15" ZOC dob : DIY Project
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Clifford60
- Posts: 1289
- Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:41 pm
- Location: Central
Observation Report at Sedili Besar on 02 July 2011
Last Saturday 2 July 2011, we had a four-car convoy heading to Tanjung Sutera Resort at Sedili Besar for an overnight observation session.
Kochu and I are frequent visitors to this place, as we do our astronomy activity there two or three times a month. Elton Fong joined us in my car. Also we had Richard (airconvent) and Weixing in the third car, and Collin (oxygen) and wife in the fourth car.
We left Singapore in the late afternoon and stopped over for dinner halfway just outside Kota Tinggi. We reached the resort about 7pm and immediately set up our scope.
Airconvent brought his ETX-105mm Maksutov, while Wexing set up his Vixen R200SS Newtonian on an alt-azimuth mount. Kochu has an imaging apo setup on EQ6 Pro as usual. There were also three other imaging setups by the regular imagers from Tasos. I brought along the DIY 15" dobsonian for its 4th-light session.
The sky was overcast when we were setting up out scopes, but soon after that it began to clear up with patches of slow-moving clouds. There was also a thin haze visible all around the sky, so transparency was not the best, just 8/10. Seeing was very good as we had observed Saturn sharp and in high contrast at 400x in the 15" dob. Temperature was probably 22-24 degrees C, and with the constand land breeze, it was quite chilly, especially after midnight onwards. There was some dew but the dob was not affected.
Airconvent, Weixing, Elton and I spend most of the time observing with the 15" dob. The equatorial platform was not used so the viewing height is low enough for me to observe without a stool. At the zenith, I am able to tiptoe to reach the eyepiece height. We did use the two-step ladder for better comfort. The eyepieces we frequently used that night were from the XW series: 40mm (50x), 20mm (100x), 10mm (200x) and 5mm (400x). We also used the O-III and Ultrablock filters on emission nebulae and planetary nebulae.
Here are some of the Messier Objects we observed in the 15" dob: M4, M6, M7, Lagoon Nebula (M8), Wild Duck Cluster (M11), M13, M15, Eagle Nebula (M16), Swan Nebula (M17), Trifid Nebula (M20), M22, M24, Dumbbell Nebula (M27), M28, Andromeda Galaxy (M31, M32, M110), M33, M45, Whirlpool Galaxy (M51 & 5195), M55, Ring Nebula (M57), Owl Nebula (M97), M101, Sombero Galaxy (M104).
When the Ring Nebula culminates at the meridien, I made another observation to look out for the central star. I had observed the central star before in Andrew's 15" dob with ZOC mirror at 600x magnification. However now the transparency is poorer, and we are hampered by the bright nebulosity within the Ring. But I decided to make an attempt at 400x using the XW 5mm. After about 30 secs of observing, I managed to detect the central star momentarily on two occasions. I tried again and saw the central star again three more times. Two other observers also managed to bag this elusive object that night.
Other deepsky objects we had observed were as follows: Omega Centauri (5139), Centaurus A Galaxy (5128), Bug Nebula (6302), 6231, 6388, 6397, Veil Nebula (6960 & 6995), M33, Saturn Nebula (7009), Helix Nebula (7293). Omega Centauri was an awesome sight, with the brighter foreground stars constrasted against the powdery fine-grained background stars, giving a distinctive 3-D effect. The Veil Nebula and Pickering Wedge were visible with direct vision without filters, and looked much better with the O-III filter on place.
I also checked out some double stars. Antares B was visible at 140x and cleanly split at 280x. Both stars in Albireo had very intense colours. Both double stars in Epsilon Lyrae (the Double-Double) were cleanly split at just under 100x magnification (98.6x).
After midnight, the sky got clearer and so we went galaxy hunting. Here are some of the galaxies that we observed: NGC 55, 247, 253, 289, Barnard's Galaxy (6822), 7331, 7213, 7314, 7377, 7507, 7552, Grus Galaxy Trio 7582, 7590, 7599. Galaxies seemed 'bigger' with more the outer edges seen, due to the hugher contrast. I searched and thought I saw the Stephan's Quintet, but I was not able to positively identify it due to the lack of proper finder charts. We were using Sky Atlas 2000.0 (Deluxe Version) and Pocket Sky Atlas for hunting down the galaxies.
The last object we saw was Jupiter at 45 degrees at around 5:30am to 6am. And this was truly the grande finale! Using the Pentax XO 5mm to bring the magnification to 400x, Jupiter was a high-contrast object that was sharp and steady. I tried 500x using the Zeiss A-II 4mm and Jupiter was still sharp but the image was affected by seeing condition and began quivering and unsteady, so back to the XO 5mm. There were many colourful bands, ovals, spots, bars and festoons visible, and the Great Red Spot was a nice pinkish-orange colour with detailed swirls seen within it. The South Tropical Disturbance was clearly defined and distinctive with a regular series of festoons. The Galilean moons were colourful discs, and Ganymede was beginning to show a hint of albedo shading. Indeed this was the best view of Jupiter that I had seen to date, and it was simply beautiful!
We had a few regrets however. It seems that we didn't take a photo though I brought along a DSLR. I also brought along the Dwnk II binoviewer with a pair of 24 Panoptics and I had made a counterweight to balance the binoviewer but I did not test out the system. Lastly Elton brought the Etho 8mm, 13mm & 17mm but we did not remember to take it out of the car...sigh!
Photo of the 15" dob, taken at the same location one week earlier...
Last Saturday 2 July 2011, we had a four-car convoy heading to Tanjung Sutera Resort at Sedili Besar for an overnight observation session.
Kochu and I are frequent visitors to this place, as we do our astronomy activity there two or three times a month. Elton Fong joined us in my car. Also we had Richard (airconvent) and Weixing in the third car, and Collin (oxygen) and wife in the fourth car.
We left Singapore in the late afternoon and stopped over for dinner halfway just outside Kota Tinggi. We reached the resort about 7pm and immediately set up our scope.
Airconvent brought his ETX-105mm Maksutov, while Wexing set up his Vixen R200SS Newtonian on an alt-azimuth mount. Kochu has an imaging apo setup on EQ6 Pro as usual. There were also three other imaging setups by the regular imagers from Tasos. I brought along the DIY 15" dobsonian for its 4th-light session.
The sky was overcast when we were setting up out scopes, but soon after that it began to clear up with patches of slow-moving clouds. There was also a thin haze visible all around the sky, so transparency was not the best, just 8/10. Seeing was very good as we had observed Saturn sharp and in high contrast at 400x in the 15" dob. Temperature was probably 22-24 degrees C, and with the constand land breeze, it was quite chilly, especially after midnight onwards. There was some dew but the dob was not affected.
Airconvent, Weixing, Elton and I spend most of the time observing with the 15" dob. The equatorial platform was not used so the viewing height is low enough for me to observe without a stool. At the zenith, I am able to tiptoe to reach the eyepiece height. We did use the two-step ladder for better comfort. The eyepieces we frequently used that night were from the XW series: 40mm (50x), 20mm (100x), 10mm (200x) and 5mm (400x). We also used the O-III and Ultrablock filters on emission nebulae and planetary nebulae.
Here are some of the Messier Objects we observed in the 15" dob: M4, M6, M7, Lagoon Nebula (M8), Wild Duck Cluster (M11), M13, M15, Eagle Nebula (M16), Swan Nebula (M17), Trifid Nebula (M20), M22, M24, Dumbbell Nebula (M27), M28, Andromeda Galaxy (M31, M32, M110), M33, M45, Whirlpool Galaxy (M51 & 5195), M55, Ring Nebula (M57), Owl Nebula (M97), M101, Sombero Galaxy (M104).
When the Ring Nebula culminates at the meridien, I made another observation to look out for the central star. I had observed the central star before in Andrew's 15" dob with ZOC mirror at 600x magnification. However now the transparency is poorer, and we are hampered by the bright nebulosity within the Ring. But I decided to make an attempt at 400x using the XW 5mm. After about 30 secs of observing, I managed to detect the central star momentarily on two occasions. I tried again and saw the central star again three more times. Two other observers also managed to bag this elusive object that night.
Other deepsky objects we had observed were as follows: Omega Centauri (5139), Centaurus A Galaxy (5128), Bug Nebula (6302), 6231, 6388, 6397, Veil Nebula (6960 & 6995), M33, Saturn Nebula (7009), Helix Nebula (7293). Omega Centauri was an awesome sight, with the brighter foreground stars constrasted against the powdery fine-grained background stars, giving a distinctive 3-D effect. The Veil Nebula and Pickering Wedge were visible with direct vision without filters, and looked much better with the O-III filter on place.
I also checked out some double stars. Antares B was visible at 140x and cleanly split at 280x. Both stars in Albireo had very intense colours. Both double stars in Epsilon Lyrae (the Double-Double) were cleanly split at just under 100x magnification (98.6x).
After midnight, the sky got clearer and so we went galaxy hunting. Here are some of the galaxies that we observed: NGC 55, 247, 253, 289, Barnard's Galaxy (6822), 7331, 7213, 7314, 7377, 7507, 7552, Grus Galaxy Trio 7582, 7590, 7599. Galaxies seemed 'bigger' with more the outer edges seen, due to the hugher contrast. I searched and thought I saw the Stephan's Quintet, but I was not able to positively identify it due to the lack of proper finder charts. We were using Sky Atlas 2000.0 (Deluxe Version) and Pocket Sky Atlas for hunting down the galaxies.
The last object we saw was Jupiter at 45 degrees at around 5:30am to 6am. And this was truly the grande finale! Using the Pentax XO 5mm to bring the magnification to 400x, Jupiter was a high-contrast object that was sharp and steady. I tried 500x using the Zeiss A-II 4mm and Jupiter was still sharp but the image was affected by seeing condition and began quivering and unsteady, so back to the XO 5mm. There were many colourful bands, ovals, spots, bars and festoons visible, and the Great Red Spot was a nice pinkish-orange colour with detailed swirls seen within it. The South Tropical Disturbance was clearly defined and distinctive with a regular series of festoons. The Galilean moons were colourful discs, and Ganymede was beginning to show a hint of albedo shading. Indeed this was the best view of Jupiter that I had seen to date, and it was simply beautiful!
We had a few regrets however. It seems that we didn't take a photo though I brought along a DSLR. I also brought along the Dwnk II binoviewer with a pair of 24 Panoptics and I had made a counterweight to balance the binoviewer but I did not test out the system. Lastly Elton brought the Etho 8mm, 13mm & 17mm but we did not remember to take it out of the car...sigh!
Photo of the 15" dob, taken at the same location one week earlier...
Last edited by rlow on Thu Jul 07, 2011 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rlow
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superiorstream
- Posts: 1504
- Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:45 pm
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shirox
- Posts: 1097
- Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:21 am
- Favourite scope: Takahashi FSQ85EDX
- Location: Outram
wow tiong bahru park! near my house. think I will pop by lol
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http://eltonastronomy.blogspot.com/
Mersing finally installed some water sink!
http://eltonastronomy.blogspot.com/
Mersing finally installed some water sink!