know how it looks like in larger scopes.
NGC7026: The Cheeseburger Nebula. Only appeared as a no-stellar object in my 3". Hope we can see the cheeseburger shape in larger apertures.
NGC6939 & NGC6946(NGC6939 belongs to Cepheus, while half of NGC6946 belongs to Cephus too, haha): One of my favorit pair!!! A open cluster and a galaxy in the same field of view!!! Just amazing even if I can see no detail in the low surface brightness galaxy. NGC6946 is known as a very active galaxy - over ten supernovae were observed in last century!!! I observed my firt supernova, 12.8th mag. SN 2004et in it in Oct. 2004 with my 3", good old memory~~~
Cepheus:
Mu Cephei: William Herschel’s Garnet Starj. Probably nothing redder than this star? Just red, very red. Also a variable star.
NGC6939 & NGC 6946: Same as above~~~
NGC7023: A reflection nebula. The reflection comes from the central 7th mag. star. Didn't make it with my 3". Someone said it looking like dew on the eyepiece. Will try again this time.
NGC7510: A tiny cute open cluster. It appears fairly like a rat in sketches made by large apertures. However, wasn't very impressive in my 3". Worth trying with larger scopes.
Cassiopeia:
M52 & NGC7635(The Bubble Nebula): Can we see the Bubble Nebula??? Worth trying.
NGC147 & NGC185: Two faint elliptical galaxies. These two are actually satellite galaxies of M31, believe it or not?! Barely seen and barely in the same field of view in my 3" Again an amazing sight to me. Don't miss this pair.
NGC281: An emission nebula. Barely seen in my 3" when it was high in the sky. Not sure whether if we can see it here. Maybe too low to be seen.
NGC7789: One of my favorite open clusters, like it better than the Wild Duck! This monster is huge, 25' diameter!!! Consisting of hundreds of faint stars of similar brigtness. In my 3" scope, I could 'fell' the existence of hundreds of faint stars in the nebulosity, amazing~~~
Pegasus:
M15: Containing one of tonight's big chellenge - Pease 1, a planetary nebula in the globular! It has been observed with scopes as small as around 10". The method is to use a O-III filter, 'blink' the view with it. The filter will dim the other stars, leaving the planetary nebula unchange. I can't find a finder chart. However, it will be more convincing if we do a blind search!
NGC7331 & Stephan's Quintet: NGC7331 is a bright and easy target. The thing is to see if we can see the spiral structure of it using large aperture. The Stephan's Quintet is quite close to NGC7331. Can we see all of these four colliding galaxies with the 10"???(NGC7320 is a foregroud galaxy, though the brightest). Another big challenge.
Now let's go back to the south to wait till Andromeda rises higher?
Capricornus:
Neptune: See if we can see Triton?
M30: The faintest M globular?
NGC7009: Saturn Nebula. It appear elongated in my 3" refractor and it resembles Saturn very much in my ETX observing in NTU. Hope to see more detail using larger scopes.
Aquarius:
Uranus: Try the four bright satellites.
M2: A nice bright globular. Hope to resolve it with my ETX.
NGC7293: FFFamous Helix Nebula. However, I couldn't see the center hole with my 3" in China, maybe because it was not high enough in my latitude. Look forward to seeing more here~~~
Sculptor:
NGC253 & NGC288: A galaxy and a globular in the same field of view of binoculars! The galaxy, NGC253, is a real beauty in my 3", though no details can be seen. There is sure to be a lot of detail in larger apertures.
NGC254: Probably the most 'Southern' galaxy I've seen in my latitude. Though not very impressive, I could barely see the core. The galaxy is adhered to a 7th mag star, which is a little interesting.
NGC300: Too southern for my latitude to see. However, it is said that it is easy to see the spiral arms of this galaxy? Anyway it looks quite like M33 in the photo. Worth trying.
Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy: Said to be a extremely difficult object. Visibiliy highly dependent on transparency. Well, let’s have a try anyway.
Cetus:
M77: I just love this. A tiny little galaxy right beside a 10th mag star. Just interesting in my 3”. Don’t know how it looks like in a larger scope~~~
NGC246: A relatively large planetary nebula. I couldn’t see the nebulosity with my 3”, only a few stars in it. A O-III filter is said to improve the visibility greatly, and it should look beautiful in large scopes.
Pisces:
M74: Rated the most difficult M objects. However, easily seen in my 3”. I wonder how they came to this conclusion. Again, hope to see the spiral arms in large scopes.
Comet 4P/Faye: This periodical comet is close to M74 on Saturday. Now it is at mag. 11.5, an easy target for all the scopes to present on Sunday. Hopefully we catch two comets that day!
Andromeda & Triangulum:
M31: For this observing session I want to try something more challenging on M31 – search for the globulars belonging to it!!! I think some of you should know G1 in M31. HST once took a famous photo of it, resolving it into single stars.
There are 9 globulars in M31 brighter than mag. 15. Maybe we just try the four brightest around 14th mag. – G1, G76, G280, G78. According to other observers’ reports, with telescopes larger than 8”, 13.7th mag. G1 can be seen as a non-stellar, globular-like object, while other three remain star-like. However, though G1 is the brightest, it might be the difficult to locate as it is far from the galaxy. The other three are easier to locate, but fainter, especially in the glow of the galaxy. So our first target would sure be G1. I will attach two finder charts in the following thread, and I have marked my potential method to locate G1. In the chart you can also see the other three globulars.
M33: For this, try if we can see emission nebula NGC604 in M33.
M76: Again in many catalogues people list it as a very difficult M object. I have spotted it in mediocre sky condition. The elongated shape is easily visible under dark sky. Larger aperture should reveal the small dumbbell shape easily.
NGC404: A challenging object because it is very close to 2nd mag. Beta Andromedae. Didn’t make it with my 3”.
NGC891: An ideal side-on galaxy. Barely visible in my 3”. Hope we can see the dark band using larger scopes.
NGC7662: A easy bright planetary nebula, known as Blue Snowball Nebula. Looked gray and featureless in my 3”. Hope can see the blue color and some structure in Mersing.
Too tired today, can't finish. Maybe continue tomorrow.
To be continued…(?)
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jiahao1986
- Posts: 474
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:59 pm
- Location: Clementi
