Mersing Astro Expedition 01 July 11 to 03 July 11

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:28 pm

For the past weekend, a group of us headed up north to Mersing again for our
"Feast" of the starry skies.
A total of 3 private cars and 2 mini bus fully loaded with Stars hungry Astronomers headed out from Singapore to Mersing on Friday 1st July 2011.
As soon as we reached the site, we settled down and immediately without further delay, started to prepare out equipments for the night.

Among the equipments, there were CN212, FSQs, FSs, FCTs, Celestron, Vixens, WOs with GPDs, SXDs, G11, G8s and not forgetting some of the mounts that were brought there.

Most of us started easy on the first night while waiting for the rest to reach the site. The heavens were kind to us and treated us to 2 full nights of clear skies! The Milky way can be visible naked eye all the way from Scorpius to Cynus and under.
Its like a bridge linking from one side to the other

So start your engines and load the fruits of your efforts here (pictures) lol

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:50 pm

M6 & M7 180mm Widefield (reprocessed)

cloud_cover · Post by **cloud_cover** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:50 pm

Wow..... who had the CN212?

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:05 pm

Haha make a guess

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:47 pm

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:27 pm

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:36 pm

Post by **rcj** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:37 am

Nothing taken with the CCD camera this trip (sold!), but did some collaborative work with J. Michael Mathews. It has been a long time since we last did works together (dating back to early 2000s, film, etc). It was nice to see that he was finally able to join us for the trip, and used his "virgin" FCT76 with the now discontinued Canon 400D (modded, but uncooled) to take some DSOs with the G11 mount. It was amazing how much energy he took to take quite a few objects during the two nights of almost total clarity. I think he was the last man standing for both nights (till the sun rose!). This was one of the DSO projects being embarked upon, of the M7 and the surrounding dark absorption nebulae complex amidst the Milky Way background stars. Can't remember how many subs he took, but they were 6minutes at ISO800. Probably around 7 subs. Helped to process the image. It has been a long time since I touched a DSLR image (Nikon D70), still lots of learning and revision! [added subsequent images]

Image of the Veil Nebula complex in Cygnus. 12x6min. Same setup.

Lagoon & Trifid Nebulae.

N.American & Pelican Nebulae.

cataclysm · Post by **cataclysm** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:20 am

Oh yeah! I was too quick to assess that last Month's trip was the best, how wrong can I be, this time round, we really got the 'Mother lode' of astrophotos..... LOL....! The sky stayed clear till dawn even on the 2nd night, really feeling sleep deprived by then, I think only the 'star power' keeps me awake by then.. LOL...

Ok here are some compositions of Galactic Duos from this trip. All taken with Takahashi FSQ 85 & Modified Canon 350D:

M16 & M17, 8x8 min @ ISO 800, f/3.8

Cat's Paw with War & Peace nebulae, 10x8min @ ISO 800 , f/3.8

Bergkamp_ · Post by **Bergkamp_** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 8:06 am

Lovely pics~! Thanks~