Hahaha very artistic =)
And that Janglish tagline, I like it! lol.
Good obs site found at east Johor - obs report
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starfinder
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Re: And next trip???
I will likely be joining someone this Sat for observing at the same site (south of Sedili).meisters wrote:So... any chance you may head back this weekend? maybe Sat?
Will send you a private message with my contacts.
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Airconvent
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haha..Gavin, you made a relatively run-down looking neighbourhood so delicious. That's the power ot packaging!starfinder wrote:I thought I would have some fun.
Here is a Japanese-style photo essay on the foods at Tanjong Sedili which I mentioned above.
I don't know how to write in Japanese, so I used Google's translation tool.
The whimsical sentence at the bottom is what you'd typically find on stationery boxes made in Japan.
Ha....
![[smilie=angel2.gif]](./images/smilies/angel2.gif "angel2")
BTW, in your earlier roadsign, is this seen from the normal main road to Mersing? It looks like you need to double back 1/4 of the journey?
Hope I am able to join you all sometime. Not too keen on the mosquitoes though. (Mersing is relatively clear if them except the occasional one)
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
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starfinder
- Posts: 1039
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 11:15 pm
- Location: River Valley / Tanglin Road
- Contact:
Hi Richard,Airconvent wrote: BTW, in your earlier roadsign, is this seen from the normal main road to Mersing? It looks like you need to double back 1/4 of the journey?
Hope I am able to join you all sometime. Not too keen on the mosquitoes though. (Mersing is relatively clear if them except the occasional one)
Nope, the road sign seen in my photograph is at the junction outside of the village/town of Tanjong Sedili. If you look at the green and blue map just below that photo, you can see that right next to Tanjong Sedili is a cross junction. That is the one.
To get to Tanjong Sedili, you have to leave the main road to Mersing (road no. 3) soon after passing by Kota Tinggi by turning right (east) towards the coast towards Tanjong Sedili.
As for the mosquitoes, this time it will be war without law. I have already bought insecticide spray to fumigate the area, plus mosquito coil to burn like at some temple, plus a sonic device, and am going to bring Deet spray and herbal spray. Of course, during all that spraying the optics will be kept under wraps.
So I think the mosquitoes shouldn't be a problem this time.
Anyway, if all fails, we will use the scopes to swipe at them!
When I was there 4 weeks ago, they did not bite me as I had sprayed a Deet-based spray (3M UltraThon 25% Deet) on myself. However, they still buzzed around my ears to what end I don't know. We may have been the first humans those rural nyamuks had encountered.
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weixing
- Super Moderator
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- Favourite scope: Vixen R200SS & Celestron 6" F5 Achro Refractor
- Location: (Tampines) Earth of Solar System in Orion Arm of Milky Way Galaxy in Local Group Galaxies Cluster
Hi,
Anyway, remind me of a SingAstroian who had an anti-mosquitoes suit (I think treated with insect repellent) that he wear during observation in mosquitoes infested site.
Good luck and have a nice day.
Just be careful... mosquitoes are the deadliest creature alive. Also, most insect repellent spray are not optics friendly, so make sure your scope and eyepieces won't come in contact with them.starfinder wrote:Hi Richard,Airconvent wrote: BTW, in your earlier roadsign, is this seen from the normal main road to Mersing? It looks like you need to double back 1/4 of the journey?
Hope I am able to join you all sometime. Not too keen on the mosquitoes though. (Mersing is relatively clear if them except the occasional one)
Nope, the road sign seen in my photograph is at the junction outside of the village/town of Tanjong Sedili. If you look at the green and blue map just below that photo, you can see that right next to Tanjong Sedili is a cross junction. That is the one.
To get to Tanjong Sedili, you have to leave the main road to Mersing (road no. 3) soon after passing by Kota Tinggi by turning right (east) towards the coast towards Tanjong Sedili.
As for the mosquitoes, this time it will be war without law. I have already bought insecticide spray to fumigate the area, plus mosquito coil to burn like at some temple, plus a sonic device, and am going to bring Deet spray and herbal spray. Of course, during all that spraying the optics will be kept under wraps.
So I think the mosquitoes shouldn't be a problem this time.
Anyway, if all fails, we will use the scopes to swipe at them!
When I was there 4 weeks ago, they did not bite me as I had sprayed a Deet-based spray (3M UltraThon 25% Deet) on myself. However, they still buzzed around my ears to what end I don't know. We may have been the first humans those rural nyamuks had encountered.
Anyway, remind me of a SingAstroian who had an anti-mosquitoes suit (I think treated with insect repellent) that he wear during observation in mosquitoes infested site.
Good luck and have a nice day.
Yang Weixing
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance."
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." 
haha... funny, since it comes from Gavin.As for the mosquitoes, this time it will be war without law.
Anyway this time we will be better prepared. Coincidentally we are also bringing the same set of arsenal as well.
Last edited by rlow on Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rlow
Yes, I just lost a friend last month to Malaria. He went to Bali for jungle trekking and contracted Malaria there!
Always take precautions....
Always take precautions....
[80% Steve, 20% Alfred] ------- Probability of Clear Skies = (Age of newest equipment in days) / [(Number of observers) * (Total Aperture of all telescopes present in mm)]
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starfinder
- Posts: 1039
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 11:15 pm
- Location: River Valley / Tanglin Road
- Contact:
Obs report - Sat 24 April 2009
Here is an obs report of an observation session last night at the same site (named Sedili South Centauri).
Here is another photo of the site, taken yesterday, looking out to the sea in the southeast direction:
Two cars went up, RLow's and S. Mesiter's. It took longer than usual to cross the Causeway. Despite reaching Woodlands at about 1.30pm, we took about 1hr20mins to cross, almost twice the duration of the previous trip despite a similar time of day/week. Traffic in JB was also heavier and slower than previously.
We had a late afternoon meal at a "resort" chalet near Tanjong Sedili / Sedili Besar called Tanjung Sutera Resort ( http://www.tanjungsutera.com/ ). It is quite a nice place and the standards are good. I had a look at a room and it was air-conditioned and clean, with an attached bathroom . We left there around 6pm, arriving at the site about 20-25 mins later.
One of the first things we did was to deploy all the counter-mosquito measures: insectide spray, anti-mosquito sonic device x 2, burning of mosquito coils, and spray of Deet insect repellent. That largely worked as most of the mosquitoes kept away except in the middle of the night when the coils near me had burned off and one or two mosquitoes buzzed me. Still, it was a vast improvement from before.
Back to star-gazing.
It was the night of New Moon.
Essentially, the skies were overall very good. There was a light haze from sunset to around midnight which muted contrast. For example, RLow and I concurred that the early night band of the Milky Way from Orion to Crux was certainly more contrasty 4 weeks ago when we had arrived there at 8.30pm. This time, the star-fields in the Auriga area were very dim. The Puppis area was better.
However, the haze eventually disappeared, thinning from 9pm onwards and clearing off completely at about 2am. However, I saw that there was also a light amount of ground level fog for a while at about 12am which became evident when cars passed by.
Apart from those, it was an essentially cloud-free night (>90% cloud free throughout the entire night). Very unusual I should think. At about 2am-3am when we left, the skies were clear and cloud free. That was when we saw the "second-half of the night" Milky Way stretch from north to south, i.e from Cygnus through Sagittarius and onto Vela and Crux. It was bright and quite contrasty esp at 2.30am onwards.
S. Mesiter was I think quite impressed with the sky conditions there: not as dark as in Canada certainly but he saw the full Milky Way panorama stretch about 150 degrees. He told as that up north in Canada, the Milky Way only goes as far south as the Teapot in Sagittarius and that area is very low in the sky and only for a few days in the year. He also remarked at being able to see both the Northen and Southern Crosses simultaneously.
To notice the Milky Way band better, I swerved my head quickly and repeatedly back and forth from left to right (north to south) and vice versa. With that technique, I saw the countours of the band much more distinctly.
Again, as previously, looking at the Milky Way, I think I had a very good sense of where Earth is in relation to the centre and side arms (from our point of view) of our galaxy. Plus, a good appreciation that away from the Milky Way, overhead, was the window of view out into deep space where there are plenty of galaxies and a sprinkling of nearby stars.
Scope wise, RLow had set-up his Mewlon 210 and S.Mesiter his 12.5" home-made Dob. I had set-up a 100mm bino, but spent the majority of time doing wide-field photography of the constellations with an Astrotrac tracker. Below are two photos which I took.
I managed to see only about 3 meteors, two of which were faint and short, one was a bit longer and brighter. RLow saw a very bright one at around 8.30pm overhead. He said it was as bright as Sirius. As usual, my luck with meteors was not very good as I was then looking elsewhere. However, 4 weeks ago I saw about 6 meteors there, 4 of which were long and bright, and one had a sparkle at the end.
On another point, at about 9pm, a passing car stopped at our site's entrance and paused. Oh no..... It then started to drive in. At first I thought it was Airconvent, but then I saw that it was a Proton. Two men got out and I quickly tried to ascertain IFF (i.e. Identification Friend or Foe) amidst the backlighting of their car lamps, almost like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
I was getting a bit worried as I wondered who there were and what they might want. They started speaking to us in Mandarin and asked nicely what we were doing there. RLow and I told them we were star-gazing and were from Singapore. Fortunately, they were very friendly and helpful and we had a pleasant conversation about star-gazing. The elder one, who was perhaps the father of the other told us they were from the nearby region. RLow asked him if the area had motor-cycle gangs and he said no. He even went to the trouble to make a phone call to someone to obtain the phone number of the police post in Sedili. He said it is manned 24-hours. Its number is: 07-8918222.
Doing a Google search on that phone number today, I see it listed on this webpage which seems to have a lot of local Johor police post numbers: http://quekpj.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html Look under the heading "警察" as that webpage also has other types of numbers such as postal codes.
That kind man also told us that sometimes military exercises and patrols are conducted in that area. He said that we should therefore not be alarmed if in the middle of the night, we see men with black faces suddenly emerge from the bushes.
On our way back to Singapore, we saw two motor-cyclists in central JB lying on the road / road-side in separate areas. The condition of one of them seemed to be quite bad as about 20 people had crowded around him and he appeared to be motionless and limp on the ground with no one attending to him. So, its a reminder again for us: do note to DRIVE SAFELY, and BE ALERT and WIDE AWAKE at all times when driving!
Ok, back to astronomy. Here are two photos which I took:
Details:
Camera: Canon EOS350D. Lens: Canon 24mm prime lens f/2.8 at f/4.
Mount: Mounted on an Astrotrac sky tracker and on a Manfrotto tripod with a Manfrotto 410 geared head, plus another 3-way tilt head to off-set the camera 90 degress due to our equtorial region.
ISO-800, images adjusted with Photoshop Elements.
First image: Crux and Carina region. Stack of two images of about 2.5 mins each. The sky glow is a whole lot more than is suggested in the photo, but Photoshop adjustments and layering work magic.
[Edit: photo-reloaded]
Second image: Milky Way central to southern region, centered on Scorpius. Single image of 3.5 mins. Image adjusted with Photoshop.
Here is another photo of the site, taken yesterday, looking out to the sea in the southeast direction:
Two cars went up, RLow's and S. Mesiter's. It took longer than usual to cross the Causeway. Despite reaching Woodlands at about 1.30pm, we took about 1hr20mins to cross, almost twice the duration of the previous trip despite a similar time of day/week. Traffic in JB was also heavier and slower than previously.
We had a late afternoon meal at a "resort" chalet near Tanjong Sedili / Sedili Besar called Tanjung Sutera Resort ( http://www.tanjungsutera.com/ ). It is quite a nice place and the standards are good. I had a look at a room and it was air-conditioned and clean, with an attached bathroom . We left there around 6pm, arriving at the site about 20-25 mins later.
One of the first things we did was to deploy all the counter-mosquito measures: insectide spray, anti-mosquito sonic device x 2, burning of mosquito coils, and spray of Deet insect repellent. That largely worked as most of the mosquitoes kept away except in the middle of the night when the coils near me had burned off and one or two mosquitoes buzzed me. Still, it was a vast improvement from before.
Back to star-gazing.
It was the night of New Moon.
Essentially, the skies were overall very good. There was a light haze from sunset to around midnight which muted contrast. For example, RLow and I concurred that the early night band of the Milky Way from Orion to Crux was certainly more contrasty 4 weeks ago when we had arrived there at 8.30pm. This time, the star-fields in the Auriga area were very dim. The Puppis area was better.
However, the haze eventually disappeared, thinning from 9pm onwards and clearing off completely at about 2am. However, I saw that there was also a light amount of ground level fog for a while at about 12am which became evident when cars passed by.
Apart from those, it was an essentially cloud-free night (>90% cloud free throughout the entire night). Very unusual I should think. At about 2am-3am when we left, the skies were clear and cloud free. That was when we saw the "second-half of the night" Milky Way stretch from north to south, i.e from Cygnus through Sagittarius and onto Vela and Crux. It was bright and quite contrasty esp at 2.30am onwards.
S. Mesiter was I think quite impressed with the sky conditions there: not as dark as in Canada certainly but he saw the full Milky Way panorama stretch about 150 degrees. He told as that up north in Canada, the Milky Way only goes as far south as the Teapot in Sagittarius and that area is very low in the sky and only for a few days in the year. He also remarked at being able to see both the Northen and Southern Crosses simultaneously.
To notice the Milky Way band better, I swerved my head quickly and repeatedly back and forth from left to right (north to south) and vice versa. With that technique, I saw the countours of the band much more distinctly.
Again, as previously, looking at the Milky Way, I think I had a very good sense of where Earth is in relation to the centre and side arms (from our point of view) of our galaxy. Plus, a good appreciation that away from the Milky Way, overhead, was the window of view out into deep space where there are plenty of galaxies and a sprinkling of nearby stars.
Scope wise, RLow had set-up his Mewlon 210 and S.Mesiter his 12.5" home-made Dob. I had set-up a 100mm bino, but spent the majority of time doing wide-field photography of the constellations with an Astrotrac tracker. Below are two photos which I took.
I managed to see only about 3 meteors, two of which were faint and short, one was a bit longer and brighter. RLow saw a very bright one at around 8.30pm overhead. He said it was as bright as Sirius. As usual, my luck with meteors was not very good as I was then looking elsewhere. However, 4 weeks ago I saw about 6 meteors there, 4 of which were long and bright, and one had a sparkle at the end.
On another point, at about 9pm, a passing car stopped at our site's entrance and paused. Oh no..... It then started to drive in. At first I thought it was Airconvent, but then I saw that it was a Proton. Two men got out and I quickly tried to ascertain IFF (i.e. Identification Friend or Foe) amidst the backlighting of their car lamps, almost like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
I was getting a bit worried as I wondered who there were and what they might want. They started speaking to us in Mandarin and asked nicely what we were doing there. RLow and I told them we were star-gazing and were from Singapore. Fortunately, they were very friendly and helpful and we had a pleasant conversation about star-gazing. The elder one, who was perhaps the father of the other told us they were from the nearby region. RLow asked him if the area had motor-cycle gangs and he said no. He even went to the trouble to make a phone call to someone to obtain the phone number of the police post in Sedili. He said it is manned 24-hours. Its number is: 07-8918222.
Doing a Google search on that phone number today, I see it listed on this webpage which seems to have a lot of local Johor police post numbers: http://quekpj.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html Look under the heading "警察" as that webpage also has other types of numbers such as postal codes.
That kind man also told us that sometimes military exercises and patrols are conducted in that area. He said that we should therefore not be alarmed if in the middle of the night, we see men with black faces suddenly emerge from the bushes.
On our way back to Singapore, we saw two motor-cyclists in central JB lying on the road / road-side in separate areas. The condition of one of them seemed to be quite bad as about 20 people had crowded around him and he appeared to be motionless and limp on the ground with no one attending to him. So, its a reminder again for us: do note to DRIVE SAFELY, and BE ALERT and WIDE AWAKE at all times when driving!
Ok, back to astronomy. Here are two photos which I took:
Details:
Camera: Canon EOS350D. Lens: Canon 24mm prime lens f/2.8 at f/4.
Mount: Mounted on an Astrotrac sky tracker and on a Manfrotto tripod with a Manfrotto 410 geared head, plus another 3-way tilt head to off-set the camera 90 degress due to our equtorial region.
ISO-800, images adjusted with Photoshop Elements.
First image: Crux and Carina region. Stack of two images of about 2.5 mins each. The sky glow is a whole lot more than is suggested in the photo, but Photoshop adjustments and layering work magic.
[Edit: photo-reloaded]
Second image: Milky Way central to southern region, centered on Scorpius. Single image of 3.5 mins. Image adjusted with Photoshop.
