East Coast Park Obs session - 31/12/15

Alright, this is for sharing of your observation experience. Or, if you are arranging gatherings, star-gazing expeditions or just want some company to go observing together, you can shout it out here.
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antares2063
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Location: Bedok North Street 2, Singapore

East Coast Park Obs session - 31/12/15

Post by antares2063 »

Dear all,

If weather permits, I intend to try Bedok Reservoir this Friday to do some obbing...has anyone been there of late recently?
Any recommendations of any patch not too obstructed by trees?

Will be bringing a scope, all are welcomed. Contact number is nine-12-eight-568-two

Time : 730pm till maybe around 11pm

Regards,
Junwei
Last edited by antares2063 on Wed Dec 30, 2015 10:57 am, edited 11 times in total.
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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antares2063
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Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:34 pm
Favourite scope: Newtonians
Location: Bedok North Street 2, Singapore

Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 28/2/14

Post by antares2063 »

Uploaded a more detailed map :
Last edited by antares2063 on Fri May 08, 2015 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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bornfree
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Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 28/2/14

Post by bornfree »

i will b there as well~
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antares2063
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Location: Bedok North Street 2, Singapore

Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 28/2/14

Post by antares2063 »

weather looking great so far (+8 hr for local time )

http://app2.nea.gov.sg/data/dt/xml/asean.jpg
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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antares2063
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Location: Bedok North Street 2, Singapore

Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 28/2/14

Post by antares2063 »

Thanks for those who came down to join in the session :

Johndepro - John
John's friend , ZhengGuang
Bornfree - Jason
Great Red Spot - Alvin

I was trying out Bedok Reservoir for obs for the very first time, the park was quite big, and the site we went to was a wooden plank walkway near the edge of the water itself.

bornfree brought out his entire collection of vixen 0.965 orthos in a cute umbrella padded case which we tried on Jupiter and Mars . The light pollution was mainly from the walking path lights and some bright spotlight along the water's edge. John and his friend took some widefield shots of the sky using their DSLRs.

After a while, Alvin came with his many various accessories and eyepieces, including Panoptics , Naglers and a Delos :3 . I tried the delos but it overbalanced my scope haah...later on he whipped out his binoviewer with dual 20mm eyepieces and we pointed it at Jupiter. The effect was amazing! Normally when i see jupiter and its 4 moons, the image looks flat with one eye viewing. However with 2 eyes what i noticed immediately was

a) the position of the 4 moons had depth to them, i/e 2 of the moons look to be nearer to me and 2 of them look recessed backwards
b) Jupiter's disk itself looks 3D like , like a globe and not a flat circle (wow!!)



Here are some photos from my handphone :

Skywatcher 6" newt with binoviewer
Image

The big and small "brothers" Stellarvue 50mm and 80mm Right angle Correct image finders
Image

The Terminagler Jr.
Image

close to midnight as the clouds started rolling in , we packed and went to a nearby food centre to have supper, a refreshing end to a obs session :)

Thanks again for those who came down to join me ! hope can plan more in future..clear skies & no haze !

Regards,
Junwei
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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bornfree
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Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 28/2/14

Post by bornfree »

it was indeed a good obs session. with the bino viewer, the scope could not properly balance at all... most likely will need to rotate the OTA to let the binoviewer points parallel to the mount not perpenticular as shown in the photo.

we were obbing on the fishing deck (2) the planks were an issue where it caused alot of vibration when anyone was walking in the area. overall it is pretty dim, as the fishing deck is lower, the path lights at the top throw abit of stray lights into the view of the scope. directly opposite us, there is a construction site that turned on a super bright spotlight what blinded the west side.. up to 30-5 degrees.

brought out 2 scopes, my newt and the stellavue, mounted the stellavue on a cheapo 30 bucks tripod and found that cheapo tripod are forever cheapo n unstable..try to find ways to stablise it but not very possible the quick release is always the weak link.. it is good for flat horizontal usage, but point anywhere more than 20 degrees elevation, it will be near impossible to aim the scope hook it up to my newt's cam piggy back, it is more stable. b4 midnite, the sky's background looks black, approaching midnite, it starts to glow orange ..

having seen zingaro both the 6" n 8" in term of viewing, both are excellent. the diy done by Junwei is really neat and blocks out stray lights from the mirror at the bottom just needed to do the same for the top. saw the collimation of the 2 scopes. the 6" can easily be collimated by 1 person by adjusting the screws and looking thru the cheshire. 8" will be more troublesome.

last night saw thru alot of different EP, different types of EP, as of now, i am still happy with my EP collection which covers most of my needs to see what i wanted to see..
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antares2063
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Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 27/3/14

Post by antares2063 »

Dear all,

If weather permits, I intend go Bedok reservoir to continue part 2 of my recce, maybe the stretch/jogging area going down from Wawawa (a restaurant) or some part of the park connector

Date :27th March (Thursday)
Time : 830pm till around midnight

Will bring scope, all are welcomed

Regards,
Junwei
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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fizzy123
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Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 27/3/14

Post by fizzy123 »

Hi Junwei,

Maybe I will join you nest time. I used to obs at bedok reservoir. But it is at the foot of the hill of the reservoir. That place is quite dark but it is a slope, so if you are a eqm or goto operator, might not be suitable. In the day, it is used ofr kite flying and remote plane flying
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antares2063
Posts: 687
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:34 pm
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Location: Bedok North Street 2, Singapore

Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 27/3/14

Post by antares2063 »

Hi fizzy, thanks i dont use Eq just alt-az and i drop at bus stop opposite the condo and walk in :) where is the field in relation of the map? Can share?
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fizzy123
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Re: Bedok Reservoir Obs session - 27/3/14

Post by fizzy123 »

Hi,

I am not sure how to mark on the map, but there is only one hill there, so you cannot miss it, on top of the hill there is a pavilion and there is a sheng shiong supermarket behind it. The slope is gentle and undulating enough to deploy scopes at the foot if it had not been raining as there might be mosquitoes. I used to obs there especially for meteor showers. But anyway, glad there is a renewed interest in astronomy in the east of SG. As for the jetty thing they built recently, my main concern is if they might lock the entrance to the jetty and that if the weight of many people with heavy gear over a small jetty, might pose as an issue? Are you planning to do this frequently, if so could I possibly join you in the future?
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