Been to Kluang area once. The dew can be quite bad... so have to really have dew heaters and necessary protection. Yes and it starts dewing early.starfinder wrote:Tks rlow for the info.rlow wrote:We have obbed twice somewhere between Kluang and G. Belumut, and it gets misty rather early. Just for info. The farm does look like a good place for us.
Hey, if that farm is suitable for astro, i.e. mist is not an issue etc, I think that would be a good place to build an observatory! It would be in quite a secure enclosed location, i.e. as opposed to a solitary building out in the rural open. Lease a tiny spot of land from the farm, or another farm similar to it. Then can house an Obsession, an AP, and the complete range of Pentaxes and Televues. Plus a Fujinon 150mm bino. All in dry cabinets of course.
Now, that's a dream. From what I know of, private observatories are quite common in many countries such as the States, Australia, etc. So why not in Malaysia. Call it the SingObstrovatory.
That's our Vision 2015. And complete it 3 years in advance.
Good astro observing site at Kahang Organic Farm?
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Canopus Lim
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AstroDuck
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starfinder
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I have contacted the Kahang farm by email.
They replied to say that they welcome people going there for star gazing (subject to applicable fees of course). They add that "Our farm is an open rice field with wide clear sky window with very little light interference from the surroundings."
Hmmm... am thinking of going there overnight on Sat 10th April. That would be just 3-4 days before New Moon, and the Moon would rise only at 4.30am at 12% phase.
Even if it is cloudy/foggy/"dewy", in the morning I suppose I could feed the farm ducks, plant rice, bird watch, jalan jalan in the paddy fields, etc etc. Should be quite relaxing and a world away from urban overcrowded swamped Singapore.
They replied to say that they welcome people going there for star gazing (subject to applicable fees of course). They add that "Our farm is an open rice field with wide clear sky window with very little light interference from the surroundings."
Hmmm... am thinking of going there overnight on Sat 10th April. That would be just 3-4 days before New Moon, and the Moon would rise only at 4.30am at 12% phase.
Even if it is cloudy/foggy/"dewy", in the morning I suppose I could feed the farm ducks, plant rice, bird watch, jalan jalan in the paddy fields, etc etc. Should be quite relaxing and a world away from urban overcrowded swamped Singapore.
Thanks for the warning!guangwei wrote:Yes uncountable mosquitoes. Also different kinds of insects. Saw this giant juicy grasshopper near to a size of a normal ruler. And also a praying mantis and many spiders. the forest around you can spot some monkeys hahahha
[80% Steve, 20% Alfred] ------- Probability of Clear Skies = (Age of newest equipment in days) / [(Number of observers) * (Total Aperture of all telescopes present in mm)]
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starfinder
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Here is an observation trip and assessment report on an astro site.
Elton, Wei Xing, Clement and I stayed over at the Kahang Organic Rice Eco Farm on Sat night.
I drove up via the Tuas Link and the North-South Highway, exiting at the Ayer Hitam highway exit, and then continuing on the main trunk road east through Keluang town, and then further east on to the small town of Kahang. The farm’s entrance is 6km beyond Kahang town, and is about 200m on the right beyond the bridge over the Kahang river. The entrance is signposted. From the entrance to the farm houses, we had to drive along a single-lane unpaved track for about 500m (wet in parts but not muddy).
Total road distance from Singapore customs at Tuas to the farm is about 155km. Time taken from Malaysian customs at the 2nd Link to the farm was 2hr 10mins up, and 1hr 59mins on the return. There were practically no queues at either Singapore customs or Malaysia customs on both the up-leg (2pm) on Sat and the return on Sun (also 2pm). At most 2-3 cars in front of a booth.
From the highway exit at Ayer Hitam to Keluang, it’s a 4 lane road (i.e. two-by-two). From Keluang to Kahang, it’s a two lane road; this road winds quite a bit in some parts though the road is well maintained throughout, and I averaged about 60km/hr but slowed to 40kmh along sharp bends.
On Sunday, we explored a bit further east about 10km beyond the farm, and crossed over to Mersing district before U-turning back towards Kahang. That district border area is primarily rainforest (hopefully it too won’t be destroyed for more palm oil plantations like the rest of Johor), and reminded us that we were near Endau-Rompin national park. In fact, Kahang is the southern gateway approach to the park.
Anyway, back to Sat’s story. The staff at the farm are very friendly. We checked into two rooms, which were both not air-conditioned but each had attached simple bathroom-toilets. The rooms were spartan but quite clean and there were no mosquitoes in the rooms. After checking out potential observing sites at the farm, we drove back 6 mins to Kahang for dinner. Kahang appears to be a predominantly Chinese town, much smaller than Mersing. We had dinner at a small Chinese coffee-shop right next to the Shell petrol station along the main road. Dishes ordered were local fresh-water river fish, wild boar, and kangkong. The cooking was good, although I was hesitant about taking wild boar. There were 2 other Chinese restaurants nearby along the same row of shop houses, plus a Malay coffee-shop and a provision shop. There is also a Caltex station further east along the main road with a larger mini-mart than the one at Shell .
After dinner, we deployed our scopes in the farm just before sunset. We chose to set-up in an open gravel car-parking area about 100m from the farm buildings. Obstruction was at most 20 degrees in some places, mostly in the south, due to forest trees bordering the farm and it was about 10 degrees in most other places. I brought an LX-90 8” SCT and Weixing a Vixen 200mm Cassegrain. The others brought along premium eyepieces.
A few large mosquitoes were seen about, so we burnt coils to keep them at bay. That worked very well, and it was essentially pest free throughout the night. Perhaps the mosquitoes there don’t like the smell of coils much. So do remember to bring mosquito coils and repellent if visiting the farm.
Weather-wise for astronomy… Well, on Sat morning, there were heavy showers in Singapore which didn’t make things look promising. A check of satellite photos on the Japanese meteorological agency website had shown that there was a Battle Royale taking place between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea for dominance of the Malay Peninsula. It was quite cloud-free in the S.C. Sea, but there was a huge mass of cloud over the entire Straits which spilled over to Singapore and the Peninsula. Our astro happiness depended on whether the S.C. Sea could harness the strength to push back the Straits. What would happen that night, we wondered?
On Sat night, by 8.30pm, things were looking bad at our ob site. We saw a grand total of 3 stars in succession, and at that, it was one at a time 5 mins apart. Pathetic! Later on at 10pm some small patches grudgingly opened up for brief periods.
However, it was only at around midnight that we got some really good astro going. The best period was from 2am to about 4.30am, when about two-thirds of the sky was cloud free, mainly in the all important south to southeast regions and up overhead where Leo and Coma were looming over us. Good!
Objects-wise, we saw quite a lot. I recall observing the following. Globulars: Omega Centauri, M13, M92, M22, M4, M5, M80. It was the first time we had done a simultaneous comparison between the famous ones. A surprise was that whilst Omega is much larger and is brighter overall, M13 and M92 (both in Hercules) were brighter on a “per square inch” basis, especially in their core areas. Nevertheless, Omega was as usual wonderful in the eyepiece, and the view using Elton’s 13mm Ethos was marvelous.
I also used a Baader Hyperion 24mm 68 deg eyepiece, the first time I used it out in the field. We found it to be a very good performer in the LX90 (f/10): views through it were pin-point sharp and contrasty, with quite good edge sharpness too. It compared well with a 14mm XL.
Galaxies were in abundance, and the Goto capabilities of the Autostar-driven LX-90 proved its mettle throughout the night. We saw Centaurus A, M104 Sombrero, the trio in Leo in one field of view, the twin M51 Whirlpool, and did a good amount of galaxy hopping in the Coma cluster, slowly identifying and seeing the Markarian’s Chain of galaxies and others “nearby”. It was often a case of “I think I see another galaxy in the eyepiece, apart from the other three.”
Apart from some planetaries, we also saw some meteors. I saw 6, more than the rest, which was unusual, since I tend to be the one who sees the fewest meteors in an ob session. One meteor in the south at 4am was particularly bright, bright yellow to boot, and travelled fast almost horizontally for about 20 degrees. I think it pointed back towards Aquarius.
From around 3am-4.30am, the Milky Way could be clearly seen, though it was a bit muted. It stretched from Aquila (faint), on to the main bulge at Sagittarius (bright), and then further south on to Norma/Ara (faint). Without optics, I managed to see the Pipe dark nebula and the dark nebula patches next to it which together make up the Dark Horse nebula, with the horse’s “legs” pointing towards Antares. As is my usual practice, I spent much time ambling about the Milky Way region through binoculars, a 15x50 IS and an 8x32 SE combination, which I think work quite well together.
What about the sky conditions there, in terms of darkness? Overall, I would say it is a dark-sky site, though perhaps not a pristine one (almost none left in Johor anyway). The main sky glow is a 20-by-20 degree white patch in the west-south-west due to Kahang town, which is probably a bit brighter by comparison than the sky-glow of Mersing as seen from Telok Sari. However, at around 3am, even that was noticeably darker than it was earlier on.
There is also a faint sky glow due south, up to about 15-20 degrees, probably due to Singapore and JB, but that one is I think dimmer than the southern sky glow at Telok Sari (due to Mersing). However, in the all important southeast and due east and in the north, there is no noticeable light pollution, and in the northeast there is a slight interference (probably from Mersing).
The main farm building itself (100m away) was a source of light pollution in the northeast, esp a few bright bulbs in the main activity hall for guests. When the lights there went off at 3am, the sky glow in that direction vanished. The staff told me the next morning that we could have turned the lights off there if we wanted.
Those 2-3 bulbs were a slight source of distraction, so we positioned our scopes such that some trees blocked them off. However, other than that, there were no other local light sources in all other directions (the main road is about 500m away).
At about 4am, all four of us did a dark-sky site magnitude test, looking out for faint stars with naked eyes in an area near the head of Scorpius, which was then about 70 degrees above the horizon, and compared these with a star atlas. All of us managed to see one particular star, which according to The Sky software I later checked, is at magnitude 5.6 (SAO 160052). Weixing also managed to see another star next to that one, which is catalogued at mag 6.25 (SAO 184541). So, to have mag 6 skies overhead is really good!
However, most of the time, our views of the stars in optics were somewhat muted, due either to thin high-level clouds or perhaps local moisture, but there were instances of sharp clarity in several places. It was earlier a very rainy day anyway. As it was our first time there, it is difficult to tell what the sky conditions would be at other times, and I’ve certainly seen similar sky conditions at Telok Sari.
We packed up at 4.30am since mist started to roll into our site (there was none before that). Elton turned on a light and pointed out the fast-moving tiny water particles streaming down like miniature rain. However, despite the fog, we could still see the constellation stars and even a muted Milky Way. We then went into our rooms to try to get some much needed rest.
Overall, it was a good night of astronomy, and I’m glad to have managed to check out this place and found it to be a good site overall for astronomy. Chalk up one more in Johor!
Here are some photos:
The road from Keluang to Kahang
Main road in Kahang town
The coffee-shop in Kahang town where we had dinner
Large rice paddy fields at the Kahang Organic Rice Eco Farm
Lotus filled pond at the farm
Our accommodation building in the farm
The gravel parking area where we set-up the scopes
Another part of the farm which might be suitable for observing, though not sure if vehicles would pass through at night
Elton, Wei Xing, Clement and I stayed over at the Kahang Organic Rice Eco Farm on Sat night.
I drove up via the Tuas Link and the North-South Highway, exiting at the Ayer Hitam highway exit, and then continuing on the main trunk road east through Keluang town, and then further east on to the small town of Kahang. The farm’s entrance is 6km beyond Kahang town, and is about 200m on the right beyond the bridge over the Kahang river. The entrance is signposted. From the entrance to the farm houses, we had to drive along a single-lane unpaved track for about 500m (wet in parts but not muddy).
Total road distance from Singapore customs at Tuas to the farm is about 155km. Time taken from Malaysian customs at the 2nd Link to the farm was 2hr 10mins up, and 1hr 59mins on the return. There were practically no queues at either Singapore customs or Malaysia customs on both the up-leg (2pm) on Sat and the return on Sun (also 2pm). At most 2-3 cars in front of a booth.
From the highway exit at Ayer Hitam to Keluang, it’s a 4 lane road (i.e. two-by-two). From Keluang to Kahang, it’s a two lane road; this road winds quite a bit in some parts though the road is well maintained throughout, and I averaged about 60km/hr but slowed to 40kmh along sharp bends.
On Sunday, we explored a bit further east about 10km beyond the farm, and crossed over to Mersing district before U-turning back towards Kahang. That district border area is primarily rainforest (hopefully it too won’t be destroyed for more palm oil plantations like the rest of Johor), and reminded us that we were near Endau-Rompin national park. In fact, Kahang is the southern gateway approach to the park.
Anyway, back to Sat’s story. The staff at the farm are very friendly. We checked into two rooms, which were both not air-conditioned but each had attached simple bathroom-toilets. The rooms were spartan but quite clean and there were no mosquitoes in the rooms. After checking out potential observing sites at the farm, we drove back 6 mins to Kahang for dinner. Kahang appears to be a predominantly Chinese town, much smaller than Mersing. We had dinner at a small Chinese coffee-shop right next to the Shell petrol station along the main road. Dishes ordered were local fresh-water river fish, wild boar, and kangkong. The cooking was good, although I was hesitant about taking wild boar. There were 2 other Chinese restaurants nearby along the same row of shop houses, plus a Malay coffee-shop and a provision shop. There is also a Caltex station further east along the main road with a larger mini-mart than the one at Shell .
After dinner, we deployed our scopes in the farm just before sunset. We chose to set-up in an open gravel car-parking area about 100m from the farm buildings. Obstruction was at most 20 degrees in some places, mostly in the south, due to forest trees bordering the farm and it was about 10 degrees in most other places. I brought an LX-90 8” SCT and Weixing a Vixen 200mm Cassegrain. The others brought along premium eyepieces.
A few large mosquitoes were seen about, so we burnt coils to keep them at bay. That worked very well, and it was essentially pest free throughout the night. Perhaps the mosquitoes there don’t like the smell of coils much. So do remember to bring mosquito coils and repellent if visiting the farm.
Weather-wise for astronomy… Well, on Sat morning, there were heavy showers in Singapore which didn’t make things look promising. A check of satellite photos on the Japanese meteorological agency website had shown that there was a Battle Royale taking place between the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea for dominance of the Malay Peninsula. It was quite cloud-free in the S.C. Sea, but there was a huge mass of cloud over the entire Straits which spilled over to Singapore and the Peninsula. Our astro happiness depended on whether the S.C. Sea could harness the strength to push back the Straits. What would happen that night, we wondered?
On Sat night, by 8.30pm, things were looking bad at our ob site. We saw a grand total of 3 stars in succession, and at that, it was one at a time 5 mins apart. Pathetic! Later on at 10pm some small patches grudgingly opened up for brief periods.
However, it was only at around midnight that we got some really good astro going. The best period was from 2am to about 4.30am, when about two-thirds of the sky was cloud free, mainly in the all important south to southeast regions and up overhead where Leo and Coma were looming over us. Good!
Objects-wise, we saw quite a lot. I recall observing the following. Globulars: Omega Centauri, M13, M92, M22, M4, M5, M80. It was the first time we had done a simultaneous comparison between the famous ones. A surprise was that whilst Omega is much larger and is brighter overall, M13 and M92 (both in Hercules) were brighter on a “per square inch” basis, especially in their core areas. Nevertheless, Omega was as usual wonderful in the eyepiece, and the view using Elton’s 13mm Ethos was marvelous.
I also used a Baader Hyperion 24mm 68 deg eyepiece, the first time I used it out in the field. We found it to be a very good performer in the LX90 (f/10): views through it were pin-point sharp and contrasty, with quite good edge sharpness too. It compared well with a 14mm XL.
Galaxies were in abundance, and the Goto capabilities of the Autostar-driven LX-90 proved its mettle throughout the night. We saw Centaurus A, M104 Sombrero, the trio in Leo in one field of view, the twin M51 Whirlpool, and did a good amount of galaxy hopping in the Coma cluster, slowly identifying and seeing the Markarian’s Chain of galaxies and others “nearby”. It was often a case of “I think I see another galaxy in the eyepiece, apart from the other three.”
Apart from some planetaries, we also saw some meteors. I saw 6, more than the rest, which was unusual, since I tend to be the one who sees the fewest meteors in an ob session. One meteor in the south at 4am was particularly bright, bright yellow to boot, and travelled fast almost horizontally for about 20 degrees. I think it pointed back towards Aquarius.
From around 3am-4.30am, the Milky Way could be clearly seen, though it was a bit muted. It stretched from Aquila (faint), on to the main bulge at Sagittarius (bright), and then further south on to Norma/Ara (faint). Without optics, I managed to see the Pipe dark nebula and the dark nebula patches next to it which together make up the Dark Horse nebula, with the horse’s “legs” pointing towards Antares. As is my usual practice, I spent much time ambling about the Milky Way region through binoculars, a 15x50 IS and an 8x32 SE combination, which I think work quite well together.
What about the sky conditions there, in terms of darkness? Overall, I would say it is a dark-sky site, though perhaps not a pristine one (almost none left in Johor anyway). The main sky glow is a 20-by-20 degree white patch in the west-south-west due to Kahang town, which is probably a bit brighter by comparison than the sky-glow of Mersing as seen from Telok Sari. However, at around 3am, even that was noticeably darker than it was earlier on.
There is also a faint sky glow due south, up to about 15-20 degrees, probably due to Singapore and JB, but that one is I think dimmer than the southern sky glow at Telok Sari (due to Mersing). However, in the all important southeast and due east and in the north, there is no noticeable light pollution, and in the northeast there is a slight interference (probably from Mersing).
The main farm building itself (100m away) was a source of light pollution in the northeast, esp a few bright bulbs in the main activity hall for guests. When the lights there went off at 3am, the sky glow in that direction vanished. The staff told me the next morning that we could have turned the lights off there if we wanted.
Those 2-3 bulbs were a slight source of distraction, so we positioned our scopes such that some trees blocked them off. However, other than that, there were no other local light sources in all other directions (the main road is about 500m away).
At about 4am, all four of us did a dark-sky site magnitude test, looking out for faint stars with naked eyes in an area near the head of Scorpius, which was then about 70 degrees above the horizon, and compared these with a star atlas. All of us managed to see one particular star, which according to The Sky software I later checked, is at magnitude 5.6 (SAO 160052). Weixing also managed to see another star next to that one, which is catalogued at mag 6.25 (SAO 184541). So, to have mag 6 skies overhead is really good!
However, most of the time, our views of the stars in optics were somewhat muted, due either to thin high-level clouds or perhaps local moisture, but there were instances of sharp clarity in several places. It was earlier a very rainy day anyway. As it was our first time there, it is difficult to tell what the sky conditions would be at other times, and I’ve certainly seen similar sky conditions at Telok Sari.
We packed up at 4.30am since mist started to roll into our site (there was none before that). Elton turned on a light and pointed out the fast-moving tiny water particles streaming down like miniature rain. However, despite the fog, we could still see the constellation stars and even a muted Milky Way. We then went into our rooms to try to get some much needed rest.
Overall, it was a good night of astronomy, and I’m glad to have managed to check out this place and found it to be a good site overall for astronomy. Chalk up one more in Johor!
Here are some photos:
The road from Keluang to Kahang
Main road in Kahang town
The coffee-shop in Kahang town where we had dinner
Large rice paddy fields at the Kahang Organic Rice Eco Farm
Lotus filled pond at the farm
Our accommodation building in the farm
The gravel parking area where we set-up the scopes
Another part of the farm which might be suitable for observing, though not sure if vehicles would pass through at night
Last edited by starfinder on Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
