29th dec, clear skies

MooEy · Post by **MooEy** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 9:11 pm

gogogo, grab ur scope and go obbing.

~MooEy~

fiona_ · Post by **fiona_** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 11:14 pm

yes indeed ! Too bad the appearance of the moon marred it a little.. Thanks to weixing for guidin me durin our observation session at Tampines earlier on !!

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 11:25 pm

Yeah, quite clear over here in Toa Payoh Central too. Just managed to clock another 2hrs of observing time since 9pm on Saturn with the I.M MN56 from indoors. The advantage of observing from indoors is that nearly every eyepiece in the dry cab got it's turn !

But the disadvantage is that you can't really see anything else other than those within your view through the open window (in my case, nothing else but Saturn :x ).

Seems like we are getting slightly better weather since Christmas Eve. The days have also become 'sunnier' as compared to the gloomy ones we had a few weeks back.

*** Any non-partying, Toa Payoh based members care to come together for our own session this Wednesday ? (SATURN OPPOSITION !!!) ***

Sam Lee · Post by **Sam Lee** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 11:29 pm

Just did a naked eye observation over at my place in Woodlands. The sky is really good now. After those few months, i can still remember the constellations in the skies, although i forgotten some

! Time to hit the books!

Regards,
Sam

We are the Borg, Resistance is Futile.

Post by **zong** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 12:37 am

Hey, I don't have (nor want any) party on wednesday! I'll join you sam! sms me when you're on cos i'll be outside whole day on tuesday though.. Havin' seniors farewell..

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:02 am

Hey, I don't have (nor want any) party on wednesday! I'll join you sam! sms me when you're on cos i'll be outside whole day on tuesday though.. Havin' seniors farewell..

No problem. I'll inform all the Toa Payoh based members whose contacts are in my phonebook once I am ready to set up. I think there are about 5 of you in total. I do pray that the sky clears from around 8:30pm onwards and holds till around 10:30pm-11pm because I can't stay up too late myself as my "New Year Party" is held the very next day on 1st January at SIX a.m where I'm supposed to be 'bashing' thru one of the forest trails with some other nature friends

! But not to worry, astro still has a higher priority in my heart, and I'll be willing to sacrifice the next day's event for a fun filled Saturn observing session with you guys (and as long as the skies overhead stay clear all night long of course

) !

Post by **weixing** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:23 am

Yes it was a very clear night. I start my observation session from 8:30pm to 12:30am. The atmosphere was not stable and very windy until around 11:00pm.

Anyway, the light pollution near my observation site is quite serious...

only +/- 20 degree from zenith is very clear. Too bad tomorrow have to work...

Also, guess what I see during my observation session... two bird flew over to the grass patch and start feeding... They are really early bird....

By the way, it seem like there will be a series of clear nights coming, so anyone planning to observe during New Year Eve... May be I can join in the fun... getting frustrated with my light polluted observation site... need to go somewhere dark...

Have a nice observation session!!!

Post by **Airconvent** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 2:38 am

Hi,
After a clear sky alert from CC, I checked out the sky and realised it was quite clear. Called a few people but no one seem to want to go to Dempsey tonight as it was a working day tomorrow. So popped by to my multi-storey car park and powered up my ETX for the first time in months.
Did not view anything much but trying out my remote controller for my Nikon 4300 and spent 2+ hrs taking astrophotos of Saturn and Jupiter.
Tried to take Orion too but it was a hopeless effort. Initially nothing at all but then I realised my Noise Reduction "on" treated the nebula as noise and removed it, so switched that off. The result is a messy star-trail. Looks like the tracking is not good enough even for 30s - 1 min exposure..
Anyway, I have attached my effort below. Trimmed it down to less than 50K, so that CC will not come after me!

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 11:25 am

Not bad, your best Saturn image shows nearly all the visually observable features on a small scope ! Nice.

Post by **acc** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 12:32 pm

The sky last night at river valley was good too! Had not observed for a while and found out that my portaball's battery is flat, so hunting for even the moon and Saturn using the unit-power finderscope was difficult... The sky was clear but unsteady, but after such a long period of cloudy skies, I couldn't really complain.