Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy- Tonight (1/9/2014)

[Airconvent]

Will be there after my Christmas shopping at Astrobargains.

*Gasp!* What happens when you friends can't take your hint on what to buy for you for Christmas ? Buy it for yourself! New toys from Joo Beng !
Lots of clouds will flow into Bishan tonight but lets hope the enthusiasm will clear it up!

[cloud_cover]

Oh, must be that AP Starfire 175 EDF whose picture Gary sent me today. I didn't know Astrobargains had them in stock!
It's OK, it's only 7" aperture...

[Gary]

Oh, must be that AP Starfire 175 EDF whose picture Gary sent me today. I didn't know Astrobargains had them in stock! It's OK, it's only 7" aperture...

Don't forget your email password after 10 years.

Will be there after my Christmas shopping at Astrobargains.

*Gasp!* What happens when you friends can't take your hint on what to buy for you for Christmas ? Buy it for yourself! New toys from Joo Beng! Lots of clouds will flow into Bishan tonight but lets hope the enthusiasm will clear it up!

Last night was one of the clearest night at Bishan Park so far! Can see the "head" of Orion with naked eyes and local light pollution from McDonald's - the 3 stars forming a small triangle between Betelgeuse and Bellatrix. Dimmest of which is mag 4.35 according to Stellarium.

Thanks to Dave and Hazrie for organising the doomsday sidewalk. And also all those who came with or without telescope. Had more fun with the 76mm this time:

HL's Celestron FirstScope 76mm (Eye patch not included! )


Moon shot through this cute little baby dob with phone camera + twilight filter effect:


Quite fun sweeping the sky with it by just gently nudging it around with my fingertips wrapped around its base - pleiades, hyades, Jupiter in widefield (seeing galilean moons and the stars near the "ear" of Taurus in the same field of view).

Hazrie's 127mm Maksutov wow'ed the crowd with its amazingly sharp view of the details on Jupiter and Moon. Even more so due to the inferior competition from the smaller aperture 80mm and 76mm scopes.

Great session overall as everyone was already in a festive Christmas mood!

[Davegn]

Some photos of the moon shot with a CMOS webcam thru a 80MM F5.
Mounted on a CG-4. No tracking.

Sky condition was hazy.
Very Bad CA















If the weather is clear again may have a session later again, this time with my C6 to try out some more.


Regards,
Dave Ng

[Davegn]

Weather permitting, Some of us will be conducting a sidewalk astronomy session at Bishan Park.

Date: 1/1/2013
Time: From 8PM onwards
Venue: Bishan Park's McDonald's (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10766&)

Would bringing my telescope for the session.

Feel free to join me.
All are welcome to join in the fun with or without telescope.

[Gary]

Will be there with my dob which is responsible for the heavy downpour yesterday. :p

[acc]

Wonderful clear skies. Hope you guys have fun!

[Airconvent]

yup. Just noticed how clear the skies are! Have fun...its back to work and school for everyone tomorrow

[Gary]

Thanks Chee Chien and Richard for the well wishes!

Sky was clear! Had a great time with my mini dob, Dave's 80mm and a Nexstar 5SE. Observed Jupiter, Moon, M31, M35, M41, M42, M45, Double Cluster, Kemble's Casade. And highlight of the night was spotting a brilliant meteor with bright short tail at about 8:49pm near Rigel! At least as bright as Jupiter. Glad a friend of a singastro member saw it too while I was explaining the Orion constellation so I was not hallucinating. Should be a random sporadic meteor and most probably not a Quadrantid meteor.

Had a good interaction with the sidewalk public as usual. Being a holiday, lots of family gathered there compared to a normal working weekday.

Some pics from last night:









The other highlight was watching a local composer/conductor friend's reaction while he observed the Moon through the dob. Coming from a person who have been amazed by breath-taking views while scaling some of the tallest mountains in the world, it never fails to amaze me Moon's power to astonish on a clear enough night.

This is the afocal shot through it with my handheld phone camera:



Happy to see this quality of the Moon for a low-priced beginner's scope with the knowledge that I have not even started to collimate it yet.

Thanks to Dave for organising the event and our friends who came down with and without scopes! One sidewalk down and plenty more to go in 2013!

[stargazer]

Halo Gary,

The 127mm Maksutov you stated earlier - was it the Celestron SLT series?