Mersing Trip (5-6 Apr 08) - Obs Report

[Airconvent]

OK. The main Remus trip has been cancelled but some of us is still trying to get there, having missed last month's trip due to the Malaysian elections.

So far we already have 2 full cars going. Its the usual start off at 12pm on Saturday and return to Singapore on Sunday morning. If you intend to drive in too and have spare space, please post here so others who wish to hitch a ride can do so.

Thanks

[David Lian]

I suppose to go with my colleagues.
However due changes of schedule, we will not be going.
Sorry again.
DL

[Airconvent]

Well, we went and we came back!
2 cars only in the end but what a waste. I realised the other car had space for one more person, so Gavin could have gone too!

In anycase, Wong, Weixing, Rlow & Wife for Car #1 and Chee Chien, Elton, me and Obsession 18 for car no. #2.
Weixing had his Vixen 200mm while Wong had his C8. And both Elton and Rlow had their really delicous collection of Pentax XL and XW eyepieces...not forgetting the ETHOS too!
There was some jam along the way and it rained.

In fact on arrival, the clouds were quite bad. We obbed for an hour testing the Obsession 18" (Ob18) before very threatening clouds made Elton decide to recover the scope and just in the nick of time, as we closed the boot, it started raining!

We proceeded to KFC, spend an hour there checking the culinary delights of fried birds and then all decided to give it another try when the rain stopped even though the sky was still bad.

On arrival, we only deployed the fastest scope, weixing's 200mm Newtonian but as the night draw on, many parts of the sky had cleared up so we decided to deploy the OB18....
AND WHAT A NIGHT!!! As driver, Elton left it to me to decide to leave or to deploy and seiously, I thought of going back but decided otherwise...whew.

Hightlights:
1. Eta Carina Humonculus in its full glory!! Wide view and narrow view. Both sides of the nebula can be seen in intricate detail.
2. M51 covering half the field of view and 3 distint arms seen
3. Centaurus A galaxy covering half the FOV...my goodness, the dust lane was so clear I think I can see real dust!
4. Omega Centauri in 3D covering the entiire FOV, courtesy of rlow's denke binoviewer.
5. Checked out a number of other galaxies (rlow can name them), some having 5 galaxies in the FOV...and they were really bright. Most in Coma area i think.
6. M8 with very distinct nebula detail
7. We also checked out quite a few globular clusters (M13, NGC6441, etc)
8. Sombrero as it was meant to be...first time I saw it so huge in the FOV and the dust lane so clear!
9. At least 20 odd meteors including a green one as well as one so bright, it looked like a thunderflash and cast a shadow on the ground. someone even claimed they heard a sound from it!
10. Unrelated but i saw hundreds of firefly on the ground for a few seconds before they disappeared.

Although the sky was only so so and we had to leave around 3am because more clouds started appearing, the success of the night was measured by :

1. Countless oohs and ahs not only from the Benchmark Chee Chien but from everyone else.
2. Elton tested the SOP to reafirm set up procedures for the Ob18. No of men required :4, Time required : 10-15min, Additional followup Action : heater for secondary mirror which dewed up (luckily for heat packs to solve the problem)
3. Almost all the Pentax eyepieces plus the Etos made its appearance.
4. Superb performance of the Ob18 inspite of the average skies.

Thanks to Elton for sharing such a wonderful time machine and to rlow and his wife for the coffee to keep us all awake (including Chee Chien who...YES...did not sleep at ALL!!)

The return journey was also amazing because the mist was so thick at some places, visibilty was only 20-30m ahead and of course, a harrowing near miss incident involving an overtaking situation...have to be more careful next tiime. Do drive carefully if you go and make sure to check for adequate clearance with cars from opp side when over taking.

whew! I need to say it again...the views from the Ob18 was simply amazing! It was unlike anything I saw on the 12" teleport or 12.5 " portaball.

Will upload some pics later. I think rlow and wong also took some shots so let's wait for them to showcase it. Wong tried some long exposure shots too.

To answer Gavin's question. light pollution still manageable but don't think it will improve..

[weixing]

Hi,
Wong, me, Rlow & Wife in Car #1 start our journey earlier. We clear both Singapore and Malaysia customs within 30mins without any problems... one of the shortest time clearing both customs. I think the traffic become very heavy after we left as Airconvent group start their journey later and caught in the jam.

The sky was very clear in the late afternoon when we arrive at the site and start to get worst after the 18" arrived. Luckily we manage to keep everything in record time just before the rain during the initial session...

During the few hours of second round observation session, the view in my Vixen R200SS manage to convince the Elton's to setup his 18" as he start the process to convince himself that it won't rain and worth the effort to setup his 18"...

The view from Elton's 18" are incredible!! Everything look so clear and beautiful!! The most common words heard last during the session were "WOW!!!" and "WOA!!!"...

The highlight of the night for me were:
1. The Eta Carinae Homunculus Nebula through 18": the first time I saw this... the star got 2 orange/red earring!! WOW!! WOW!!
2. M51 Whirlpool galaxy through 18": I finally saw the spiral arms so clearly with my own eye!! WOW!! WOW!!
3. I think the brightest meteor I ever saw: I saw facing the ground when it appear, so I didn't saw the start of it. I saw the ground light up so brightly that I saw shadows of object on the ground. I thought it was lightning initially, but the light shine on the ground was unlike lightning... it was steady and look like someone light up a candle in the sky. I look up and saw this bright meteor take his own time flying across the sky. WOW!! WOW!!
4. Omega Centauri through 18" was amazing... it was so well resolve that it look like one of those open cluster!! WOW!! WOW!!
5. The Eta Carinae Nebula through 18": everything was so clear and well define!! WOW!! WOW!!
6. Galaxies through 18": So many of them all over the view!! WOW!! WOW!!

By the way, the view through my Vixen R200SS was also very good even the collimation was off... all our laser collimator present was not working properly, so I didn't do any collimation. Very happy that Vixen R200SS visual performance is better than I expected!!

Have a nice day.

[Clifford60]

So if someone someday bring in a 20+" it will WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW. It must be a great ob thru the 18"OB even thorough it was only a few hours.

[acc]

Yes it was an incredible nite at Mersing, one of the top-three I ever had there due to the combination of very transparent skies with no high clouds and the large 18" aperture. Not to mention the above-average number of meteors sighted including one that cast shadows on the ground.

Thanks to Elton who generously shared scope-time on his fabulous-18 and to the drivers for giving the rest of us a much-appreciated ride to Mersing!

[acc]

10. Unrelated but i saw hundreds of firefly on the ground for a few seconds before they disappeared.

Oops Rich paiseh I gotta confess that was a special effects that I created specially for you using the toy that u sold me...

[Canopus Lim]

Wow cool.. sigh I could not join you guys as I had to attend a wedding dinner on Saturday. Else, I would be ooh and ahh too. Haa.

I guess we know who to follow the next Mersing trip.
The 12.5" scopes can 'retire' already. Good that you guys have a nice few hours of observing. It must be have been a 'majestic' feeling looking through the Ethos and the 18" on DSOs!

Looks like Weixing has his dream scope!

[acc]

The 12.5" scopes can 'retire' already. Good that you guys have a nice few hours of observing. It must be have been a 'majestic' feeling looking through the Ethos and the 18" on DSOs!

The Ethos was not utilised much; rather it was a Pentax XWs night though nobody was complaining

haha. last night, I thought of throwing out the portaball too but the 12.5" ob/ball is probably much easier for one person to transport and setup

Looks like Weixing has his dream scope!

yes his 8-incher gave marvellous performance last night too! The spiral arms of M51 was visible without much effort.

[rlow]

Yes, it was certainly a night of superlatives...

We already anticipated it, that's why Chee Chien and I didn't bring any big dobs along, though there wasn't much space left in the cars too. Even Airconvent had to leave behind his N8 due to lack of space.

Key highlights:
1. Omega Centauri viewed through the 18" with 13mm Ethos: Fabulous!
2. Omega Centauri viewed through the 18" with DenkII and 20XW: Superb 3-D effect!! Best view ever!
3. Whirlpool Galaxy viewed through the 18" with 10XW: 90% of the field of view was covered by the spiral arms of M51! Best view ever!
4. Eta Carinae Nebula viewed through the 18" with 13mm Ethos: Best view ever!
5. Homunculus Nebula viewed through the 18" with 5mm XW: Best view ever at 384x!
6. Big bolide: This wasn't just a fireball. I was looking in the right direction when it first appeared as a huge circular luminous light 0.25 degree across, and moving slowly like a satellite. It was much brighter than Venus and it illuminated the whole field, casting shadows everywhere. Then everyone looked up at it and said "WOW!!!" as it burns white, reddish at one end and bluish at the other end. There was a distinct sizzling crackling sound which only some of us heard it. It travelled for about 25 degrees in a easternly direction at an altitude of 60 degrees and suddenly it was gone. This is only the 2nd bolide (and 6th huge fireball) that I have seen in 33 years. Beautiful!

Other objects we saw:

Messier: 7, 8, 13, 41, 44, 51, 65, 66, 84, 86, 95, 96, 97, 104, 105, 108
NGCs: 3372, 3384, 3389, 3628, 3681, 3684, 3691, 3766, 4387, 4388, 4755, 5128, 5139, 5195, 6441, 6559

Objects we don't want to see: Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, as it will damage our night vision. Btw, Saturn looks very good through the 18" in S'pore, and Saturn's bands are so prominent, distinct and colour-saturated, like the belts of Jupiter.

A big 'thank you' to our driver Chee Ho for bringing us there. This was certainly a great night to remember!