Clear Skies Finally!

Post by **Airconvent** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 2:55 am

Sam was checking John Teh's dark site and called me to inform me about how clear the sky was tonight. I was sceptical but then again, it rained heavily today. Sure enough, when I arrived, half the sky was almost mersing like with all the stars seen and a fine speckle background! M45 was naked eye and one can count all 7 main naked eye stars! Sam was very excited too as this was the FIRST CLEAR NIGHT IN SINGAPORE in 4 months!! and nuts, it was on a wroking day...!

He was happily playing with his Pronto looking at M42 and the double cluster. The nebula was very bright with both the "wings" clearly visible. Also took a peek at Saturn and Sam was amazed he could pushed John's newly bought Vixen 102mm achromat up to x500 (on a new EQ5 mount!) . Image was soft but the features can be distinuguised clearly. Titan and 2 other moons were visible by my reckoning and 2-3 bands could be discerned on the planet surface which was odd since Saturn is normally featureless...

As for the site, accessibility is a problem and there is sand everywhere. It was a little cold and quite windy and I'm sure dew would be a problem had we stayed there longer. The wind caused some vibration on the scopes at high mag but what made the site stand out was it was relatively dark due east and you get a clear view all the way to the horizon! I prefer Dempsey for its clean and neat road, though...

I'll leave Sam to update on the objects he saw tonight...!

rich

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:46 am

I'll leave Sam to update on the objects he saw tonight...!

rich

Not much, but it wasn't all about quantity today. It was more of a quality observing session. And it was just soooo good to be seeing clear skies again after so long.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy
M41 Open Cluster in Canis Major
M42 The Great Orion Nebula
M45 The Pleiades
The Double Cluster in Perseus
SATURN
MARS
And um, 5 meteor sightings shared by 3 of us.

Other than the occasional light sea breeze which introduced small vibrations to our scopes and prevented serious study of Saturn at high magnification, the image of Saturn held together relatively well up to 240x (4mm Radian + 2x Barlow) on my 70mm Pronto and 500x (4mm Radian + 2x Barlow) on my ex-Vixen 102 achro - I'll leave it's delighted new owner to fill you in with the details on his first experience with the magnificent ringed planet 8)

And M42 was really amazing (no filter was used). Even through the 70mm Pronto (64x with Tak LE 7.5) , you can actually see the 2 faint and usually visually challenging (for small scopes) 'arms' of M42 stretching out like the wings of Cygnus - if you know what I mean. For my Pronto, this was a sight previously visible only in Mersing.

Regarding the site itself, despite having problems such as accessibility, I think this is the only place in Singapore with the darkest North Eastern / Eastern skies. Other than the few ships out at sea, there is ZERO obstruction over the horizon area, and we could already start observing Saturn by 12:30pm. If we'd stayed a little longer, Jupiter would also surely have been on our observing log tonight. We're planning another visit on Saturday. Anyone interested ?

gwenyi · Post by **gwenyi** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 6:42 am

the skies last night were not too bad. i managed to see m42 without any optical aid. sirius and canopus were both shining radiantly. last night was one of the clearest nights i have experienced in singapore. heh =p

Post by **weixing** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 10:10 am

Hi,
Just as expected, most clear night in these few weeks occurs after mid-night and before sun-rise...

Grievous · Post by **Grievous** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:50 pm

Was down for a walk at 0330hrs, it is so cold that im shivering!! But the skies are like WOOOoOOOoOW!!!!!!! Too bad im just to tired to take out my setup after all those mugging at my notes....

Charlie

ChaosKnight · Post by **ChaosKnight** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:04 pm

Woke up at 3am. Saw the sky was clear except for a few clouds. Opened my bedroom window and stuck my scope out. And managed to see my old friend, the Sword Handle in Perseus. Really nice sight. Don't know why it isn't one of the M objects though.

starfirez · Post by **starfirez** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:08 pm

how come i never manage to see any stars last night? was all clouds.. all maybe because it is about 10pm? or the clouds just like the east side?

gwenyi · Post by **gwenyi** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:43 pm

it could be cloudy around ur area.... the skies around 1am were good. no high altitude clouds and relatively dark.

johnteh · Post by **johnteh** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 10:58 pm

The night was impressive!!!! Only one word to describe !!!WOW!!!
I've never seen Saturn in my entire life before.
I don't really understand the sky well lucky Sam and rich was there to enlighten me

Thanks alot guys !
Rich was kind enough to let me touch his 4" scope which i don't really know what make and model it was because it was really dark.
Sam was also kind enough to let me try some of his eyepieces. It really impressed me alot and i also bought two eyepieces from him previously. Although it's only a normal eyepiece but to me it was really great!!! Thanks Sam.
Last but not least , this was my first time using a 70mm Pronto refractor.
Frankly speaking i was impressed with his scope!!!

Thanks again guys i really have a good time yesterday

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 12:55 am

starfirez wrote:how come i never manage to see any stars last night? was all clouds.. all maybe because it is about 10pm? or the clouds just like the east side?

it wasn't very promising before midnight as pointed out by Weixing.
But at after 12am, after the call from Sam saying it was INCREDIBLY CLEAR in Changi, I drove straight down there and sure enough, it was clear. From where we were, we could see clouds over the western portion of singapore although cc reported clear in central area also...

rich