yeah...was getting on the spot real time reporting from richardII (rlow) via sms..heh heh
heard you all had a really great time there...pity sky not that good here or else I would have taken my N8 for her maiden voyage...
looking forward to mooey's reply and how he "wasted" the portaball...heh heh
Mersing Observation Trip on 3-4 Sep 05
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Airconvent
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A first timer's report of mersing: Great!
I probably saw more stuff in ONE mersing night than my whole obbing life put together (about 1 year plus a little more)!!! Crazy... My mind went overloaded with all the hopping even before midnight came.. And as promised from the mersing frequents, I literally got lost in the stars.. took me quite long and a little help just to spot scorpion.
I don't know how accurate a report i can give, here's what:
Planets - The very near planets venus and jupiter. Venus in gibbous stage as observed from my scope. Very cute and glaring. Jupiter's quite nice too, but i forgot if the great red spot was there when i saw. By the time Mars came up, i viewed it on my scope too, i think when i did Mars my eyes were so tired Mars came up as a less inviting disc only. Saturn was a few hours before sunrise, and we saw a "dismally lousy" one on the teleport 10", since in Mersing it was expected to be better. Nevertheless, it's so crisp (tho a little orangey and very yellowish) and bright, the teleport view beat my small skywatcher hands/feet/head/whatever down...
Scorpion - Saw the usual M6,M7, baby scorpius cluster. Found M4 and M80 for the first time!!!
Sagittarius - tried looking for that stupid M54 that kept evading me in singapore skies (and took me hours to find here, too). Found it in like 5mins, so fast.. And M70 and M69 were nearby, so i tried them too. Then headed for M22, lagoon, trifid (couldn't see properly i think, only signs of nebulosity) And after that went heading for that lonely M55, one which i never noticed while i was using my atlas in singapore.
After that, so many people were looking at the north I gave up on the south and chased after the objects in the north. To be honest, I never saw more than a few stray stars in the North Summer sky, other than the summer triangle. I saw the whole of cygnus for the first time, spent quite some time around.
Cygnus - So many objects bagged in a night, i forgot already.. ^^;; I think M29 got see, and a slight view of veil nebula, though nothing as fabulous as the same view from the teleport (more on that later). By the time I saw veil, I was quite certain my scope had reached its limit on nebulae (since i had no filters with me) so I gave up looking for north american nebula and pelican too.
Lyra - Went to cygnus' side and from vega found M57 Ring nebula. Only upon coming back and looking at my atlas now then i find M56 nearby, and i think i didn't try finding it there.. Sad
Andromeda - Found andromeda galaxy finally, and so easy too, it took me hours to spot it in singapore.. Tried M33 but failed on my scope dunno why, tried the same on the portaball and succeeded tho, at least ^^v
Dunno what constellation - I just know it's somewhere at the tail of cygnus and above vega. M71 and M27 Dumbbell Neb. Couldn't find both. So disappointing
Cassiopeia - The double cluster.
Can't believe it, I did all these before midnight.. By then my eyes were so tired I couldn't do much more already.. So even as i hated to waste the night, i fell asleep for about 3 hours. Sigh..
When I woke up, my skywatcher had so much condensation i felt i no longer could use it. Had to down my scope already.. sigh. However, just around that time Justin (who all the while was using Mooey's Portaball) also felt tired and went for a small rest, so I "coped" the Portaball over for a small spin around some usual objects that by then had come up. I showed Justin the Orion nebula. Portaball!!! Even at 40x, the trapezium is so crisp and clear!! But I only saw ABCD in the trapezium, but Justin claimed he could actually see E and F at 40x. Maybe I should eat more carrots for more Vit A before my next mersing trip. Then bagged M41, and andromeda again just to make sure i really knew how to find it. Then pleaides, then an unsuccessful crab nebula attempt, tho i eventually saw it on the teleport too. Successfully identified the constellation Lepus, I never seen before in singapore cos it was so dim, and auriga. Then quickly bagged M37,36,38 in one fell swoop.
Finally - Monoceros - Found Rosette Neb and the cluster in it, saw the nebulosity very easily. However, Cone was a little harder to find even with the Portaball since i don't know what it looks like (i'm bad at remembering pictures), so I gave up after a while. By that time, it was about an hour more to sunrise.
Elton managed to fix his push-to just before this final hour, and by the time i gave up on Cone Neb, they were galaxy hunting with the push-to. They found an amazing cluster of galaxies in the South which both of them didn't know was there before, and further details i think mooey will give. Then the Teleport was quickly whisked around and around and around and etc for galaxy after galaxy, and the oohs and ahhs from Elton and Mooey though all of them look like just plain stars to me (I eventually can see faint traces of fuzziness from each, but i could well be imagining..) It was crazy, the last minute hunting, they hunted all the way and i watched with them all the way until none could be seen anymore with the glaring sun finally rising..
This is a superb trip for me, even though i had to waste a few hours resting i could see so much more than i ever did before in my life. Didn't regret, wouldn't stop recommending people to go, but for myself i've to contend myself with the lousy singapore skies again until i save up enough to go again...
Pictures that i took will be up later, and i'll give a link here for it. Gotta go back to camp soon again ARGHH I hate camp.
I probably saw more stuff in ONE mersing night than my whole obbing life put together (about 1 year plus a little more)!!! Crazy... My mind went overloaded with all the hopping even before midnight came.. And as promised from the mersing frequents, I literally got lost in the stars.. took me quite long and a little help just to spot scorpion.
I don't know how accurate a report i can give, here's what:
Planets - The very near planets venus and jupiter. Venus in gibbous stage as observed from my scope. Very cute and glaring. Jupiter's quite nice too, but i forgot if the great red spot was there when i saw. By the time Mars came up, i viewed it on my scope too, i think when i did Mars my eyes were so tired Mars came up as a less inviting disc only. Saturn was a few hours before sunrise, and we saw a "dismally lousy" one on the teleport 10", since in Mersing it was expected to be better. Nevertheless, it's so crisp (tho a little orangey and very yellowish) and bright, the teleport view beat my small skywatcher hands/feet/head/whatever down...
Scorpion - Saw the usual M6,M7, baby scorpius cluster. Found M4 and M80 for the first time!!!
Sagittarius - tried looking for that stupid M54 that kept evading me in singapore skies (and took me hours to find here, too). Found it in like 5mins, so fast.. And M70 and M69 were nearby, so i tried them too. Then headed for M22, lagoon, trifid (couldn't see properly i think, only signs of nebulosity) And after that went heading for that lonely M55, one which i never noticed while i was using my atlas in singapore.
After that, so many people were looking at the north I gave up on the south and chased after the objects in the north. To be honest, I never saw more than a few stray stars in the North Summer sky, other than the summer triangle. I saw the whole of cygnus for the first time, spent quite some time around.
Cygnus - So many objects bagged in a night, i forgot already.. ^^;; I think M29 got see, and a slight view of veil nebula, though nothing as fabulous as the same view from the teleport (more on that later). By the time I saw veil, I was quite certain my scope had reached its limit on nebulae (since i had no filters with me) so I gave up looking for north american nebula and pelican too.
Lyra - Went to cygnus' side and from vega found M57 Ring nebula. Only upon coming back and looking at my atlas now then i find M56 nearby, and i think i didn't try finding it there.. Sad
Andromeda - Found andromeda galaxy finally, and so easy too, it took me hours to spot it in singapore.. Tried M33 but failed on my scope dunno why, tried the same on the portaball and succeeded tho, at least ^^v
Dunno what constellation - I just know it's somewhere at the tail of cygnus and above vega. M71 and M27 Dumbbell Neb. Couldn't find both. So disappointing
Cassiopeia - The double cluster.
Can't believe it, I did all these before midnight.. By then my eyes were so tired I couldn't do much more already.. So even as i hated to waste the night, i fell asleep for about 3 hours. Sigh..
When I woke up, my skywatcher had so much condensation i felt i no longer could use it. Had to down my scope already.. sigh. However, just around that time Justin (who all the while was using Mooey's Portaball) also felt tired and went for a small rest, so I "coped" the Portaball over for a small spin around some usual objects that by then had come up. I showed Justin the Orion nebula. Portaball!!! Even at 40x, the trapezium is so crisp and clear!! But I only saw ABCD in the trapezium, but Justin claimed he could actually see E and F at 40x. Maybe I should eat more carrots for more Vit A before my next mersing trip. Then bagged M41, and andromeda again just to make sure i really knew how to find it. Then pleaides, then an unsuccessful crab nebula attempt, tho i eventually saw it on the teleport too. Successfully identified the constellation Lepus, I never seen before in singapore cos it was so dim, and auriga. Then quickly bagged M37,36,38 in one fell swoop.
Finally - Monoceros - Found Rosette Neb and the cluster in it, saw the nebulosity very easily. However, Cone was a little harder to find even with the Portaball since i don't know what it looks like (i'm bad at remembering pictures), so I gave up after a while. By that time, it was about an hour more to sunrise.
Elton managed to fix his push-to just before this final hour, and by the time i gave up on Cone Neb, they were galaxy hunting with the push-to. They found an amazing cluster of galaxies in the South which both of them didn't know was there before, and further details i think mooey will give. Then the Teleport was quickly whisked around and around and around and etc for galaxy after galaxy, and the oohs and ahhs from Elton and Mooey though all of them look like just plain stars to me (I eventually can see faint traces of fuzziness from each, but i could well be imagining..) It was crazy, the last minute hunting, they hunted all the way and i watched with them all the way until none could be seen anymore with the glaring sun finally rising..
This is a superb trip for me, even though i had to waste a few hours resting i could see so much more than i ever did before in my life. Didn't regret, wouldn't stop recommending people to go, but for myself i've to contend myself with the lousy singapore skies again until i save up enough to go again...
Pictures that i took will be up later, and i'll give a link here for it. Gotta go back to camp soon again
ARGHH I hate camp.-
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