Mersing Obs Expedition (1-2 Oct 05) Trip Report

kohjb · Post by **kohjb** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:56 pm

Here's my first attempt that night at CCD imaging of the Dumbbell Nebula using the Orion ED80/CG5 with Meade DSI Pro. Only in monochrome this time, and post-processed with Photoshop. Next time, will attempt to see how good it can get with the color filters. Thanks a lot to Matthew for all his advice on how to get the most out of this technology !

Joo Beng

Post by **weixing** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:06 pm

Hi,
I think the shootout didn't bring out the best of both scope... the sky was quite bad actually... only realise in the morning... the sky were overcast with high altitude clouds...

quite amazing that we didn't realise there are cloud at night... the stars look bright and clear... But when you look at M1, you know there is something wrong with the sky... M1 look very dim, which is not normal if the sky is good in Mersing.

Have a nice day.

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 11:42 pm

Hi Elton,
I don't know about you but the views on your Tak were stunning, smaller aperture or not! The wideviews were reminisce of my ex-Orion ED80 and not possible on the 8" SCT even with a focal reducer.
In fact, with focal reducer and 32mm eyepiece, I could not even frame the entire M45 in my FOV....

Weixing - I DID tell you the sky was not that good...about 70% full potential even though we could see all the stars and even a faint naked eye M31..noticed some improvement after 2 am though...

CC - Thanks for the tips on the Nexstar Controller. I got some replies from the N8 forums also and it seems I have used it non-optimally wrongly in some areas. ..this happens because i did not take the scope out for a shake down trial before Mersing...I know I will be able to do better the next time I am there...

I am also reminded that I did not walk around to talk to the newcomers to know them better. only when I returned back home did I realise that...next time must allocate an hour or so for socialising...heh heh

rich

Post by **weixing** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 12:08 am

Hi,

Weixing - I DID tell you the sky was not that good...about 70% full potential even though we could see all the stars and even a faint naked eye M31..noticed some improvement after 2 am though...

Yes, you did tell me and I know the sky was not that good, but I'm not quite sure how it going to affect my image.... Lesson learned. I just wonder does it affect the images Matthew taken???

I am also reminded that I did not walk around to talk to the newcomers to know them better. only when I returned back home did I realise that...next time must allocate an hour or so for socialising...heh heh

I thought you took part in the "how much does the bino worth" game with them in the dark... hee hee hee =P =P =P

Have a nice day.

Post by **Airconvent** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 1:13 am

weixing wrote:Hi,
I thought you took part in the "how much does the bino worth" game with them in the dark... hee hee hee =P =P =P
Have a nice day.

no lah...too busy getting acquainted with the N8 and also slurping over the images from the Tak.
did not have a chance to look through chris or mooey's portaball due to the ground sheet...already so paiseh stepped on it a few times in the dark as its black in colour...:roll:

rich

elton · Post by **elton** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 2:49 am

Took part in the game too and didn't expect to see so much through binos, especially rlow's nikons. Next time I think i'll just bring binos and leave the scopes at home

Weixing - no leh, I thought seeing was decent when mars rose above 45 deg. thin high clouds / slight haze don't affect planetary viewing much. good seeing is far more important.

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:29 am

Weixing - I DID tell you the sky was not that good...about 70% full potential even though we could see all the stars and even a faint naked eye M31..noticed some improvement after 2 am though...

I would agree that on 01 oct 05, the transparency of the Mersing sky was slightly inferior to the previous Mersing trip probably due to intermittent unlit thin high-altitude clouds, that's why deep sky objects are not as bright and subtle dim features are not visible.

But even then, I don't think this should detract from the fact that the sky was generally clear and we should thank our lucky stars that it was not cloudy the whole night (It had happened to me twice before). And all of us saw many many stars and DSOs, probably more (and in greater detail) than what we would have seen in Singapore on any night. For reference, I check the naked-eye visual limiting magnitude on Orion at the zenith at about 5am and my visual estimate is magnitude 5.9, which I think is relatively good, as some of us did see the Milky Way streaming across from Perseus through Auriga, Gemini and Canis Major.