"Ever seen the Milky Way in all its glory, a storm of golden lightning on the horizon and a host of meteors all at once? Whoa. Still I managed to get a couple of decent shots on my 4-camera assembly." 6 May 2000 (Mersing, Malaysia)
I'd spent the night before practicing mount-loading and a good part of the morning packing my stuff: Pentax105 & body holder; GPD & SS2k; eyepieces & adapters; guiding reticle and finder; wires; battery & charger; tripod, half-pier & counterweights; cameras & lenses; film; accessory plate; torchlight; more batteries; clothes.. everything seemed to be in place. I had two bags, one toolbox and one scope box. I checked and rechecked to make sure I had everything I needed for one night of astrophotography and another night of observation. after we loaded everything, I made a third check just to be sure.. there was a nagging feeling that I might have overlooked something.
This was my first solo trip out without fellow astronomers to fall back on to borrow odds and ends, one missing bolt was enough to ruin the night; What more that I had my parents to impress. Boiling it down to nerves, I ignored the feeling. 5.45pm, we were stuck at the Woodlands checkpoint. In the time we were crawling painfully over the Causeway, I was running through all possible customs scenarios in my mind, all of which had them pulling the car over for a check. Looks like my Dad's "tales of customs terror" were getting to me. I was not about to let them hold us back because of my equipment. (Dad had earlier related that his friend got held for five hours over a piece of old, rusted thing in his boot. I had to steel myself in the event they were going to try anything.) This can be such a mental pain in the cortex.
Malaysian checkpoint. We'd just collected our passports. I just remembered that I had locked my Pentax box and fumbled with the key to open it before the customs officers could ask.. the car drove on.. I looked up.. Huh?! This didn't look like the customs. Had we been pulled over? Where are the customs officers? Dad coolly replied we'd already passed them. We'd what?! It took my mind a long minute to register that I no longer had to fret. All RIIIIITE!!! I was all in a joyful noise. Looks like the causeway jam had an advantage after all.
6.30pm, another traffic jam along the Johor highway leading to Kota Tinggi. I don't care. We'd gotten past customs, that was it. I fell asleep. When next I awoke, we'd pulled over at Kota Tinggi for dinner. It was 8pm, clouded over and raining.
By the time we checked in at the resort, it was 10pm. My energy levels had perked up and I was setting up the base structure of my equipment for astrophotography. I had convinced my Dad to drive me out to Teluk Sari. Mom was being Mom with her barricade of reasons NOT to go anywhere else because it was already too late and too dark. *DUH!!* When else are we going to see stars? In the day?!
I was attaching cameras and adapters to the accessory plate when suddenly it hit me: I had forgotten to bring my guidescope!! *OH MAN!* The Pentax was too heavy to be configured in with four cameras; Balancing would be tough. *Argh!* I cannot believe my stupidity! I brought the adapters and guiding eyepiece but not the guidescope.. ooh, I was SO strangled by this.
Looking out at the sky from the chalet. The clouds were gone and in spite of the two really bright lamp posts to the left of the chalet, Scorpius and Sagittarius were beaming down at me! Worse! The Milky Way was out in full array AND ME WITHOUT MY GUIDESCOPE!! Oh, I could kill myself..
I was too tired to rethink configuration load and elected to drive something else other than my mind crazy: the SkySensor2000. And since it would a visual night, the open patch outside the chalet would be sufficient. Setting up the equipment was easy enough. This would be the second time I'm trying the SS2k's three-point alignment. (The first time was a total disaster with the scope pointing the wrong way, the motors failing to respond.) I'd since been practicing and running motor and GOTO trials at home. I figured I was ready to take on the stars.
A rough alignment North from past memory of where the sun rose. (I need a compass.) I selected a reference star: Antares (Scorpius). I took a deep breath as I depressed the GOTO button. *WHHIIIRRRRRRRR!!!* GPD responded in a split-second at 1500x speed turning RA and Dec simultaneously. That in itself was quite an amazing thing to watch. The motors slowed to a stop. Antares was several degrees off and I had to do some adjustments. When I finally had Antares in centre view, it was so satisfying to hear the beep registering 1-star alignment confirmation. I set the Quikfinder and was off looking for my next star.. Altair (Aquila). The motors were zooming in. This time, the star was in the periphery of eyepiece, not centred but an improvement over Antares. 2-star alignment beep. Next star: Vega in Lyra. This time it was right in the middle. Excellent! 3-point alignment beep. (I could get used to this. :) Just for the heck of it, Deneb in Cygnus. Right on!
I sent the scope back to Scorpius region and WATCH OUT UNIVERSE, HERE I COME!
From Scorpius: M4 gc; NGC 6231 oc; NGC 6242 oc; NGC 6281 oc; NGC 6441 gc; M7 oc; M6 oc (Butterfly) : Superb! I was proudly showing off to Mom (who found it tough to get her eyes in the right place to view through the eyepiece and decided that sleep was much more fun) and Dad (who commented that they all looked like sandpaper to him). So much for stellar appreciation. I guess it's a similar case to how I'll never understand what exactly do people find so exciting about football.
From Sagittarius: M54 gc; M70 gc; M69 gc; NGC 6522 gc; NGC 6520 oc; M8 (Lagoon Nebula); M20 (Trifid Nebula); M21 oc; M28 gc; M22 gc; M25 oc; M24 (Star Cloud); M17 (Omega Nebula); M16 (Eagle Nebula); M23 oc; M9 gc; M19 gc; M62 gc : Oh WOW! Some of the fainter clusters were really small. I spent more time wowing the nebulae than the open clusters (oc) or globular clusters (gc). Even with the lights at the chalet, I could still discern nebulosity in M16 and M17. I could see the Number 2-shaped nebula in M17 quite clearly. Lagoon Nebula was a fuzzy flower-like patch. (Dad was still up. He definitely preferred the nebulae.) Trifid was particularly interesting; Two cloudy patches exactly like the one in pictures but in greyscale. One patch was visibly of a different wavelength from the other. The skies were more than excellent. Not to sound pompous but the clusters were beginning to get boring. The SS2k was making it all too easy for me. I was seeing more this night than all my observation nights combined. It is overwhelming. So here I am showing off to you too and it probably sounds like I'm gloating but I sure am not exaggerating. This more than makes up for not bringing the guidescope. :)
Wait! There's more! From Aquila: NGC 6823 oc; M71 gc; M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) : Ooh.. M27 is looking a lot like a dumbbell tonight. Regret tinge my mind at not being able to do photography, but I guess the visual loaf is better than none at all.. hey, it could've been raining the whole night through.
From Lyra: M57 (Ring Nebula) : Now M57 was somewhat of a blooper. When the SS2k stopped, the scope showed four bright stars. Try as I did, I couldn't figure out why there were four stars and no doughnut. At first I thought the SS2k was kicking up a fuss at being abused on its second night out. I commanded it to Vega and it complied, centering the star beautifully. Odd. I sent it back to M57. Four stars. Ok. Where's the doughnut?! It took me a LONG while staring through the eyepiece till my vision was blurred before suddenly a quirky movement jolted my attention to the middle star that was NOT a star because there was a hole in the middle. *Ack!* I slapped my forehead. You mean M57 was that bright and THAT small?! I pumped up the magnification but the kidney effect of the eyepiece was eluding my already failing vision. I wasn't about to give up. I furiously repositioned my eye, determined to see M57 up close. When my left eye gave up, my right one took over. That got me occupied a good ten minutes. When I finally saw it, I was beside myself with joy and congratulated myself. This has got to be the craziest moment of my observations ever; Twenty minutes on M57. That was it, I had it with this side of the sky. :) I gave NGC 7000 (N. American Nebula) a miss.
I was eager to see Andromeda and Cassiopeia. I wanted a galaxy. No, I NEEDED a galaxy to end this feast. Sadly, the Northeast side was blocked by the lights and trees. It was already 5am, although it felt as if the night had barely begun. The constellations were just not turning fast enough to catch up with the SS2k. I couldn't wait to get back home and share.. ok, gloat :) about this to the other guys. One of them had playfully cursed my trip with rain, and now he can take his rain and drink it! *lol!* :)
Ok, that was more than enough confidence boosting for one night. I still have tomorrow night to conquer. Zzz.
1st July, Saturday; The day was fine, bright and hot. I roamed around the beach now and then. My parents and Uncle Roland had gone back to Johor to do some stuff. I hid in the cool shelter of the a/c chalet for most part to see if I could get at least two cameras attached with the scope. Precarious as the plate was not designed for this but achievable nonetheless. 3pm, I was back on the beach with my camera. That's where I met up with Jeremy, Debbie, Rebecca and Bethany. Now we'd have an audience for the night. :)
As with the previous night, rain swept across the evening sky. 10pm, everything cleared up, Scorpius and Sagittarius were back for round two. Jeremy and I drove up to Tg Resang; Everyone else was too tired to go gallivanting for stars. In about ten minutes, our equipment was up and raring to go. It was only then that Jeremy noticed a red light flashing intermittently. He drew my attention to it and I recognized it as the TASOS group's. They had used the signal before to notify other astronomers of their position. Thing was, the both of us had already set up our stuff and I wasn't feeling all too energetic to move it across the breadth of the field to the other side. So we stayed put. Let the alignments begin. :)
I was still getting used to the speed and sound of the SS2k. It drowned out the crickets and amphibians as it zoomed towards its first star. Jeremy has the SS3D which was so quiet in its efficiency. That night I discovered that I couldn't use Messier objects to align. An hour later, a flashlight strolled towards us from the TASOS group; Michael had spotted us when we came in and had been observing us via binoculars as we settled in. It was his red light that we saw. There were five of them doing CCD and photography at the other end but the sky wasn't too favourable, according to Michael. The high clouds were hazing in and out, thwarting drift alignment and guide stars.
After a short while, Michael left to rejoin the group. Jeremy and I zoomed off in search of a couple more Messier and NGC objects before the clouds started to roll in again at 1.30am. I did try for a faint 9th-magnitude barred spiral galaxy but there was too much interference from the clouds. That's when Jeremy suggested that we call it a day and I told him I wouldn't mind calling it a night. *lol!* (Ahh.. the beauty of language. :) We returned to the chalet at 2.10am. I guess the weather remained that way for the rest of the night.
Not too bad for a solo trip. I am rather pleased with the SS2k.. Ok, I'm more than jubilant and way over the moons of Jupiter. I've never seen so much in so short a time. All that time spent hunting when we could be observing. Still, I guess that's the whole challenge, not to mention a whole skill in itself. The GOTO hunters are probably the next generation of amateur astronomers who are going to have the entire universe at their feet.. erm.. fingers. Way cool. :)
By Lin . 2nd July 2000, Sunday.
