"Target Saturn found. I was unprepared for the view around Saturn. Two small star-like points near this gas giant. I can only guess that one of them is the satellite Titan. The other one, I think is Rhea. These are the only two satellites that could be brighter than 10th magnitude. There was a third star-like point, but I think that one really could be a star." 17 November 2000 (Singapore)
And guess what else vapourized too?! The bad weather, the clouds, the rain, the haze vanished on the evening of the 17th too!! *Arrghhh!* At about 7.30pm, only very low-lying clouds to the west side remained. Venus was shining hard and bright in dusky blue sky. I hurried home, mentally sequencing the quickest way to set-up my equipment.
Planetary photography. To do or not to do? That is the question. And I've never photographed Venus in the nude before. Heck, I've never even once peeked at Venus through a telescope before (although I honestly thought about it many times when I saw that heavenly body taking a dip in the evening skies). Tonight seemed like a good night to be bad and indulge myself in these wicked fantasies. *lol!* :)
8pm, equipment in place and ready to go. A little place orientation here: The kitchen balcony faces the west, the living room balcony faces the east. This means tonight, I get to voyeurise not one, but three heavenly bodies. Saturn and Jupiter were steadily rising over the eastern horizon. But first, Venus, before the Earth rotates her view below my visible horizon.
I was too lazy to fix the finder scope, so I manually moved my Pentax 105 at 20x through the sky within the vicinity of Venus. It wasn't long before a single highly luminous sphere of light fell into sight. Bright, very bright. At 140x, the view of Venus in her gibbous stage was dazzling. *whoa.* I need my sunglasses. I couldn't see any details on this glaringly bright planet. Venus was a brilliant shade of pure white-yellow, unlike the white-blue of Sirius. Talk about diamonds in the sky, Venus is easily the equivalent of the Hope diamond (minus the curse). Change of OTA. The WYO Fluoro Star 100 at 160x, Venus was still as scintillating.
A quick glance from the living room balcony showed that Saturn and Jupiter were now prime visual targets. I shifted my entire assembly from the kitchen balcony, through the kitchen, past the dining room, down two steps, across the living room and out onto the balcony. (Have I mentioned that astronomers without a permanent observing base need not sign up for gym membership ever?)
8.30pm, back to the Pentax OTA. Searching at 20x. Target Jupiter found. Tonight is a really good crystal-clear night. At 20x, I could see a few bands across Jupiter escorted by Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. In the same view, four fainter stars dotted the background. Jupiter and its four Galilean satellites I've seen before, but the four fainter stars dispersed around them were the first for me here in the city.
At 140x, Jupiter's creamy surface loomed in right before my eyes with its numerous brown bands. There was no GRS. Not yet anyway. I quickly checked out the Peterson field guide to put names to these bands. For the first time, I could match the Jovian northern & southern temperate / tropical / equatorial zones and belts. Very nice.
Next target : Saturn. Searching at 20x. Target Saturn found. I was unprepared for the view around Saturn. Two small star-like points near this gas giant. I can only guess that one of them is the satellite Titan. The other one, I think is Rhea. These are the only two satellites that could be brighter than 10th magnitude. There was a third star-like point, but I think that one really could be a star.
At 140x, the Cassini division sharply cut across the rings. Again, numerous narrow bands draped across the surface. The two star-like points of light remained steady. Definitely not stars.
This was an excellent photo opportunity. Given the unpredictable equatorial weather here in Singapore, I don't know when I'll have this chance again. I dragged Dad out to see this. (My continuing efforts to immerse my parents in astronomy.) "What's this one called?" Dad adjusted the focusing knob. "Saturn." I replied. "Very nice! Quick go get your mother!" Mom appeared behind as most mothers usually do by some uncanny instinct. "What?" she quipped. "Look! See! A planet." Dad relinquished the eyepiece to Mom. "What's this one called?" Mom asked as she furtively tried to get the image in place. She hasn't been able to master looking through the eyepiece for some strange reason. "Saturn." I repeated. "Satan. Ah." Mom nodded. I mentally slapped my forehead. "Sat-Turn, not Say-Tan! You know, like SAT-urday and TURN-the-knob?? Saturn!!" *sigh!* So much for planetary phonetics. Dad hurried off to get my brother who was in his room. I could hear the "Quick! Come see the planet Satan!" Good grief..
I left my parents at the telescope while I grabbed a new roll of film from the fridge. Camera locked and loaded. I gently shooed my parents away as I began my photography session. 9.15pm, the neighbours were returning from their Friday night outings. One neighbour from the opposite building had been observing me for a while. I merrily waved to her and she quickly ducked behind the stairs.
Between shots, my friends called up sporadically to spread news of the clear skies. I called up a couple more to pass the news. Orion has risen. Aldebaran was 4 o'clock from Jupiter's position. M45, Pleiades was easily visible with about 6 stars naked eye. Looking at M42, I saw 3 stars naked eye in the area.
By 10.15pm, Saturn was out of photographic line of sight, so I continued with Jupiter until 10.30pm. I packed up and went online, only to receive an e-mail from another friend reporting the peak of Leonids at 3am.
3am, I was still awake, I went back to the living room balcony, waiting for the Leonids. 3.15am, hungry. Grabbed a pack of Pizza sticks from the kitchen and returned to the balcony, patiently waiting for a meteor. The waning quarter Moon was out. A quick binocular view revealed ragged crater details. Shadows melted into Mare Serenitatis.
3.30am, I saw one quick flash past the left side of the Moon. I froze with a half-eaten pretzel in my mouth. Did I imagine that or did I really see one? Dang the streetlights and the blinding quarter Moon! I spent the next 5 minutes trying to simulate meteor flashes with my imagination. Ok, that didn't work, so it wasn't my imagination. I concentrated on the eastern sky. Another friend had claimed the meteor peak at 4am. Either ways, I wasn't seeing any meteors. Not with the light pollution around me.
3.45am, saw another out of the corner of my eye, another faint flash. Again, I questioned my imagination. 4am, OK, forget the meteor shower, I'm gonna grab some sleep. I'd long finished my Pizza sticks and the half jug of milk that I'd just drank had diluted my patience. Good night.
The following morning, a friend called to tell me that the skies in Malaysia were equally good and that at its peak, fellow astronomers saw 1 meteor per second.
By Lin . 18th November 2000, Saturday.
