Mersing Trip (5-6 Apr 08) - Obs Report

[elton]

Thanks all for the company and the ride. Hard to add more to the above. We didnt see many objects because there were more than a few people viewing and lack of time. It was like rediscovering all the objects in a new light *pun*. Judging from the potential of the scope, there will be no lack of new objects that can be seen during each trip to mersing. Most of the objects were viewed at relatively high power of ~200x. At this mag, objects such as whirlpool, centaurus A galaxy and lagoon fill the fov and show much more depth of detail. Eg. the dark lanes between spiral arms in whirlpool were wide enough to imagine sticking your fingers through them. Hamburger galaxy was like a big open mouth. 2nd tier galaxies are no longer faint fuzzies, each show different character, shape and detail.
On the equipment side, the scope can be easily set up with 2 people but we had a lot of help because of impending rain. One is possible if you are using wheelbarrow handles to move the scope. I thought the "heat pack tied onto secondary" worked well when the dew almost shut us down, dont need to install a dew heater anymore? The shroud worked better than I expected, no sagging and obstruction of light path. It was interesting figuring out how to install it for the first time in the dark but we did it. With the 20xw binoviewer combi, the scope was well balanced without counterweights and views were very comfortable. There was 3D effect on omega centauri but less impactful on whirlpool --- rlow, was there a problem then?
Lastly, think we are getting quite good at predicting rain ;)

[ariefm71]

elton, was the mirror fully protected from all these crowds?

[elton]

with the shroud on, the "do not talk at the mirror" rule was relaxed.

[Airconvent]

ok...finally managed to upload the pics to photobucket...

Weixing welcoming us (or the Ob18) on arrival ...


Chee Chien enjoying his fried dead bird dinner


Relax a little before starting construction work on the EST (Elton Space Telescope)

[Airconvent]

Arrival of the Ob18 in the RSS Enterprise NCC1701R...Notice the truss tubes that protrude right into the rear seat, reducing seating capacity in my starship by 1...


Mission speciialists inspects the unloaded payload to prep for construction. NASA reports all equiipment are in excellent health.


Mission Specialist, Elton commences his important work...Other crew members look on.

[Airconvent]

(ISS) International Site Surveillance specialist Weixing runs through the SOP for the first time to begin setting-to-work. Astro-navigator Rlow assist Mission Specialist Elton.


Taking a break during a break between contruction due to falling H20...


rlow and wife...obviously an F1 fan as can be seen from absence of any astronomy icon on his space suit.

[Airconvent]

ISS (International Space Surveillance) crew members relax during R&R.
From left, Chee Chien, Wong, Weixing, Rlow, Siti (rlow's wife) and Elton enjoys a delicious supper of burnt bird parts.

[ariefm71]

The Astroslew II and the Nexstar 8SE somehow look familiar

[rlow]

Thanks to Elton for sharing such a wonderful time machine and to rlow and his wife for the coffee to keep us all awake

Btw, the coffee mix & hot water are from Weixing; just to give some due credit....

[rlow]

There was 3D effect on omega centauri but less impactful on whirlpool --- rlow, was there a problem then?

No problem, the Denk II's 2" barrel fits exactly into your 2" Feathertouch focuser without ANY tolerance, so I need a bit of time to fit it in. But with the impeding cloud moving in and long queue of 6 people waiting, I then decided to switch over to XW mono-viewing instead.