Punggai Trip 13/11/10 - event and astrophotography

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 6:51 pm

Posting these photos on behalf of James. Taken by him with his new toy and filters. Enjoy

James Ling · Post by **James Ling** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 8:06 pm

Hi all.

Just a little update for the last weekend punggai trip, which there are a total of 30 participants going by 3 passenger vans, not inclusive of Ricahrd , his wife and Alfred, who drove down to meet us on the staurday evening.

This time round, the trip is well rewarded , as we've good sky for the whole of saturday, with passing clouds......

Initially we are only able to see the moon and Jupiter, but as the sky clears up in the late evening, M45, M31 and M42 etc... become our chasing target for the night.

The 3 photos of the moon shown are taken with canon 550D with 2X barlow using the 8" Istar refractor with focal length of 1800mm, without any filter, which you can still see the violet at the edges.
These photos are taken at 18mega-pixels but I resize it to only 0.8mp for the purpose of posting. (without any processing)

I also did 2 video shots of the moon, and just over a minute and a half, already taken up more than 700mb of the disc space, for each video shot.
They're very nice and clear, almost like these 3 photos taken, and perhaps if I am able to download the video, I will inform all of you again.

I could not take any decent photos of the Jupiter, mainly due to the OTA is almost touching the ground, when at vertical position.
Jupiter image size is just too small at prime focus with 2X barlow, when I tried to do it with the diagonal.
While waiting for Jupiter to move down towards the west , the portion of the sky is also very cloudy, so maybe I'll try it again next time.....

As the dew starts to set in after midnight, we also packed up our equipment , and call it the night...... And I think we're lucky, coz towards the early morning, rains start to fall........

For this punggai trip, is my 1st experience using the passenger van, which travel by the causeway instead through the tuas side, if going by coach. The traffic jam is heavy, and journey is very uncomfortable.....
The petrol kiosk that sells tibits is also not comparable to the route that we use by Tuas.......No DVD shows.....for our van and the other one.....
And the first night we are put at Bayu resort...... which we have to share the whole compound with at least more than 100 local residents......

Anyway this trip is still worthwhile than the previous one whereby the sky is totally not cooperative with us for the 2 nights.....
So I was told the next trip can only be planned in next year Jan 2011 onwards.....due to monsoon season...

Regards

James Ling

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 8:26 pm

Thanks James! Nice report. No DVD shows. LOL. I missed watching alien chicken running around in the lab. Haha.

Richard's scope brought back memories of viewing Saturn through it. Can't wait for Saturn to rise higher and higher in the morning.

Did you try the contrast booster filter on your scope? How's the view?

James Ling · Post by **James Ling** » Wed Nov 17, 2010 7:29 pm

Hi All.

I have just edited a short video clip of the quarter moon which I have taken during this recent Punggai trip.
You can refer to the following web site :-

http://flic.kr/p/8U54JF

The resolution is 640X 362, which is quite low, as compared to the original video shot which is full HD.

Perhaps I should download the full video at 700+mb into u tube...but it's definitely going to take many hours...

This 150mb short clip is only 17 sec and took one hour to download...

Regards

James Ling

James Ling · Post by **James Ling** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 1:18 am

Hi All.

Just download the full 2mins HD video into U tube at the following link :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3E-xtFlZWw

You can watch this in HD and see the difference from my previous 17 sec flicker video clip .

Regards

James Ling

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:51 pm

Really hope to join in the fun. Hopefully the next or next next trip i can join

cloud_cover · Post by **cloud_cover** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:23 am

There's one in Jan and usually every month in the new moon weekend.
Or I might do some ad hoc trips occasionally usually just an evening. Do join, esp so if you have a car, then we can pack more people/scopes!

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:33 am

I just changed my transport to a bike from a car so the best bet is to up up by bus or van haha. Jan should be a bit tight so most likely i will definately join in during March. lol

cloud_cover · Post by **cloud_cover** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:52 am

But you're using a starblast 4.5...... just pillion it *grin*
(I'm kidding)

Post by **rcj** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:54 pm

a group of us will be joining Carole to head up to Punggai once again. Do come along!

See: Punggai trip for Jan 7-9