Singastro East Coast Park (ECP) Observation Site

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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Gary
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Singastro East Coast Park (ECP) Observation Site

Post by Gary »

Location of East Coast Park observation site:

Latitude ---> 1°18'8.34" North
Longitude --> 103°55'9.47" East


Image

Bus Stop to alight marked by "A":
Image

Car Park D1 -- Street Directory:
http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_tra ... 67404&l=13

Car Park D1 -- Google Map:
http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?f=q&sour ... 2&t=h&z=18

Car Park D1 -- Google Street View:
http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?f=q&sour ... 98,,0,4.14

********************************

Public Transport:

- Go to Bedok MRT station.
- Walk to nearby Bedok Bus Interchange.
- Take Bus Number 401.
- Alight at the 12th bus stop. Bus stop description is "OPP VICTORIA JC".
Street View of bus stop:
http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?f=q&sour ... 03267&z=19

Full Bus 401 Route:
http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/journeypla ... ORT%20GDNS

Image

Image
Last edited by Gary on Sat May 29, 2010 12:56 am, edited 10 times in total.
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Clifford60
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Post by Clifford60 »

Those who drive, park at D1 carpark which is nearer to the site above the canal and most likely to find carpark lots.
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Gary
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Post by Gary »

Hi Clifford. Thanks for the info. Updated the links and description to Car Park D1 instead.
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acc
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Post by acc »

Thanks, have made this thread a sticky.
We do it in the dark...
Portaball 12.5"
Takahashi Mewlon 210
William Optics 110ED
...and all night long!
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Gary
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Post by Gary »

Thanks. Uploaded pic to show exact observation spot. Thanks to Yuan Huan for showing me the spot. :)
zymon
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Re: Singastro East Coast Park (ECP) Observation Site

Post by zymon »

Hi,

Just came back from the east coast site 11-30 - 01.15. Lots of fishermen but only one star gazer.

Pretty Good! Not very clear, but not many clouds also but able to see many stars with the naked eye so I was able to star hop around things I have not seen before.

Western view not very good cos of the city.
Northern view also not good.
East and south and directly above had a lot to see.

But the moon was so bright I think hard to see DSO around the Sagittarius and Scorpio Constellations, although their stars where very easy visible. Tried to view the moon but I think now I understand why there are such things as moon filters. I could not get near the EP for the amount of light that seemed to be shining out from the moon!!

If only I could find a place to view the northern sky as clear as the southern sky. Pungol, Pasir ris or Changi Village maybe?
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PETER LOO
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Re: Singastro East Coast Park (ECP) Observation Site

Post by PETER LOO »

HI Zymoon, if not for the near full moon, there would be 3 star gazer and a lot of fishermen then, Jun Wei and myself had though of going to this site at last weekend too ..
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bornfree
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Re: Singastro East Coast Park (ECP) Observation Site

Post by bornfree »

Yesterday, Desmond and I went to another location at ECP to do some Obs of our own. The place is just beside the lagoon near the Jumbo Seafood. This place is further east from the carpark in the above thread.

Time: between 9pm to 6am
Scope n mounts: Celestron 70mm Travel Scope on a AZ tripod. Sky-Watcher Explorer 150 on a EQ, 7x50 Celestron Bino
Eyepieces: 15 mm, 6 mm, 20 mm, 32 mm, 12.5 mm, 4 mm, 2x Barlow

Image
Directions are 1.305597, 103.932143 in google map.

the place is relatively dark, the path lights are just nicely shining on the path not causing alot of LP. except there are 3 lamps at a nearby bar that have glaring orange lights. tall trees towards to west has part of the western and northwestern view shrouded. overall, this location is not too bad.

Sky Condtion: Clear with occasional clouds

Summary
At 9pm, we proceeded to setup the gears at the location. It is really dark and the moon was the source of light that made things slightly easier. Desmond's gears were simpler to setup and he was up and about in a short while, while i was still unpacking the different parts of the EQ mount. Once all has been setup, i eagerly point the scope to the direction of Saturn, or so i thought i was looking at it. while looking at the south-western direction, i tried to magnify to a yellowish star and found that it is still a dot. and it took a passerby to point me in the right direction. next time, consult sky map before looking at anything.. fortunately Saturn was still above the tree lines almost going to get blocked by the near by tree. first time thru the 6" looking at saturn. cant see any moons though. with a 20mm, it was just a slightly elongated ball. with a 4mm, the rings were more visible and 4mm with a 2x barlow, yup, that's saturn. after a while saturn hid behind the trees and set.

Moon hung around Scorpius making me hard to find M7 or M6. Desmond managed to wander into the M7 while sweeping around that area and i had no such luck. I tried to use Dave's star hopping method but i cant find my bearings using the EQ mount as if it is an AZ. and i cant seems to figure if i am going left or right, up or down. to me its easier to track something i have already set my sights on or on objects i can pinpoint with the view finder. but to star hop, EQ seems impossible for me.

when looking at the moon, the details are just very stunning. even with a waxing quarter moon, the glare was enough to kill any dark adapted pupils. Curious public came and had a look through our scopes at the moon, and someone said it was like a Nat Geo feeling. not seeing pictures or from the TV, but thru the lens of a scope. everyone who looked thru were very fascinated by the craters details they could see, and they asked about how the craters formed. its was like giving a science class lesson.

Next was just random star hopping hoping to catch something nice. then thought of getting a peek at Albireo. I found Vega, I found Altair, go to the middle, then to the left.. i see nothing.. what about the right? still nothing. while scanning the vast night sky, Aldebaran rose up. remembering that the Pleiades should also be visible i wanted to tell Desmond but he has already stumbled on it. with his help, i managed to locate the where the cluster was by using the clouds as the 7 sisters played hide n seek behind the clouds.. told him to use his bino to take a view, and he has found a new love, bino viewing on tarus. Desmond's scope is like a meteor magnet. while having a wider view from his 32mm eye piece, i saw a meteor streaked by. had a tail with a blueish tint, from east toward the north. covering almost the entire FOV. was too dim to be seen with his naked eye though.

now Orion has risen quite high, his belt (3 stars) are visible, i saw a fuzzy patch to the right and zero into the area, i saw a star cluster and a very cloudy patch. Desmond said his scope could see that patch as well. I suppose that is a nebular. it was nice to just roam around aimlessly in that area as there are lots of stars. while enjoying the whole Orion constellation, i saw a second meteor, this time orange in colour like the first meteor i saw during my first bedroom obs.. same southeast direction, and the meteor going in the same trajectory, east to south. Southern Delta still has a little spark left.

As the low clouds lined the horizon, Jupiter rose. from a sudden break in the clouds, i saw a bright object in the east. no doubt, jupiter! quickly i zero to the planet and saw it thru the 20 mm. Calling Desmond to have a look, was fascinated by its view n its 4 moons. then clouds covered the view again, for half an hour, Jupiter was playing hide n seek. as it rose even higher, i switched to a 4 mm with the 2x barlow n now the bands starts to show and it was still a sight to behold! sadly the GRS is still not visible. even on a 4 mm lens, the bands were still visible.

Mars will be rising in an hour's time. why not just wait on for a while more. Desmond said it will be very difficult to see Mars, but i was determined, just 1 hour. should be worth the wait. At first, it was faint. I thought i saw a reddish dot, then it disappeared. it was tough trying to zero in on an object that appears to be there, yet disappears altogether when u try to focus on it. finally after a while getting a hang of the viewing, i managed to centered it on a 20 mm. it was a tiny red ball. then view it with a 4 mm with a barlow. wow.. is that you, Curiosity, i see? no, i wished. Mars was a tiny red ball the size of a pin head.about 2 mm wide. the red dusty planet.

Conclusion
i found that i am hapless looking for things i want to see in the night sky unless i have something visual to tag it to.. still very unfamiliar with both my equipment and the night sky to see where i was hopping to. am probably going to invest in an AZ mount and a Telrad or Rigel Quikfinder. I know now what to expect when i look through my scope, and i am not sure if i have pushed the scope to its max capabilities.

Planet count: 3. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars
Meteor Count: 2.
Nebular: 1
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Desmond_T
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Re: Singastro East Coast Park (ECP) Observation Site

Post by Desmond_T »

Beautiful write up there, bro.

Indeed, we saw many magnificent objects in the sky last night. What amazed me were the star clusters. The constellations of Taurus and Orion were practically littered with stars! It was also a time I when I put my small little scope to the real test to see what it was capable of. M7 and The Seven Sisters clusters were able to fit nicely into my Tavelscope 70 with a 15mm plossal EP.

Another great thing was using the 10x50 Celestron Upclose binos to view the star clusters. I can tell you that it's a whole new experience. Although not as detailed as the telescope, the wide field of view is just spectacular! Believe it or not, I can actually see the splitting of stars that are close together through a pair of bino. It's a piece of good equipment to do star-hopping with.

Was able to see craters and the mare areas on the waxing gibbous Moon, but not as detailed as Bornfree's 6" Newt.

I also saw Jupiter and its moons for the first time. It was superb through the 6" newt. However, when I used my scope to view, I couldn't see the bands on Jupiter, but was able to spot all 4 of her moons.

The really awesome thing for me was seeing a nebula through my scope for the very first time. I thought my scope has limitations for nebulae, but I was wrong! And to sweeten things up, the nebula had a fizzy greyish-blue tinge of gas. I thought it was normally just grey unless people do long exposure photography.

Overall, the site was good to do sidewalk and dark enough to offer decent viewing. The magical timing was between 4am to 6am, that's when the stars start to gather in numbers. People came up to us to view from our scopes and ask questions, and we were happy to oblige. :mrgreen:
Last edited by Desmond_T on Sun Aug 18, 2013 3:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Clear skies~
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Gary
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Re: Singastro East Coast Park (ECP) Observation Site

Post by Gary »

@bornfree & @Desmond_T - Awesome report and sidewalk session! Totally enjoyed reading both of them! [smilie=good-job.gif]

Saturn, Spice, Arcturus forms a right-angled triangle in the western sky after sunset. Use this imagery to find Saturn. Or just try 3 times max. :)


Saturn -------------Arcturus
-
-
-
-
Spica

Cloudy patch in the middle of the Orion's sword/dagger is the Orion Nebula (aka The Great Nebula of Orion). When skies are good and it is high up, a beautiful sight to behold even with naked eyes. Try to see it in a big dob, may see some green colour. :)

Albireo is to the "right" (east of) the rough midpoint of Vega and Altair.

What you guys can do in the future is to work like a sniper team. The spotter can use a bino to locate and object in the sky. Then use green laser to lase it. Then, the sniper just need to point the "rifle" (6 newt in this case) at the end of that laser beam. If the spotter also have a main "gun" of his own, the sniper can return the favour - look through his finder and lase at that position.

This method is also useful to locate objects that are *just* too dim to see with naked eyes. Once the spotter is good at finding objects base on estimation and relative positioning (i.e. agar-agar expert :)), he/she may just lase directly at the position without the need to confirm with any optics beforehand.

Can also consider mounting a green laser finder on the telescope.

Do take note of this ob site proximity to aircrafts. So be extra careful when you lase the sky.

Jupiter's GRS need to be facing Earth to be potentially visible through your telescopes. See the Sky&Tel Jupiter javascript links I mentioned in another thread.

The beautiful bunch of stars through the bino view in Taurus is most probably the Hyades Cluster: (https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=Hyad ... 55&bih=921)

Try Kemble's Casade with a bino too!
(https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=Kemb ... 55&bih=921). Though from ECP, looking North is looking toward the source of bright LP. Can try Changi Beach for this cluster.

Whatever telescopes/binoculars you use under Singapore skies will NOT be a good test of its true potential. You need Milky Way clear skies for that. For example, my Celestron 80mm achro refractor view of Orion Nebula under Johor skies is waaaaay more impressive than any refractors I have seen so far under Singapore skies (e.g. the ISTAR 8-inch refractor!). Using binoculars under such pristine skies, it really feels like you are looking through 2 refractors with both eyes wide open!

Ok. Enough poison .... ... for today. :P

Once again, great job sharing the views with the public! What a tremendous feeling it will always be!
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It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
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