Scorpius at Bishan Park --- 21 Apr 2012 @ 3:51 AM

[Gary]

Shot this during friday's overnight impromptu stargazing cum sidewalk session at Bishan Park. Thanks Dave and Ben for keeping me company.


Canon Powershot A720IS. ISO 400. 10 sec. F/2.8. Photoshop.

[vivid]

Friday not too bad eh..... Haze levels could be lower though (it's just average from what i can see here to Batam island as a gauge). Seeing was actually very good, i could observe "BCC Hotel" in Batam with the red and blue neon light without much dancing.

Actually I like Scorpius a lot, you really see the "claw" struture for the top and then the tail section. At least it makes sense vs the real thing.

[Gary]

@vivid. Yea. Seeing was good friday after midnight, i.e. saturday early morning. Did you stay up during 1.30am - 3.30am?

Dave even saw one Lyrid meteor! Saturn was very sharp at 250x on the 5" MCT with Dave's 66deg afov 6mm EP. But shortly after sunrise, it rained like no tomorrow. Fortunately, I was enjoying a nice big breakfast under shelter.

[Davegn]

Hi gary,

Thanks for showing us the lovely photo you took.
Saturn was lovely looking thru your 5" MCT on Sat morning.

[Gary]

Hi Dave. You are very welcome. Thanks for hosting the event.

If not the high possibility of sudden rain or drizzle in the night/morning, we would have set up your 4" refractor again. I am sure at the same seeing condition, your refractor will should the Saturn's moons with greater pin-point contrast and in a more aesthetic widefield look fitting contrasty Saturn, its moons and still have space to spare around them for a hanging-in-space look and feel. Moreover, I was already very impressed with the look at our previous session and the seeing was not as good as this night.

Glad you like the photo. Feel free to use it in your FB and other promotional material for your group's sidewalk sessions.

[Airconvent]

That's quite a good dynamic range for the light for on flat not to overwhelm the image. Thanks for sharing..Scorpius is back..and so are the interesting objects at the galactic centre!

[Gary]

Thanks for the encouragement Richard. Had fun photoshoping it.

[vivid]

@vivid. Yea. Seeing was good friday after midnight, i.e. saturday early morning. Did you stay up during 1.30am - 3.30am?

Nope so far I have not stayed past 11.30 for my obs. Past 2 nights were very good "cloudwise" but pity about the haze, eg last night was decent till about 8.30pm when the haze rolled in. Over here it's easy to see how the haze affects transparency.