Mersing Astro Expedition 01 July 11 to 03 July 11

[starfinder]

Yup, those two nights were memorable.

The sight of the wide stretch of the Milky Way arcing high up almost overhead was very rewarding. Just imagine, there right in front of us spanning over 100 degrees was a huge galaxy with a long dust lane running through it, with clouds split into various patches and rifts. The Sombrero is so miniscule by comparison!

An indication of the quality of the sky overhead was that I could make out the Dark Horse in full, in the area above the core of the Milky Way. Not very high in contrast but it could be seen. I think the reason why we seldom see the Coal Sack is bec it is much lower in the sky, and mired in the sky glow of Singapore and JB to the south.


As I went to the meeting point right after work, I only brought along a 15x50 Canon IS bino and 8X32 Nikon SE. That combination was just about adequate, and I spent hours surfing around the light and dark clouds of the Milky Way, plus looking at the extremely rich star fields of Cygnus, like one never ending open cluster.

So I say, spend more time out there at dark sky sites viewing the stars and less trading and talking about equipment! Equipment is necessary of course, but it's not what astronomy ought to be about.

I also think school groups should banish goto mounts from their inventory... they would learn a whole lot more with manual setups using star charts. So I'm glad I started off before goto mounts became prevalent.

[cataclysm]

As I went to the meeting point right after work, I only brought along a 15x50 Canon IS bino and 8X32 Nikon SE. That combination was just about adequate, and I spent hours surfing around the light and dark clouds of the Milky Way, plus looking at the extremely rich star fields of Cygnus, like one never ending open cluster.

So I say, spend more time out there at dark sky sites viewing the stars and less trading and talking about equipment! Equipment is necessary of course, but it's not what astronomy ought to be about.

I also think school groups should banish goto mounts from their inventory... they would learn a whole lot more with manual setups using star charts. So I'm glad I started off before goto mounts became prevalent.

Well said Gavin, reminds me to look up more at the dark skies rather than being too fixated at the laptop monitor.

[cataclysm]

Hi folks, this is the last image from the trip. Only managed to salvage 3 better subs to stacked. Slight 'smearing' on the faint background stars ,could be due to vibration from the camera's cooling fan. Here ia another widefield with the 100mm lens of Gamma Cygni . The camera really reveals the immensity of it's faint nebulous region shrouded by the rich Milkyway stars.

[Bergkamp_]

Sweet~!

[starfinder]

Here is another widefield with the 100mm lens of Gamma Cygni . The camera really reveals the immensity of it's faint nebulous region shrouded by the rich Milkyway stars.

Gasp! The photo is simply superb. Very sharp and high in contrast.

See, just as I was saying how rich in stars Cygnus is and you produce a photo to prove it! Thanks for providing a record of what I saw (well, didn't see that many with my eyes).

I recall that the other region which is also very rich in individual stars is Puppis (esp the area behind the "dog's tail" of Canis Major).

[shirox]

From the previous Mersing trip