April 2004 Batam Observation Trip

Debash · Post by **Debash** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:56 am

Wow! Both the pictures look great, especially the ring with color...wish we had some site in Singapore where we could see either of these more than just a faint blob.

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 1:31 am

Hi Weixing and hang
Nice place you surveyed.
I like the part about the cement floor and the MPV next to it!
This makes it easier to deploy, land neater and you are less likely to loose anything in the grass.
Is the car park well used? Would be bad if someone drives up periodically and kills your dark adaptation!
How about mosquitoes and dew?

Your Omega Centauri pic seems more diffused and probably looks more like M13 instead! But good effort....hope to see more of your images.
Remember to try and take a bigger magnification image of the Ring the next time you are there....would be interested to see if colour details on the ring can be seen...

rich

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:08 am

Hi Weixing and hang
Nice place you surveyed.
I like the part about the cement floor and the MPV next to it!
This makes it easier to deploy, land neater and you are less likely to loose anything in the grass.
Is the car park well used? Would be bad if someone drives up periodically and kills your dark adaptation!
How about mosquitoes and dew?

Your Omega Centauri pic seems more diffused and probably looks more like M13 instead! But good effort....hope to see more of your images.
Remember to try and take a bigger magnification image of the Ring the next time you are there....would be interested to see if colour details on the ring can be seen...

rich

Yes, the carpark was a nice place to set up on. The ground was still warm throughout the night and actually served as a natural conduction heater for our eyepieces

As the night drew on, there was some condensation on our star charts, Weixing's field table and the window of my red dot finder. Nothing serious. Even without dew heaters, Richard Low and myself (both of us were using Refractors) were also surprised to see that our objectives were still free from dew even up till the early hours of the morning. I'm not sure if this would vary according to the atmospheric conditions, but so far on our 2 trips to the island, we didn't have any problems with dew.

The mosquitoes only 'attacked at dawn' (

) when we were packing up. We weren't really bothered much by them during the observing hours, but while we were observing, we still lighted some mosquito coils and sprayed a little OFF! or applied some other type of repellent just in case.

Hope you can join us on at least one of our future trips. It's a very nice place, plus good food, attached driver w/transport, hotel accomodation (if required esp. for extended trips) and most importantly, nice skies.

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 11:46 am

...but so far on our 2 trips to the island, we didn't have any problems with dew.

Well, for the first Batam trip at the southern coast on 03 Apr 04, I did get dew on my Megrez and Sphinx, but one heater pack got rid of the dew from the objective lens for the rest of the night. At this car park on 16 Apr 04, it seem quite amazing that the scope does not dew up thoughout the night, though there was slight dew on our equipment on the ground.

Is the car park well used? Would be bad if someone drives up periodically and kills your dark adaptation!
How about mosquitoes and dew?

Yes, the car park is a very good observation site. That night, it was not used by anyone else except us. Also, only one or two vehicle passed by during the night. The asphalt surface is flat and level, easy for setting up the tripod. Furthermore, the groundsheet does not collect much dirt on the underside, thus making it very convenient for cleaning up. It is good that the place is not seriously polluted with rubbish, and we intend to keep it that way.

For me, mosquitoes only seem to be a minor problem at dawn. I had applied some insect repellant at the start of our observation session and though I could sometimes hear mosquitoes buzzing around my head, they somehow let me off this time during the night.

The night sky condition at the car park is very good, especially from zenith towards south, SE, SW. Though there were some minor light glow from N to NW (from S'pore) up to about 10 degrees (clear sky) or 35 degrees (with reflected clouds), M81 & M82 were visible even with the reduced contrast. The Milky Way was absolutely fabulous, a bright and clearly defined naked eye band stretching all the way across the sky from Sagittarius to Cygnus and beyond. The Coalsack Nebula, a dark nebula in Crux, was an obvious prominent naked eye object with a distinct edge. The eastern portion of the elusive Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) was observed directly (without averted vision) as a thin wispy crescent through the Megrez even without a nebula filter, and with the Ultrablock filter attached, three sections of the Veil Nebula were visible.

We will definitely be organising more of such trips to this place on a monthly basis. Anyone interested to join the mid-May trip can contact me or Weixing for further details.

Post by **Airconvent** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:37 am

Hi Sam/RichardII

Thanks for the reply. I've noticed that dew is a seasonal thing even in Mersing. My last trip to Mersing had some dew very early in the morning (4am) but largely clear before that which contrasted the trip before that when dew formed at 11pm and by 1am, I could feel water on my hair!

But overall, it looks like Mersing has found a competitor for non drivers.
For me, I still prefer to be able to load up everything on a vehicle and drive to an observation site...but the asphalt floor is something very promising and I may be tempted in future trip!

Do take more pics of the site when you next go again especially in the 4 directios from the carpakr, so we can have a good feel of what it looks like....a panoromic shot would be nice!

mm..the coalsack is an interesting dso. I've never really saw it, even in mersing and will make a point to look out for it when I next go to mersing again.. I believe the area would have been an ideal place for comet hunting as well...do take some images of those as well while you are there..

rich

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 1:15 pm

mm..the coalsack is an interesting dso. I've never really saw it, even in mersing and will make a point to look out for it when I next go to mersing again..

Hi Richard(I)

Furthermore....the zodiacal lights was also visible after twilight on 16 Apr 2004. Together with the sighting of the Veil Nebula, this goes to affirm that the sky darkness and transparency at the observation site is very good. So far I have seen this only at dark sites in Malaysia and I have seen it only once in Spore (P. Ubin) 18 years ago. That night, I had also wanted to look out for the 'counterglow', otherwise known as the gegenshein, but by the time midnight draws near, I was too busy looking around the Virgo Cluster area and forgot about the gegenshein...literally missing the forest for the trees.... Anyway, you may also want to look out for these objects.

with warm regards
rich II

Post by **Airconvent** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:21 pm

Hi Rich2

Interesting. This is the first time I have ever heard of this phenomenon.
Did a check and found out both are actually dust left over from the formation of our planets reflecting light from the sun.
Can I confirm from the article that both can be observed in Taurus and Gemini region?

rich

Here are some useful links:
http://www.psi.edu/~esquerdo/meteor.html
http://www.as.wvu.edu/~jel/skywatch/skw9810h.html

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 12:53 pm

Hi rich1

We can see these natural phenomena along the ecliptic at different times of the year independent of the constellations, as long as there is clear dark sky, no Milky Way in the background and no adjacent bright Moon, planets etc. They are called zodiacal lights because they are seen in the zodiac constellations (which lies along the ecliptic) including Gemini and Taurus.

clear skies!
rich2