NGC 7293, Helix Nebula

[orly_andico]

from Bekok, Sunday night. Thanks to cloud_cover for bringing my battery pack that I forgot and left behind in Singapore! and thanks to Gary for the cereal prawn



9 x 5 minutes, one-shot color QHY8, guided @ 600mm FL.

[orly_andico]

Crop of the central portion. The noise is somewhat objectionable here (had to do a massive stretch due to too-few subs). the QHY8 probably needs 10-minute subs on this target with my f/6.7 scope.

[beginner]

Pretty good.
Looks like sky over there ok.

[cloud_cover]

Sky is good.
Local lighting prevents very good dark adaptation but even so milky way can be seen at Zenith, faintly.
I think Bekok will be a good place for AP and if Gary can find a place without nearby streetlights, then visual will also be better than that it is now.
Only issue is Dew - Optics MUST be heated!
While I've never been to Mersing, comparing Sedili, I think the skies in Bekok are better because I can see about as much Milky way with un-dark adapted eyes as I can in Sedili, so if I can really shield the eyes I think the "true" skies will look even better. Not that this matters to a CCD, of course.

[mymoon]

Great. That is half the travelling time for us from here.

The AP needs some open air exercise.

Kindly inform when is the next trip.

Cheers

[PETER LOO]

Very good detail & nice shot Orly,
Gary, please sms me if there is anymore further trip, i used to live near to Bekok & now stay near Bedok, can easily pop in either place ..

[Astrosiao]

Orly, [THUMBS UP SIGN][THUMBS UP SIGN]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[Gary]

@orly - Nice shot! You are most probably the first person to shoot Helix there. Looked so different on your laptop screen while imaging. Very impressive setup, especially the mount. Hope the beer was not too bad too.

@beginner - Yeah. Not too bad considering it's already october near-moonsoon type of weather.

@mariner & @mymoon. Shortening travelling distances is always a good thing as it can reduce fatigue, especially for drivers. Next few new moons will be in the monsoon period. Weather may not be suitable for astronomy. See how. Maybe can start planning for next year trips.

@astrosiao - Thanks for the ride! Brought back lots of nice memories and funny stories. Hope to see your photos soon.

@cloud_cover - Before you arrived, we saw the Milky Way with direct vision clearly arching from sag/sco near horizon to at least deneb in cygnus. Not faintly at zenith.

Personally, I don't think there is much difference between Sedili and Bekok skies. The last 2 trips we were at Sedili, stepping out the car without much dark eye-adaption, I remember seeing very clear skies too. And in the second last trip, the nearby chalet lights were still on.

End of the day, I feel some of us may be too overly obsessed about the best possible dark sky while comparing locations. It's like comparing 68 degree afov eyepiece with 70 and ignoring eye relief, coating, weight ...etc. Once the difference in dark skies is not really that huge, the other factors becomes more important:

(1) Probability of the best possible skies for a particular location happening on any given night.
(2) Shorter travelling distance to react quickly to sudden clear skies.
(3) Ease and safety of driving/travelling to the location which affects the ability to conserve as much energy as possible for the actual stargazing.
(4) Local light pollution.
(5) Quality of food & accommodation.
(6) Enjoying the company and support of friends (and perhaps even the locals) who also like to visit that location. E.g. free battery pack delivery service.

Lastly, just want to thank you guys for coming along. I had a great time. Too bad you guys can't stay for another night, it was waaaay better for longer periods that made us stayed awake from sunset to sunrise! Seeing Triangulum Galaxy visually in the 5" refractor. Wow.

Ok, getting off topic in Orly's thread.

[orly_andico]

Gary, you must have very good dark adaptation to see M33 in a 5"

[Gary]

Gary, you must have very good dark adaptation to see M33 in a 5"

Yes. I don't reveal all the secret dark spots to everyone. Some of them are not accessible by car.

By the time we started looking for M33, it was in a great position in the sky - near zenith. And the sky was clear enough to easily see M31 with naked eyes. Saw M33 using a 24mm eyepiece at about 40x magnification with the 5" achro. This is only the second time I manage to observe it. The mistake that I made in previous trips was pushing the magnification too hard with a C8 without realising it is an object with low surface brightness. By the time I realise that, sometimes the weather doesn't co-operate or I just forgot about it while busy hunting and observing other objects.

It looks like a fuzzy pancake thru the eyepiece with direct vision. With averted, the brightness increased slightly. Many beautiful stars in the background.

So finding the suitable magnification, waiting patiently for it to rise up higher in the sky and getting wide enough FOV is key to seeing M33. Of course, getting dark adapted is important too but fortunately we don't need to constantly look at bright laptop screens and camera LCDs.

If only the 14" monster is still around, we may be seeing some spiral arms!! Oh well. Something to look forward to.