Observation reports for 17/18 Sept 2011

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:10 pm

Hi Friends. I have created this thread to consolidate the observation reports for last night 17-9-2011 till sunrise today 18-9-2011.

@Canopus - I enjoyed reading your report! Quoting it here so that people who are interested in such reports can find it easily here in case they don't expect such reports in the Jupiter GRS thread. (admins/mod: I hope you guys don't mind)

Also, a few members sms'ed me last night about their exciting observations. I hope they can share their reports here no matter how brief and how "boring" it may sound. Even a simple "I saw this with this telescope at what time" is good enough. Collectively, this will enhance the fact that one can still see certain beautiful celestial objects in light-polluted Singapore.

So, please don't feel shy. The more people share their obs report in this forum, the more fun and interesting this forum will be. It is very good for the hobby here.

I will be posting mine later (family dinner time soon). In the meantime, enjoy Canopus's:

********************************************************************

From: http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php? ... ght=#72190

After a few months of not bringing out my 12.5" Obsession dob (a.k.a "Obby"), I finally got the chance last night. My target was Jupiter, which is my most favourite planet. Checking the satellite images, there were no high clouds over Singapore but a little haze. Checking also with the moon with naked eye, I could see that the atmosphere was excellent with sharp details on the moon and without any 'glow' due to high clouds or haze around the moon. Furthermore, the temperature was cool, no wind and quite humid, which are the ideal conditions for planetary observation.

At 1.30am, Jupiter was about 60 to 70 deg above horizon, and it was already showing razor sharp details at 320x with my Pentax 5XO eyepiece. There were some intermittent clouds and haze that went pass Jupiter, but overall, the atmosphere was excellent.

At 2 plus am, when Jupiter was 80 plus degree above horizon, near to the Zenith, I got one of the best view of this big planet in my life! Wow! Using a magnification of 420x (Pentax 3.8XP eyepiece), Jupiter was razor sharp... I mean really HD quality.. and the details was astounding until I gave up trying to sketch Jupiter. The amount of details seen from swirls/ festoons between the NEB and SEB, to intricate details inside the NEB and SEB, swirls and real tiny white ovals in the SEB and GRS showing an 'eye' shape very clearly and some white storms immediately on it's West side of Jupiter! Furthermore the temperate belts in the North and South had really fine fine belts with tiny ovals in them and in the North had 3 barges, one of them very brown and obvious. I can dare say that the image presented to me is as good (sharpness, contrast, details) as those of Damian Peach's planetary photography, but at real time and without any image processing. Seriously, one of the best view I had of Jupiter.

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:33 am

Here's the report of my observation session.

- Came back home from evening appointment around 2 am.

- Saw Jupiter shining brightly.

- Gave myself lots of excuses why I should not observe - sky will turn hazy and cloudy very quickly just like the morning before, should go for supper first and decide later, too late at night to depoly downstairs, may attract complains from overly-sensitive residents in nearby blocks, haven't clean some eyepieces since recent trips to Malaysia, too late to call my toa payoh buddies to come over, ...etc

- 45 mins later, the sky remain clear and Jupiter is yelling "Look at me and my GRS!!!!"

- Finally ran out of excuses when I saw the "dagger" of orion with naked eyes out of my window. It must be one of those you-must-be-kidding-me kind of night(morning) in Singapore.

- Immediately after I deployed my 8" SCT, looked at Jupiter and its GRS which was so clear and constrasty. Even the fine bands above NEB and below SEB can be clearly seen. Best view without losing details for non-bino view was with a WO 20mm 66 afov EP + 2x barlow giving about 200x. Even when trying higher mag at the expense of detail, there was no boiling effect when looking through the EPs at Jupiter.

- Later, when the SCT cooled down, binoviewed Jupiter with a pair of WO 20mm + 1.6x barlow - my favourite combination for nice view of Jupiter and Saturn. Seeing is definitely better than my last Bekok trip.

- My best previous high mag view of Moon was with a 20mm pair + binoviewer + 2x barlow. That view absolutely took my breath away. Since this night seems to be clear, I figured what the heck, for cheap super blurry thrills, i will added the 1.6x barlow in front of the 2x barlow. So you can imagine my surprise when I manage to actually focus the view. Truly astounding views of craters, mountains, valleys along he terminator. Saw some floaters at that magnification and some dark spots due to dirty eyepieces but I did not find them too distracting, was too busy observing the details on the lunar surface.

- Later some high level clouds floated in and blocked Jupiter and Moon for about 20 mins. Make use of the time to take a small break and stretch myself. Chased some of the nearby 5 - 6 cats for fun and exercise. LOL. (childish, I know. I prefer to call it young-at-heart or child-like:))

- The Orion and Auriga patch of sky cleared up. Took a nice look at the orion nebula with a 24mm and 20mm and M36, M37, M38. Double checked the collimation of my scope with some bright stars later. By the time I finished, Jupiter and Moon was clear again and continued to observe them like I did earlier until the sky turned blue at around 6.30 am.

In conclusion, my best view of Jupiter and Moon in the same session. What more can I ask for?

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:25 pm

Good that you also managed to catch Jupiter.

Now that Jupiter is progressively rising earlier, I guess I will catch it more often now...

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:40 pm

Haha. Yeah. It is always good to know that someone else somewhere in Singapore is also enjoying the clear sky.

With your last 2 reports about the views of Saturn and Jupiter through your dob, I am really looking forward to saving up for a dob soon.

Worse, got further poisoned when I accidentally saw your pic while searching the forums.

Observing chair, big dob, dark skies. Astro Heaven.

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:33 pm

Ha. Dob rules (visually) in Singapore.

Especially with our 'stable' temperature, there is really no need to 'cool' the scope. It works out of the box after standard cheshire/ laser alignment of the mirrors.

cloud_cover · Post by **cloud_cover** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 3:09 pm

Nice.... I also have a bit of a big Dob wish but then I have to move it into the lift then out into the car before setting up for observing.... result is that it will be used very little.
Ah well...... grab-and-go setup for me.