I went to Kluang by coach from Singapore and met up with Robin (resident there), and William (universe24) who drove down from KL.
I did not hold much hope of clear skies as there had been a persistent high level haze or general high level cloudiness over the past several days in Singapore.
However, in summary, the skies were quite good, weather wise, which was a real bonus given my earlier low expectations. It was mostly clear from about 9pm to 11pm, and again from 1am to 4am.
At 9pm, the central Milky Way region and surrounding arms were bright and clear. I could easily make out all of the Dark Horse (dark nebulosity) in the upper half of the central bulge, including the less prominent horse's head area. I had also seen the Dark Horse one new Moon previously at Mersing (Telok Sari).
Here is a photo of the Milky Way which I took with a Canon 10-22mm lens at 10mm, equivalent to 16mm full frame. 300 seconds, ISO 800, f/3.5, tracked with an Astrotrac.
The image quality is not very satisfactory, and I think I will have to take multiple frames in future to stack them. Simple adjustments done with Photoshop.
Next, I'm pleased to report that my hitherto poor luck with meteor observation finally ended that night. In all, I saw about 25-30 meteors. It was the most number of meteors I've seen in one night (well, I'm sure others have seen a lot more).
I think most were southern Delta Aquariids (from the general orientation of the meteors), but some were early Perseids and others probably sporadics. The best was one seen at around 2.30am just below Deneb in Cygnus: it streaked for only about 10 degrees but was I think as bright as Venus! I saw blue, green and some yellow. Another meteor at around 3am was roughly the same brightness as Jupiter, was all white, and reached a length of around 30-40 degrees. However, the other meteors were mainly faint (mag 3), and one was so faint (around mag 6) that I wonder if I had really seen it or had just imagined it. I did spend most of my time that night on a look out for meteors.
Finally, about the conditions at the farm. Alas, the farm has been adding some more lighting to several areas. There was one new bright lighting installation near the rice fields, which they kindly switched off at our request. However, there was a group of about 30-50 primary school students camping next to the main building that night, so the lighting at the main building remained on throughout the night, which was a major source of local light pollution. The effect of the lights was magnified due to the presence of some local mist.
Overall, though, it was a good night under the stars. Thanks to Robin and William for the transport and great company!
