Desaru Stargazing Expedition in October 2007

[rcj]

NUS...

[Airconvent]

did everyone enjoy the trip? here's a quick report on the trip for those eagerly awaiting for one from spore! hahaha....

First of all, although both nights were not as good as the last expedition to Mersing, it was quite a fun trip with the wacko astro dudes from the polytechnic and SINGASTRO, together with some foreign exchange students. The first night had above average transparency but with low passing cumulus clouds. The earlier part of the night was pretty good, managed to grab some good imaging time then, but towards midnight, the frequency of passing clouds had increased. Nevertheless, there were quite a few scopes set up both at the grass patch just outside our ground-floor-based rooms, and the observing site at the netball court further upfront. Mosquitoes were aplenty, and that kept us constantly on the move together with garnered excitement from the sight of the starry sky from the newbie students. We had refractors, SCTs and the Portaball, also quite a few tripods with cameras afixed on short exposures of star fields and long exposures of star trails compositions. Shortly after the arrival of the main group at about 10PM, everyone interacted during suppertime, and then proceeded with a continuous night of stargazing until the wee hours when the crescent moon was up. It was quite a nice sight, especially with the moon's reflection in the waters together with coconut tree silhouttes, wondered if anyone took this composure....hmm...
The following day was sweltering hot, but many seek refuge in a swim in the pool and the sea. Some decided to head out to the nearby town for some sightseeing. Otherwise stayed in the cozy rooms and chalked up on lost sleep. The breakfast was unforgettable, and being buffet style, it was not uncommon to see everyone eating more than 3 servings. Some ate ten eggs in a row! The spread consisted of mainly toasted bread with kaya,butter, etc, three choices of cornflakes with milk, fruit platter, pancakes, sunny-side eggs (cooked live in front of you), noodles, rice, porridge, roti-prata (live), etc, etc....
The second night was not as good, but still, the visual observers tried viewing a few DSOs, during the fleeting clear moments. At one point in time, most of the scopes were pointed at Dumbell nebula, and everyone could compare and enjoy the views with varying FOVs and depth. In all, it was quite an enjoyable trip, and we will probably look to organising another one after Chinese New Year in 2008. Stay tuned!

ah.....Remus...looks like a wonderful trip but a cloudy one too (blame you-know-who and his you-know-what...*ethos* :-) )
Looking forward to your trip photos and any image you managed to capture between the clouds.

[acc]

Thanks to the organisers!

Anyway, I noticed quite a bit of trash left by us on the observing field after the event. Hopefully, we are more conscious of the environment in future trips.

[smint_87]

Hello,

Ya im one of the newbie students present at the desaru trip. Really enjoyed the trip alot. But too bad we don't have much knowledge about the sky and nebula so thnx for the guidance from the professionals over there. Really really learnt alot from the trip. Its really like seeing is believing.

And ya we did have a shot of the moon. Not fantastic though. Just some amateur random shooting. Hope you guys don mind ya..

[rcj]

glad that ya guys enjoyed the trip and learn much! do join us in future local or overseas expeditions if you can!

[rcj]

Here's the group photo taken by Sam Lee:

[Airconvent]

Great shot Sam! Very DSLR like. This is by far the clearest group photo ever taken..heh heh. Next time do include your scopes in there too and make it even more interesting...like a man-machine interface!
I see there were some leg injuries fighting for the scopes...