April 2004 Batam Observation Trip

Post by **weixing** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 11:12 pm

Hi,
Richard Low (rlow) and I plan to have an observation trip to Batam on April 2004. The most probable date will be from 16 April 2004(Friday) to 17 April 2004(Saturday).

Please note that this trip is catered especially for those who don't drive or have no means of transportation, and it is open to all Singastro members, with or without a telescope.

Since we only pay for the transportation and meals, expenditure should be minimal and the cost will be split evenly among all participants.

Those who are interested in joining us can PM me or Richard Low(rlow). Please indicate what equipment you want to bring along.

Have a nice day.

** Updated: 08 Apr 2004 **

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 1:40 pm

What is the latest time you have to depart from Singapore ?

I'd love to join, but I've got something on that very afternoon (17th) and won't be able to make it to Changi till about 4pm. I can bring my scope with me though, and rush down straight to Changi in a cab when I'm done.

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 3:30 pm

The last ferry from Changi Point Jetty to Pengarang leaves at about 4pm, and the M'sia custom check point probably closes at around 4.45pm. So it would be better if you can make it slightly earlier, say 3pm at Chang Point Jetty, for some buffer time, since there has to be some waiting time (maybe 10 min to 20 min) to fill up 12-14 people before the ferry operator decides to move off.

Of course we would appreciate your company in hunting for deepsky objects (esp. the Veil Nebula) and we sincerely hope you can join us.

shenzenus · Post by **shenzenus** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 12:32 pm

Richard,

I miss another opportunity to join you guys for an observation session. Love to join this one but got a company bowling competition on Sunday morning 18 Apr 04...

Anyway, keep me posted on your next trip. SMS me as I hardly log on nowadays to see what has been happening due to very tight schedule.

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 1:24 pm

Hi Bernard

Good to hear from you. How is your Stellarvue scope?
OK. I will sms to you on subsequent trips; we will be glad to have your company for future observation sessions. If you want to do a quick observation session around our area, you can also contact or sms to me.

regards
rlow

Post by **weixing** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 12:06 am

Hi,
The observation site for this overnight trip had just change to Batam...

And the date had been brought forward to 16 Apr 2004 (Friday), because some of us was not free on Sunday morning. Most likely we will meet in the Harbour Front Centre at late afternoon 16 Apr 2004 and take a boat to batam. Anyway, details of the trip will be updated here as soon as we finalize the plan.

Those who interested can PM me or Richard Low (rlow). Please also indicate what equipment you want to bring along.

Thanks and have a nice day.

johnteh · Post by **johnteh** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 8:42 pm

I won't be able to join you guys so Clear Sky and good luck for you guys.

Have Fun !

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 8:39 am

We arrived back in Singapore around 10am yesterday (and after my afternoon appointment barely 3 hours later, I was knocked out from 6pm all the way to 6am this morning so my apologies to those who tried to contact me yesterday)

There were some high clouds and haze over our observing site intially - causing even the magnificent M42 and NGC 3532 to appear quite disappointing at first. But later on during the night, the key parts of sky (especially the South) remained relatively clear from them and we were presented with very good and almost Mersing-like skies. The Milky Way was visible throughout the night. And by the time Cygnus rose in the North, we got the full 180 degree view of it from Cygnus all the way down through the Sagittarius region.

The full list of all the objects observed (especially re-visited objects) can be quite tedious to type out in full

, so here are just some highlights from my personal experience there with my 70mm Pronto :

- Studying some M galaxies in the Ursa Major / Canes Venatici region (M 109, 106, 101, 63, 51)

- Of all the galaxies observed this time (about 15 in total), those worth noting were M86 in Hydra, Centaurus A and NGC 4945 in Centaurus. These were relatively larger and also brighter than the others and had more clearly defined shapes which were close to their photographic form (e.g through the eyepiece, NGC 4945 appeared as a longish cigar shaped smudge - go check the pictures of it on the internet).

- Bagging a handful of first time NGC globular clusters in Centaurus / Scorpius (NGC 5286, 5986, 5927, 5897, 6397)

- The Sagittarius Star Cloud with it's rich star fields and contrasting dark lanes.

- Last but not least, The Veil Nebula in Cygnus ! This was only the second time I've observed this interesting object with my Pronto.

Hope the others will share their own experience soon - especially the one with the largest scope there

You guys should have been there to see Omega Centauri, The Ring Nebula and The Dumbell Nebula through it !

Hope to see some of Wen Yi's wide field and Weixing's deep sky images soon too.

Here are some pictures I took :

Our observing site - a carpark near the beach. That yellow vehicle is our transport.

Richard Low's Megrez 80 setup

Weixing's Skywatcher 6" Newtonian setup

My Pronto in 'anti-dew mode

'. Next to it is my "luxurious" triple function safari bed

: it served as a table, chair and bed ... oops, I seem to have spilt some coffee on it ! On the upper left, you can see part of Wen Yi's tripod which he used for wide field astrophotography. On the right, that black thing with legs is Weixing's cute field table.

Looking forward to go back again in the future, this time for a longer period and with a larger scope. We hope more of you will be able to join us when we do. I think there are plans for another trip to the same place sometime next month while another group of us are up north in Mersing. Keep a lookout for it. I won't be there this time though, as I will be joining some of my old buddies in a 5D4N deep sky marathon in Mersing

Post by **weixing** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 8:14 pm

Hi,
I just finish process the first set of Omega Centauri images. The tracking is not very good... too lazy to do a good polar alignment..

Also, I didn't took a proper set of images for the Ring Nebula... got problem in centering the Nebula in my camera... Anyway, I will try to process whatever images I have on the Ring Nebula and see how is the result.

Have a nice day.

Post by **weixing** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 9:47 pm

Hi,
I just finish process the Ring Nebula (M57) images from a set of images that I take when trying to center the Nebula, so only 8 second of exposure. Anyway, the tracking is again not good and focusing is out

Have a nice day.