Another clear night

[elton]

Last night was clear in the east from about 2030. Yup, humidity was high, but using a newtonian (and previously with the DK) I had no issues with it except that it gave the star maps a softer texture. I had intended to only test out a couple of new eyepieces but it turned out to a full blown ob session lasting until 3am... damm sleepy now...
And it was a night of firsts for the 10" teleport, visiting for the first time some of the sky's best : M31, M42, Saturn. The step up from the 7" mewlon was quite obvious. M42 in particular was just so bright and so were the accompanying clusters. With the UHC filter bringing out more contrast and filamentary texture in M42, the whole reversed-C shape was nicely framed in the 1 deg FOV eyepiece. M41, also nicely framed in 1 deg FOV was impressively bright. M31, like all galaxies did not offer much detail. Mostly we can only see the bright core with brightness dropping off quickly beyond that. With the 40mm xl I could make out a hint of its extended elongated size stretched across 2 deg fov, have to wait for mersing to really bring this one out. At 170x zoomed into the core, there was a hint of the dark lanes. Other objects worthy of mention are M15, M30, M2 globulars, these were nicely resolved with the new 5mm LE, NGC 7662 Blue Snowball planetary, looks more like a cotton wool ball, nicely distinct and round. I can't remember the rest of the ngc numbers from memory.
After retiring at 2am, I noticed saturn peeping over the buildings from the living room window. Luckily the teleport was not disassembled yet (I just carried it fully assembled upstairs). Having not seen saturn for over a year and now in a bigger scope, there was quite a wow factor. It looked so real and 3D just hanging there. More about the new eyepieces under equipment section. Hope you all had fun too.

[Airconvent]

Hi Elton
Long time no see! I would love to take a peek at Saturn through your Zambuto teleport, man! Now that you have traversed the learning curve, your collimation and scope deployment skills must be spot one now..
Do join us at Dempsey this Sat if sky is clear....

rich

[elton]

Dun mind, in fact wanna go to a dark site soon. It's just that the weather, your schedule and mine need some rare cosmic conjunction to come together

[Airconvent]

Dun mind, in fact wanna go to a dark site soon. It's just that the weather, your schedule and mine need some rare cosmic conjunction to come together

mmm....tonight seemed ok. the moon was clear early in the night, yet I can't see much stars....strangely, its usually clear at zenith and little where else...

rich

[harlequin2902]

It was also very good over at toa payoh central just now. In the West, I could see a setting half moon with Mars (still quite bright) to it's one o'clock. In the North, all the leading bright stars of Cassiopeia, Perseus (and a rising Auriga) etc...were all visible. I also set up the Pronto by the window to observe Saturn for a full solid hour. Anyone else observed Saturn this evening too ?

[Airconvent]

It was also very good over at toa payoh central just now. In the West, I could see a setting half moon with Mars (still quite bright) to it's one o'clock. In the North, all the leading bright stars of Cassiopeia, Perseus (and a rising Auriga) etc...were all visible. I also set up the Pronto by the window to observe Saturn for a full solid hour. Anyone else observed Saturn this evening too ?

yup...I could see Saturn now but actually little else. A few dim stars here and there. if it was non-working day tomorrow, I'll take the scope out and take some pics!

sigh...

rich

[weixing]

Hi,
Yes... Yesterday(02 Nov) was a clear night... Try to take some pictures of the moon and mars using my new CP4500 with ScopeTronix 14mm Wide Angle Eyepiece/Adapter, but not very successfull... I think the main problem is that I'm not very familiar with the setting for the CP4500... Feel very frustrated, but will try again when the weather clear again... Anyway, before I leave, the Orion raise above a HDB and have a chance to look at the M42 through my scope with the UO Or18... this make my mood a little better...

[elton]

very good in the east last night. M42 was rising between buildings and was able to catch it from my living room, using the hood method (buried head and eyepiece under dark cloth) to block out stray light. Too bad had to sleep before saturn could clear the buildings.

[Airconvent]

very good in the east last night. M42 was rising between buildings and was able to catch it from my living room, using the hood method (buried head and eyepiece under dark cloth) to block out stray light. Too bad had to sleep before saturn could clear the buildings.

hi elton,
where did you get the dark cloth...it would have been good for last nights moon glare-soaked night! I thought of trying to take a photo like what Charlie did using just my plain vanilla camera but eventually did not do so...sigh...

rich

[weixing]

Hi,
04 Nov 2003 19:00 -> The north and east of Tampines is clear... can test my mount, scope and digital camera again...