Off to Ob in Sabah for a week ...

jermng · Post by **jermng** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:56 am

Guys, I'll be flying off to Sabah this afternoon for a week to the lovely dark skies of Borneo with my trusty Megrez ...

Gonna be visiting some forest trail clearings ... dad's gonna do his nature research in the day and I'll do my star thing at night ...

It'll be interesting to see how many constellations I can make out with so many stars there ...I hope I don't get lost after learning to recognise shapes out of the few stars we see here ...

I just wish I can bring my C8 .... Argh .. dark skies with so little aperture ... I know, there's gonna be too much to see in the dark skies, but hey, aperture always rules!!

kingkong · Post by **kingkong** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:28 am

aiya, should have got a truss dob.

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:49 am

I think the darkest place in Sabah is when you are near the summit of Mt. Kinabalu. If next time I were to climb Mt. Kinabalu again, I won't bother about going all the way to the summit to collect the certificate. I would just stay at the resting point before the summit and look at the stars and the other people struggling to the top with their torches.

kamayok3 · Post by **kamayok3** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 9:03 am

When are u going? I might be there on 6~11 of april. Going back hometown.

Tommy

jermng · Post by **jermng** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:23 am

Eh, I also going back home .. but mother's home .. HAHA ..

Anyway, flying off this evening .. back on April 1.

Canopus, yeah , the summit is very dark.

I'll be trying to go into Maliau (sp?) Basin, 5hrs 4wd drive into the forest from a village which is another couple hours drive from town, and that in turn is a long drive from the city .. HAHA . So I'm guessing it's gonna be super dark ... hopefully ...

Might be taking a chopper in ... never been there before, but from the description I got, it seems super ulu ... which is what we amateur astronomers like .. HAHA ..

I don't know if it's as dark as Tahiti or the Maldives like someone posted here before ... I hope it is ...and hope the weather's good, the weather in the forest is gonna be super wet!!!!!

Post by **rcj** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:28 am

have a good trip, jeremy!

kingkong · Post by **kingkong** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:45 am

the maliau basin is like jurasic park - it's called the lost world, serious.
sure it'll be very dark. but i doubt if the sky will be as clear like in the tahiti....
i found a good place to observe up mt kinabalu. there is a golf course near the mersilau nature resort. good view of the whole sky and slight skyglow in the direction of kundasang town. best thing is it's accesible by car. my next trip there. i plan to do a star trail with mt kinabalu silhouette.... a truss dob would be useful too.... may be i should call ck...

jermng · Post by **jermng** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:52 am

I might stop by Mersilau on the way to Kudat too ... might check out the golf course. There is actually a piece of land that's off the Kundasang Hotel further up the hill that's also not bad ..

Dunnoe how it is now though ..

been trying to get in touch with ANY Sabah astro clubs or pple, but can't seem to find ...