Mersing Observation Report

[weixing]

Hi,
Since only one car is available, only four of us go for the trip: JohnTeh(driver), Ariefm71, Elton and Me. Below are the telescope list:
1) Celestron 8" SCT on Unistar Alt/Az mount,
2) Teleport 10" Dob and,
3) My SkyWatcher 6" F5 Newtonian on GP mount.

JohnTeh fetched us up at 14:30. The weather was bad and the whole sky were cover with clouds... not a good sign ! We clear the custom at 16:00 without problems... We just declare our scopes and tell them that we are going for observation in Mersing, because Singapore was too cloudy and they let us go without anymore question .

We took our dinner at one of the restaurant on the way at around 17:00. The food was good and very cheap The sky was still full of cloud and not a single patch of blue sky was seen .

Since none of us had been to Mersing for observation, We had to follow the direction given by Airconvent... At 19:30, we arrive at the approximate location, but can't find the famous "two coconut tree"! Anyway, at 20:00 we found a flat field and we decided to settle down there... wonder is this the correct site??

The sky condition was very bad... no star can be seen and only a very small patch of "bright cloud" mark the present of jupiter. All of us were very disappointed, but we decided that since we are already here, we just set up our equipment and wait for the sky to clear.

As we take our own sweet time setting up our equipment, we discover that more and more patches of "bright clouds" start to appeared... a good sign that the weather might clear up... we should count ourself lucky if we can see a few more stars clearly under these cloudy condition.

At around 22:00, the sky suddenly Clear Up... We are extremely lucky! And we can see the Milky Way... stretch at least 150 degree across the sky at it highest point!!! I start to using my coolpix 4500 to piggy back on my scope to take a few short at the Milky Way and some random location... the result was very good when seen on my LCD, but not so good when I upload to the PC... too much noise. Also, I took a few picture of us during observation (with flash!! ) and I start my visual observation at 18 Jul 2004 00:00 after they keep complaining that the light from my LCD was killing their Dark Adaptation :oops:

Below are some of the object that we observe... too lazy to record all!
1. M6 and M7 - very bright and a lots more stars than seen in Singapore.

2. M8 - very easily seen and can even seen the outline and dark lane clearly on my 6" Newtonian. It look just like the picture we saw on the those astro books and magazine (just without colours) when view through the Teleport 10"! UHC Filter Recommended.

3. M20 - very easily seen and can seen the outline and dark lane clearly on my 6" Newtonian. Again, it look just like the picture we saw on the those astro books and magazine (just without colours) when view through the Teleport 10"! UHC Filter Recommended.

4. M17 (Swan Nebula) - Really look like a swan on water on my Newtonian. Highly Recommended! UHC Filter Recommended.

5. M18 and M24 - M24... a very beautiful cloud of stars! The stars were so many that I can't figure out where does it end... it seem to connected all the way to M18. Also, you can see a worm like dark lane clearly in the star cloud... Highly Recommended!

6. NGC7000 (The North America Nebula) - A very very big nebula... You won't realise that you are looking at it unless you are looking at it edge... then you will see the Nebula with a darker background. UHC Filter Recommended.

7. NGC 6992 (The Veil Nebula) - Another beautiful nebula... Very easily seen here in Mersing. We take a long time looking at it and start to trace it outline... it's fun! Highly Recommended. UHC Filter Recommended.

8. NGC 869 and NGC 884 (The Double Cluster) - A very beautiful double cluster if you can put it in one FoV! Highly Recommended.

9. M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) - Another nice Planetary Nebula... it is so bright that it don't look like dumbbell, instead you can see a "8" shape in the nebula! UHC Filter Recommended.

10. M45, M57, M31, M32, M110 and etc etc... too lazy to record down.

11. A super bright venus... will create a reflection on the sea and it is so bright that you will have shadow!

Anyway, I heard that the site was so dark that you can't see your finger, but it wasn't true... I still can see my finger in the dark, because the sky was so bright... full of stars!!!

By the way, we had at least a full 6 hours of very clear sky for observation !!!! Also, in this session I realise that nothing can substitute a clear and dark sky... your scope seem to gain at least 3" inch of aperture when in a dark sky! For example, the M8 I saw in Mersing using my 6" F5 Newtonian was around the same image quality as what Elton's 10" Teleport will show you when you view in Singapore!!

I'll post the Milky Way picture I took if I can reduce the noise! Also, will start to plan for a trip again in the near future!

Have a nice day!!

[VinSnr]

Hi,
Since only one car is available, only four of us go for the trip: JohnTeh(driver), Ariefm71, Elton and Me. Below are the telescope list:
1) Celestron 8" SCT on Unistar Alt/Az mount,
2) Teleport 10" Dob and,
3) My SkyWatcher 6" F5 Newtonian on GP mount.

JohnTeh fetched us up at 14:30. The weather was bad and the whole sky were cover with clouds... not a good sign ! We clear the custom at 16:00 without problems... We just declare our scopes and tell them that we are going for observation in Mersing, because Singapore was too cloudy and they let us go without anymore question .

We took our dinner at one of the restaurant on the way at around 17:00. The food was good and very cheap The sky was still full of cloud and not a single patch of blue sky was seen .

Since none of us had been to Mersing for observation, We had to follow the direction given by Airconvent... At 19:30, we arrive at the approximate location, but can't find the famous "two coconut tree"! Anyway, at 20:00 we found a flat field and we decided to settle down there... wonder is this the correct site??

The sky condition was very bad... no star can be seen and only a very small patch of "bright cloud" mark the present of jupiter. All of us were very disappointed, but we decided that since we are already here, we just set up our equipment and wait for the sky to clear.

As we take our own sweet time setting up our equipment, we discover that more and more patches of "bright clouds" start to appeared... a good sign that the weather might clear up... we should count ourself lucky if we can see a few more stars clearly under these cloudy condition.

At around 22:00, the sky suddenly Clear Up... We are extremely lucky! And we can see the Milky Way... stretch at least 150 degree across the sky at it highest point!!! I start to using my coolpix 4500 to piggy back on my scope to take a few short at the Milky Way and some random location... the result was very good when seen on my LCD, but not so good when I upload to the PC... too much noise. Also, I took a few picture of us during observation (with flash!! ) and I start my visual observation at 18 Jul 2004 00:00 after they keep complaining that the light from my LCD was killing their Dark Adaptation :oops:

Below are some of the object that we observe... too lazy to record all!
1. M6 and M7 - very bright and a lots more stars than seen in Singapore.

2. M8 - very easily seen and can even seen the outline and dark lane clearly on my 6" Newtonian. It look just like the picture we saw on the those astro books and magazine (just without colours) when view through the Teleport 10"! UHC Filter Recommended.

3. M20 - very easily seen and can seen the outline and dark lane clearly on my 6" Newtonian. Again, it look just like the picture we saw on the those astro books and magazine (just without colours) when view through the Teleport 10"! UHC Filter Recommended.

4. M18 and M24 - M24... a very beautiful cloud of stars! The stars were so many that I can't figure out where does it end... it seem to connected all the way to M18. Also, you can see a worm like dark lane clearly in the star cloud... Highly Recommended!

5. NGC7000 (The North America Nebula) - A very very big nebula... You won't realise that you are looking at it unless you are looking at it edge... then you will see the Nebula with a darker background. UHC Filter Recommended.

6. NGC 6992 (The Veil Nebula) - Another beautiful nebula... Very easily seen here in Mersing. We take a long time looking at it and start to trace it outline... it's fun! Highly Recommended. UHC Filter Recommended.

7. NGC 869 and NGC 884 (The Double Cluster) - A very beautiful double cluster if you can put it in one FoV! Highly Recommended.

8. M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) - Another nice Planetary Nebula... it is so bright that it don't look like dumbbell, instead you can see a "8" shape in the nebula! UHC Filter Recommended.

9. M45, M57, M31, M32, M110 and etc etc... too lazy to record down.

10. A super bright venus... will create a reflection on the sea and it is so bright that you will have shadow!

Anyway, I heard that the site was so dark that you can't see your finger, but it wasn't true... I still can see my finger in the dark, because the sky was so bright... full of stars!!!

By the way, we had at least a full 6 hours of very clear sky for observation !!!! Also, in this session I realise that nothing can substitute a clear and dark sky... your scope seem to gain at least 3" inch of aperture when in a dark sky! For example, the M8 I saw in Mersing using my 6" F5 Newtonian was around the same image quality as what Elton's 10" Teleport will show you when you view in Singapore!!

I'll post the Milky Way picture I took if I can reduce the noise! Also, will start to plan for a trip again in the near future!

Have a nice day!!

any problems with the customs on both sides?

[weixing]

Hi,
No problem on both side. When we come back, just tell the Singapore custom that the equipments are telescope and we show them the star altas and some milky way images I taken with my digital camera, then they let us pass without asking us to unpack anything... may be we are lucky !!

Have a nice day.

[elton]

The sky took some time to clear up but when it did, most of the rest of the night was super clear. Must say that things turned out much better than expected since up to 8pm last night, it was 100% overcast.

Some highlights :
- the dinner at John's regular haunt, especially the very meaty pepper crabs:)!
- scanning the milky way in with low & medium power (20 & 40mm Pentax). The star fields were as thick as rich open clusters and that covered the whole field and went on everywhere you panned.
- The worm-like dark lanes in M24 area pointed out by Weixing.
- M31 and companions M32 and M110 stretching right across the 2 deg tfov of the 40mm pentax.
- veil nebula. wished i had a 2 inch O-III filter so that the 2-inch eyepiece could be used.
- Sculptor galaxy NGC 253 - can see some resemblance to the astro pics (with galaxies, anything more than a smudge is good)
- the double cluster against a rich star field- just like the astro pics

But was very unprepared for this trip. For eg, had "wasted" time on the mediocre galaxies in the Pegasus region and ignored (with the exception of NGC 253) the richer finds in the Sculptor region. Next time must prepare an ob list. Nonetheless, managed about 30 objects that night, mostly globulars, planetaries and galaxies...no time to write them down as was hopping across the pda screen.

Finally at about 5am, my pda battery gave out and it was time to call it a night. By then, it was dewing quite a bit but the 2 newtonians were ok; Arief's dewshield kept his C8 marginally still usable at dawn... even though he asleep long before that.

Many thanks to the group esp John for making this possible and enjoyable.

[weixing]

Pictures Part 1/2:

[weixing]

Pictures Part 2/2: