Report : Short Observation Session on 8 Jul 0130 hrs

[Airconvent]

The sky was clear for once after so many months, so even though I was tired, I dragged my Orion ED80 out from its enclosure to take it for a spin.
Seeing was average and there was a layer of high altitude cloud as can be seen from the moon.
To my horror, due to the recent upgrading of public areas lightings in my precint, they are now very much brighter making observation abit difficult but I persevere. I was eager to try the ring again after looking it briefly at Mersing in the last trip. Found it without any problems. I could just make out the faint donut in my 80mm aperture scope. Next I moved to Albierio and appreciated its two colours. My attempt at M4 failed although M22 was successful. Under these conditions as well as my small aperture, was not able to resolve any stars at all, just a blurred ball. M7 was great! The stars seem to bask in 3-d reality and ready to pop out! I wish I could say the same for M6 which was as usual unspectacular. Next I tried my hand at the M objects in Sagi but without any guidance, can't confirm what I was seeing. The object could have been M8, or M17...etc.
Looking at my watch, my 45 min short observation time was up and time to go back home, type this short report and go to bed! ....yawn.....

rich

[MooEy]

ring thru a 3" o_O gd for u, i only managed to catch venus this morning.

~MooEy~

[chrisyeo]

maybe just a short report myself..

Observation time was 11pm-1130pm. Transparency was not as good as the night before but still very good. 50-100 stars were visible in the M7 cluster while the beautiful butterfly shape could be seen in M6. M7 and M6 have been the most beautiful as I've every seen them from Singapore.

M22, while dimmer than last night, still gave the impression of resolved stars with averted vision. M22 is the only globular that I can consistently see stars in with a 90mm scope. Can anyone confirm this? Why is it that no stars can be resolved in omega cen. when it is brighter?

Moving up from mu sagiitarii, I found the omega nebula M17. Very dim, but shape could just be discerned when I put on the broadband filter. The biggest difference with the filter was on M8, the lagoon nebula. It showed the large extent of the nebulosity and the dark bands within it. I also managed to detect very faint nebulosity from the triffid nebula when I couldn't previously without the filter.

Must try the ring tonight if sky is good.

Clear skies!
Chris

[weixing]

Hi,

Observation time was 11pm-1130pm. Transparency was not as good as the night before but still very good

The transparency is very good at that time in Tampines... I can see M7 using averted vision with my nake eye while on my way back from my friend house.

M22, while dimmer than last night, still gave the impression of resolved stars with averted vision. M22 is the only globular that I can consistently see stars in with a 90mm scope. Can anyone confirm this? Why is it that no stars can be resolved in omega cen. when it is brighter?

I haven't try using a small scope on other globular cluster yet, but I have observe Omga cen using a 80mm refractor and able to resolve some stars in the outer part of it.

Anyway, the sky is even better before dawn... I wake up a few time during the night and the sky was very clear. Hope this type of weather can last till weekend.

Have a nice day.

[ykchia]

Hi Rich and folks:

July 7 10:30pm - not exactly a super clear night but ok enough to make out the entire '3' shaped scorpon and traced the tea-port (saggi)....

I continued my usual meteor routine again... dangling my watec 902H + fast video lens outside the window and started the video recording and pc image stacking.... FOV was centred on Sag- with milkyway plainly visible on the TV screen .... a slow meteor make a quick appearance .... Later clouds drifted in and out ...Spend some time searching high and low on the net for an algorithm to convert 'alt-az to Ra Dec' ... this time I found the answer not from the web but in a reference to a book I owned - my 1981 copy of " Practical Astronomy with your calculator"!

Six hours later I woke up to a cloudy morning sky...with my automated recording registering a cloud-filled sky.... Curious of my night kill - I did a quick 'browse' of the still sequences. Not bad- 13 meteors caught.... (compare to 2-4 meteors of other nights..)


rgds
ykchia

[Airconvent]

ooooohh...finally everyone is busy!
After being reminded by YK Chia, I forgot to mention I managed to catch a bright meteor as well last night.

One big problem with observing from a long refractor is my knees almost gave way in that akward position while adjusting the scope!

Also, I need to join someone who knows how to star hop as I was basically useless when trying to differentiate between all the M objects above the tea pot. About the only object I caught there was M22.
Reading Chris' report, I suddenly have this temptation to buy another tripod + 410 head, so I can look at BOTH my 80mm refractor and ETX90 at the same time...wide view and high mag!

[weixing]

Hi,

Reading Chris' report, I suddenly have this temptation to buy another tripod + 410 head, so I can look at BOTH my 80mm refractor and ETX90 at the same time...wide view and high mag!

Get a Fast Newtonian lah... like my 6" F5 Newtonian. Can go wide field (> 2 degree) and high magnification.

Have a nice day.

[chrisyeo]

Rich, why don't you make another base plate and mount your etx and ed80 side by side?

Chris

[bodoh]

Rich,

By the way, where do you do all your customized machining?

[Airconvent]

Rich, why don't you make another base plate and mount your etx and ed80 side by side?

Chris

you mean what?
make my 190D+410 package behave like a Losmandy mount, ah???
actually, which scope I take depends on my mood and whether its a working day tomorrow.
for example, the ring was easy to find on my ED80 but I've always had trouble using the ETX90, presumably because the magnification is too high.
last night, I found it using my 32mm (x18) and moved progressivly up to x66.

rich