But my main problem is still impatience. Can't overcome laziness to wait for clear skies so thought of whether there are better timing or months to observe.
Cheers
Photos of Changi Beach Park observation - 12/13 Dec 2010
Now should be monsoon period. Not the best period. Best should be roughly around March - July in Singapore but the global climate is getting more and more unpredictable.
In any case, there will be clear nights like last sunday/monday occasionally even during monsoon periods. So do not lose hope, plan ahead during cloudy nights. Make your grab-n-go setup even more portable. Check google map/streetview for potential nearby ob sites. Look at Stellarium and see if there is any interesting you would like to see when the opportunity arises.
For example, during last trip at changi beach. I was not concern with looking for meteors at all. I have seen better ones at Punggai before. But if I do see them (which I did), then I consider it a bonus. During the cloudy week leading up to his observation, I was looking at stellarium and planning how many Messier objects I can observe it the sky turns clear. I saw M38, M37 and M36 very close in Auriga constellation. I mentally try to remember their relative location to each other and to the brighter stars in Auriga so that I do not even need to waste a precious second of clear skies looking at my google sky map on my phone to look for them.
Because of this planning ahead, I figured I only need that patch of sky to be clear for about 10 mins to observe all 3 of them in quick succession. And boy was I lucky at changi, the sky was clear and remain clear way longer than 10 mins for me to observe them and bagged a few more messiers I have never seen through my scope. I can even afford to go for nasi lemak supper and come back to observe them again.![[smilie=relax2.gif]](./images/smilies/relax2.gif "relax2")
In any case, there will be clear nights like last sunday/monday occasionally even during monsoon periods. So do not lose hope, plan ahead during cloudy nights. Make your grab-n-go setup even more portable. Check google map/streetview for potential nearby ob sites. Look at Stellarium and see if there is any interesting you would like to see when the opportunity arises.
For example, during last trip at changi beach. I was not concern with looking for meteors at all. I have seen better ones at Punggai before. But if I do see them (which I did), then I consider it a bonus. During the cloudy week leading up to his observation, I was looking at stellarium and planning how many Messier objects I can observe it the sky turns clear. I saw M38, M37 and M36 very close in Auriga constellation. I mentally try to remember their relative location to each other and to the brighter stars in Auriga so that I do not even need to waste a precious second of clear skies looking at my google sky map on my phone to look for them.
Because of this planning ahead, I figured I only need that patch of sky to be clear for about 10 mins to observe all 3 of them in quick succession. And boy was I lucky at changi, the sky was clear and remain clear way longer than 10 mins for me to observe them and bagged a few more messiers I have never seen through my scope. I can even afford to go for nasi lemak supper and come back to observe them again.
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
