Observation Session: Saturday, 27 Nov 2004

[weixing]

Hi,
Date : Saturday, 27 Nov 2004
Time : 21:30
Venue: The grass field between the Tampines Swimming Complex main entrance, Mosque and the Tampines Sport Complex.

Moon Info
Rise Time: 19:20
Illum : 99%

Saturn Info
Rise Time: 22:31
RA : 07h 54m
DEC : +20d 46'
Mag : 0.9

Although the weather is unlikely to be good and it a full moon tonight, I just put this session up in case the weather become good tonight. Anyone who are interested are welcome to join in the fun. Good Luck to all of us!!

Have a nice day.

PS: may be can go "eat coffee" if weather is bad 8) .

[MooEy]

haha weixing ar, u having ob session or more of ur "bk session". anyway, let's hope it clears up la, i have been missing out alot of ob recently.

~MooEy~

[fizzy123]

Hmmm.... just came back from the observation.

Today is one of those rare clear, transparent night, with huge fleeting clouds passing by only in the early hours of observation. Even the group was not tat big with only 4 scopes, and the bad full moon but the nite is veri conducive and productive. :idea:

Here is wat I observe in my 5 inch MAK at 60x and 150x

1) M42 veri bright striking as usual, but the moon and bus interchange make it look dimmer. Looks like faint fuzzy half circle patch. But with a UHC filter, it become veri obvious, the 'wings' can be spotted easily. The four trapezium stars are seen.

2)M43 is a fainter smaller patch just above M42 seen with averted vision best seen in UHC

3)NGC1981 open cluster a loose collection of 30 or so stars.

5)Cr70 a huge sparse cluster with a wide sprinkle of 25 or so stars.

6)M41 a rich cluster with a orang star in it

7)M46 a rich cluster of about 50 or so stars.

8)NGC663 and 457 a loose sprinkle of stars in Cassiopeia, but 457 is richer, both just as bright as the other. :roll:

9) Tried to observe Hyades cluster but as it is too near the moon, most of star washed out.

10) Lastly, Saturn. At 60x Titan easily seen. At 150x Cassini division seen, with an eyepiece from Weixing, the magnification ar around 190x 1 or 2 more moons glimpsed by averted vision. :idea:

[Dark Prince]

Good morning.

Just wanna say thanks again for being patient with all the questions at the observation session yesterday. Really appreciate it.

It was so so nice seeing Saturn and M42, amongst the other 'sightings'

Nice meeting all of you and thanks guys. Seeya around.

[weixing]

Hi,
Yesterday night (and today morning) observation turn out to be quite productive even the big full moon shine brightly... the moon was so bright that you can't see the feature on the moon clearly using nake eye :!: :!: The sky was clear with fast passing cloud coming and go and transpancy turn out to be very good.

Ariefm (C8 OTA), Clement (Tak FS-78), Elton (Where is his 10" Teleport??), Fizzy123 (Sky-Watcher 127MCT) and Dark Prince turn out in this unlikely observation session. We manage to see the Trapezium and to my surprise, we were able to see the E and F component using my 6" F5 Newtonian... the transparency must be very good.

As saturn rise higher, Elton suggest that we do a test on FS-78 vs Sky-Watcher 6" F5 Newtonian... small, good quality refractor vs bigger aperture Newtonian. Using similar magnification at saturn, we were able to see a dimmer, but a very pleasant saturn through the FS-78. As expected, saturn was brighter in the 6" Newtonian, but the turbulence can be easily seen on the saturn ring and make the view unpleasant. As saturn rise a bit more higher, I take a look at the saturn again through my 6" Newtonian, the saturn view improve greatly and the turbulence on the saturn was nowhere to be seen. It seem the Tak FS-78 was unable to resolve the turbulence, so we were unable see the turbulence and thus produce a more pleasant saturn under not so good seeing. But as weather improve, the view through the 6" Newtonian improve greatly and show more details than the Tak FS-78. At this point of time, I realise that I was able to see the moons of saturn. As we start to count the moon in the view through my 6" Newtonian, we found out that we were able to see Rhea, Tethys, Mimas, Diane and Titan. And according to Elton TheSky software, Mimas was at magnitude 13.0 !! We were surprise that we able to see a magnitude 13.0 objects in a Full Moon night!! I take out my 6" F5 Newtonian and mount Ariefm C8 on my GP mount and view the saturn again. WOW!! Aperture really make a different!! Make me really thinking of getting a 8" scope again !!

Anyway, we end our observation session at around 3am as Ariefm C8 dew again... This prove to be the right choice as Tampines start to rain at around 4am!!!

Conclusion: Aperture really make a different and every inch count!!

Have a nice day.

[MooEy]

hehe, mai tu liao, psycho arief sell u his c8, then get him to buy the c9.25 + giro.

~MooEy~