Yesterday, Desmond and I went to another location at ECP to do some Obs of our own. The place is just beside the lagoon near the Jumbo Seafood. This place is further east from the carpark in the above thread.
Time: between 9pm to 6am
Scope n mounts: Celestron 70mm Travel Scope on a AZ tripod. Sky-Watcher Explorer 150 on a EQ, 7x50 Celestron Bino
Eyepieces: 15 mm, 6 mm, 20 mm, 32 mm, 12.5 mm, 4 mm, 2x Barlow
Directions are 1.305597, 103.932143 in google map.
the place is relatively dark, the path lights are just nicely shining on the path not causing alot of LP. except there are 3 lamps at a nearby bar that have glaring orange lights. tall trees towards to west has part of the western and northwestern view shrouded. overall, this location is not too bad.
Sky Condtion: Clear with occasional clouds
Summary
At 9pm, we proceeded to setup the gears at the location. It is really dark and the moon was the source of light that made things slightly easier. Desmond's gears were simpler to setup and he was up and about in a short while, while i was still unpacking the different parts of the EQ mount. Once all has been setup, i eagerly point the scope to the direction of Saturn, or so i thought i was looking at it. while looking at the south-western direction, i tried to magnify to a yellowish star and found that it is still a dot. and it took a passerby to point me in the right direction. next time, consult sky map before looking at anything.. fortunately Saturn was still above the tree lines almost going to get blocked by the near by tree. first time thru the 6" looking at saturn. cant see any moons though. with a 20mm, it was just a slightly elongated ball. with a 4mm, the rings were more visible and 4mm with a 2x barlow, yup, that's saturn. after a while saturn hid behind the trees and set.
Moon hung around Scorpius making me hard to find M7 or M6. Desmond managed to wander into the M7 while sweeping around that area and i had no such luck. I tried to use Dave's star hopping method but i cant find my bearings using the EQ mount as if it is an AZ. and i cant seems to figure if i am going left or right, up or down. to me its easier to track something i have already set my sights on or on objects i can pinpoint with the view finder. but to star hop, EQ seems impossible for me.
when looking at the moon, the details are just very stunning. even with a waxing quarter moon, the glare was enough to kill any dark adapted pupils. Curious public came and had a look through our scopes at the moon, and someone said it was like a Nat Geo feeling. not seeing pictures or from the TV, but thru the lens of a scope. everyone who looked thru were very fascinated by the craters details they could see, and they asked about how the craters formed. its was like giving a science class lesson.
Next was just random star hopping hoping to catch something nice. then thought of getting a peek at Albireo. I found Vega, I found Altair, go to the middle, then to the left.. i see nothing.. what about the right? still nothing. while scanning the vast night sky, Aldebaran rose up. remembering that the Pleiades should also be visible i wanted to tell Desmond but he has already stumbled on it. with his help, i managed to locate the where the cluster was by using the clouds as the 7 sisters played hide n seek behind the clouds.. told him to use his bino to take a view, and he has found a new love, bino viewing on tarus. Desmond's scope is like a meteor magnet. while having a wider view from his 32mm eye piece, i saw a meteor streaked by. had a tail with a blueish tint, from east toward the north. covering almost the entire FOV. was too dim to be seen with his naked eye though.
now Orion has risen quite high, his belt (3 stars) are visible, i saw a fuzzy patch to the right and zero into the area, i saw a star cluster and a very cloudy patch. Desmond said his scope could see that patch as well. I suppose that is a nebular. it was nice to just roam around aimlessly in that area as there are lots of stars. while enjoying the whole Orion constellation, i saw a second meteor, this time orange in colour like the first meteor i saw during my first bedroom obs.. same southeast direction, and the meteor going in the same trajectory, east to south. Southern Delta still has a little spark left.
As the low clouds lined the horizon, Jupiter rose. from a sudden break in the clouds, i saw a bright object in the east. no doubt, jupiter! quickly i zero to the planet and saw it thru the 20 mm. Calling Desmond to have a look, was fascinated by its view n its 4 moons. then clouds covered the view again, for half an hour, Jupiter was playing hide n seek. as it rose even higher, i switched to a 4 mm with the 2x barlow n now the bands starts to show and it was still a sight to behold! sadly the GRS is still not visible. even on a 4 mm lens, the bands were still visible.
Mars will be rising in an hour's time. why not just wait on for a while more. Desmond said it will be very difficult to see Mars, but i was determined, just 1 hour. should be worth the wait. At first, it was faint. I thought i saw a reddish dot, then it disappeared. it was tough trying to zero in on an object that appears to be there, yet disappears altogether when u try to focus on it. finally after a while getting a hang of the viewing, i managed to centered it on a 20 mm. it was a tiny red ball. then view it with a 4 mm with a barlow. wow.. is that you, Curiosity, i see? no, i wished. Mars was a tiny red ball the size of a pin head.about 2 mm wide. the red dusty planet.
Conclusion
i found that i am hapless looking for things i want to see in the night sky unless i have something visual to tag it to.. still very unfamiliar with both my equipment and the night sky to see where i was hopping to. am probably going to invest in an AZ mount and a Telrad or Rigel Quikfinder. I know now what to expect when i look through my scope, and i am not sure if i have pushed the scope to its max capabilities.
Planet count: 3. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars
Meteor Count: 2.
Nebular: 1
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