So time to take "revenge" and it's back to Kampung Bekok to stargaze for a few nights and enjoy the good food. For the 3 nights I was there, the last one on Wednesday from 8.30pm till Thursday dawn was the best. Except for some clouds blocking part of the sky for about 30 mins shortly before midnight, it was milky way clear all the way.
This is the view that greets me when I take step out of the main door and look up:
Canon A720IS compact camera. F/2.8. ISO1600. 15 secs. Unguided single shot. Photoshop.
Some insights I have personally gained from such kampung stargazing trips:
(1) Able to laugh at myself for wasting too much brain cells trying to figure which is better in various SCT vs Refractor comparisons when I decided to get my first telescope. I am very lucky to be able to get hold of a used 8" SCT and 5" achro at a great price in a relatively short period and enjoy the merits of these 2 design under dark skies for an average of 3-4 nights per month. Given the chance again, I will still prefer this current collection over 1 very good SCT and 0 refractor and vice versa given the same budget.
In Johor, I slowly find myself using the 5" achro slightly more often than the SCT. Stuff like NGC 6231, NGC 2362, NGC 3532, Carina Nebula, Double Cluster, Pleiades, Beehive Cluster, Albireo, ...etc just look so much more aesthetically amazing compared to a C8. But yet when I want to go galaxy (except Andromeda) and globular cluster hunting, I will swap the refractor out for the C8 in a heart beat. Seeing Omega Centauri stars resolved in the C8 is the only reason I need to keep the C8 there for now. The additional bonuses that look great in it are objects like Wild Duck cluster, Swan Nebula, Ring Nebula, Dumbbell Nebula, ... etc.
There is truly no one size fits all perfect telescope design. In time to come, will most probably add a dobsonian to the collection there to complement or replace the SCT.
(2) Shortly after I own my first telescope and starting observing, I assume I will get tired of seeing "easy" objects soon and will naturally progress to seeing more and more difficult objects. For me, this assumption has proven to be wrong. Easy to find objects does not mean they are boring.
Sometimes I try to plan observe certain objects for night 1, others for night 2,3,4 and so on. Because there is this lingering fear that if you spend too much time on one object, the sky may be cloudy for the rest of the nights and you bagged only one object for one trip (didn't happened so far luckily). So after clear night number 1, I will tell myself not to waste time on those objects the next night. And maybe I will be bored looking at it again anyway. Come next night and the sky is clear, I just can't help observing those same beautiful objects again. And to even "waste" more time, using different scopes at different magnifications.
I try to visit Johor at least once every month. If I can't get bored observing the same objects on 2 consecutive clear nights, I will never get bored observing them on consecutive monthly trips! And to think I used to laugh at people who watch the Titanic movie again and again and again. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.
(3) Importance of smooth AZ mount. With the refractor on the porta mount, I can sit down comfortably, just hold the diagonal lightly with my thumb and middle finger tips and push it up down left right and diagonally to scan around the object or sky. Without the regularly need to reach out my hands to clutch levers, slo-mo knobs, controller buttons and after a while, the telescope, mount and tripod almost seems to disappear and your consciousness is only aware of and fixated on the observed beauty slowly and gracefully drifting across the field of view.