Trial run: Toa Payoh Observation Group now (re)open!

Post by **zong** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:01 am

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I went to the park at 8pm as i said. Sad that nobody was looking for me for the first hour, though understandable seeing the condition of the sky.

first up i went to vega in lyra. surprise! i can actually see the whole constellation in the finderscope, even with the thick clouds! I didn't expect that. However, my search for the ring neb didn't result in any tangible "fuzzy patch", as expected, but at least i can see the constellation!

Moving about in that area, i see a small cluster of stars in a 1deg(i think) field. Looks like stray stars, but according to my atlas there's a cluster in that area, and the clouds hinder my judgement of whether it is really a cluster, so i shall stop commenting about the "cluster" for now. I think it's CR399, the coathanger cluster.

As time goes and my eyes get used to the skies, i spot cygnus and gamma cygni above it. Estimating the distance of the 2, i "pointed" at albiero - 3x distance between alpha and gamma cygni, extended in the direction of gamma from alpha, then to the left a little. Amazing! I didn't even need the finderscope. It's already in the view of my scope! The split is very cute, and the 2 stars of blue and red hue is very easily seen, even when i look up at the sky and can only slightly "see" the star through the thick clouds.

Looked in the direction of orion - and saw very very very distinctly - a lot of M0 (clouds).. not even rigel and betelgeuse could be seen

Went over to jupiter. The 4 moons are distinct, but the planet itself is very soft and blur, no matter how i focus. At 48x, i could "see" a few bands there. Not sure is it real or my imagination. At 150x it's impossible to focus.

Saw antares, "traced" out the constellation, and pointed at M7. Initially i was shocked to see only so few stars.. i couldn't even confirm if that was M7!! Then i moved the scope a little and found M6, which was also another disappointment.

By around 9pm, i was done with the above and nearly wanted to start packing, but clifford finally came, and i showed him the above things in reverse order, M6 first. Then i left for home around 945pm.

Goes to show something: no matter how bad the sky is, something can still be seen! also, a 5" mct rocks!! Portable, quick set-up, can see so many things even in such lousy skies!

Post by **acc** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:08 am

Great to see that you are over-coming the odds to enjoy a nice ob session!

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:13 am

Yup I agree with you that sometimes stars can be seen despite real bad sky. One of the nights last week I was testing my Digital Setting Circle (DSC), and it worked this time!

Actually with that I found many many objects (star clusters and globs found. nebulae and galaxies are out of the question as the sky is too bright and hazy) with my dob and the surprising thing is that the sky was so bad that the number of stars seen were even less than my 10 fingers. But of course the stars is a far cry from what can be seen in a dark place, but nonetheless it could be seen!

Lily · Post by **Lily** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:06 am

I went to the park at 8pm as i said. Sad that nobody was looking for me for the first hour, though understandable seeing the condition of the sky.

Sorry couldn't join coz we held a birthday party for my son and our guests were around till 10pm.

I am amazed you could see quite a number of stars and that includes my favourite Albireo too! My place was quite bright so we could only see Jupiter. My children showed the guests Jupiter through Andrew's Edmund Scientific cute scope. Everybody was excited

.

Will join you this Sat if you go for ob.

Regards,
Lily

astrobabe · Post by **astrobabe** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:09 am

zong wrote:Goes to show something: no matter how bad the sky is, something can still be seen! also, a 5" mct rocks!! Portable, quick set-up, can see so many things even in such lousy skies!

What's "mct"?

Post by **weixing** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:15 am

Hi,

What's "mct"?

It's a type of telescope... Maksutov Cassegrain Telescope (MCT). Example are Sky-Watcher 127 and Meade ETX-127.

Have a nice day.

Post by **zong** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:04 am

Hi Lily, sure, this saturday again, unless it rains. I don't believe my luck is soooo bad that i can't get a good sky 4 saturdays in a row that i try to organise stargazing sessions.

I'll be at the park again on saturday at 8-10pm, and, depending on condition, i might end later or earlier. You could also bring the CLS aka "cute little scope" to liven up the place more! the more scopes the merrier, haha..

Lily · Post by **Lily** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:02 am

Thanks Zong. Will sms you later of the week to find out if the session is on.

Lily

Post by **zong** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 5:30 pm

Just to update the thread abit, yes the ob is still on unless it rains. And if it does, it's a sign that somebody up there doesn't want me to continue obs at Toa Payoh, because 4x bad skies in a row is not a good sign.

Heck, do i care? even if the skies don't like me and still be cloudy this saturday, i'll continue obbing in Toa Payoh.

Post by **zong** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 8:13 pm

I give up. Went out around 755pm. It's drizzling, a drop hits my head every few seconds. I'd rather not take the risk of it becoming a rain, so i cancel today's ob session...

Somebody must have been buying new stuff around the central area! Who's invoked the new scope curse?! lol..