Morning Coffee & the Planets

Five planets in one night.. I'm missing four more to complete the Solar System collection. With the KK Wide Scan II 30mm eyepiece, the stars never looked better. July 2001 : ..and the exhibition's public tour continues to the schools. Mars' perigee has come and gone. A dust storm is brewing on the red planet's surface. A partial lunar eclipse this month (July 05, umbral eclipse starts 9.35pm- Maximum eclipse at 10.55pm - umbral eclipse ends 12.15am Singapore time) and a fading comet Linear in Cetus-Pisces region. 21-22 July 2001 (Johor, Malaysia)

A weekend trip out with friends. The morning march of four planets has been a topic for a while. The slogan should have been: "Get a natural high. See stars and planets. (No caffeine added.)"

Using the WYO FluoroStar100 f/8 with KK Wide Scan Type II 30mm, a 2-inch eyepiece with an 84-degrees field of view.

A crystal view of the universe and I have never been this up close and personal with the stars. One look through the Wide Scan II and you'll fall in love with the stars all over again.

Higher magnifications with a 2x barlow and 5mm eyepiece. The rough observation report is:
Mars
Surface details were fuzzy at best with the barest smattering of dark markings. A thick mass of rain clouds sweeping in from the west side; It barely skimmed past with lightning hints of what it could bring..
clouds,
Mars again,
clouds again,
distant lightning,
more clouds,
Mars,
Zzzzzzz......
ohh!! Stars!!
Hyades, Aldebaran in Taurus, and Saturn
Is it turning our way? because it looks as if we're gonna be able to see the other side of the rings behind the planet.. bands striped across its surface.. Cassini divisions visible..
M45 Pleiades, Taurus
Swell little cluster.. it never fails to look good.. :) stars filled from edge to edge.. I don't see distortion, I don't see coma and colour rendition with the Wide Scan II eyepiece is just *so* fine! my gosh, the view is absolutely stunning.. you get the whole view of the Pleiades cluster inside this babe. You know how some people describe the Pleiades as a group of blue fireflies.. I never knew what that meant till now.
M31 Andromeda galaxy, Andromeda
This is a real beauty.. central core brightness with the glow of diffusing arms gently swirled around it. Dang.. I forgot to take note of M32, M110..
M33 Pinwheel galaxy, Triangulum
Somewhat fainter than M31, more round and the central core was relatively bright.. it was only 2/3 the size of M31.
Venus
Bright waxing gibbous phase.. slightly more than half. I don't see any clouds on the atmosphere.. I hear about them, I don't see them. Dang planet's just too bright. :)
Jupiter
Major band lines across the body, no GRS visible.. 4 satellites as per usual serving.. :)
Mercury
Ahh! Finally.. it was almost the same distance from Jupiter as Venus is. It was nervy trying to figure if it was ever going to rise before the sun did. The sky was lightening up considerably. Finally, my friend's hawk eyes caught something that had almost the same magnitude as Saturn just above the distant trees. That was exciting. A look at Mercury showed half phase.. wow indeed.
Comet Linear
Tried to hunt for comet Linear, but gave up craning to see through the finder. It was directly overhead.

Binocular-wise, I swept through the clusters of the Milky Way through Auriga, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus. I caught sight of some familiar pieces like the Perseus double cluster. As for the others I got too lazy to check in with an atlas. It was just an appreciation session.

I could recognize the square of Pegasus, the star of Alpheratz that joined Andromeda to it. The Summer Triangle constellations of Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila to the Northwest. Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Perseus to the North. Taurus and Orion rising.

I mused out loud my wonderings about what other constellations flew to the South above us. I never was much of a Southern Sky-smart person beyond Crux and Centaurus. Vincent threw me a mock look of shock and horror, "You don't know?! How can you not know?!" *lol!*

I figured that if I didn't memorize all the constellations or DSOs, it'll be more fun searching it out on the field. Sure it makes for a little work, but that's the fun part. To see half the known universe as an astronomer would; To see the other unknown half as a new initiate to the stars will. Somehow this balance strikes a perfect chord with me. I don't mind not knowing everything in the universe. :)

Vincent sighed that I was undermining my full potential as an astronomer. I think I'm just too laidback mentally. (Turns out to be Pisces, Aquarius, Capricornus, Piscis Austrinus, Cetus, Grus.)

Orion was rising with the sun, too late to see much. Now if I could have caught this planetary moment with a waning moon, the scene would be perfect. Well, can't have everything in the universe. (I got a new moon.)

By Lin . 22nd July 2001, Sunday.

Camp Polaris & Camp Vega

"SkySensor units on both sides, we pretty much covered the entire universe that night. It made the stars so accessible to the campers. Star clusters were plentiful, as were the number of galaxies. Faint structures could be discerned to the keener eyes, and with seasoned averted visions. The good news then was that some of them managed to finally see M104 in Corvus." 

Camp Polaris: 14-16 March 2001 (Tebing Tinggi, Malaysia)

14th March, Wednesday. 5 am. Organization fear. Logistical nightmare. Bad weather. Murphy's Law. Malaysian customs had changed their declaration form for the fifth time on 9th March. More than enough to keep me up thinking of what else might go wrong. By the time I got to sleep, it was about time to leave for the station.

7.40am : Everyone's ready and waiting at the Tanjong Pagar Station. There would be 9 of us from Singapore. As it turns out, while March might be one of the best times to go stellar hunting, many students had to return to their college mid-term exams after the holiday week. Bummer.

These are the braver ones who would choose the stars over their exams.

Customs check. I had suffocated my GP-D mount under a deliberate artful mess of clothes in my backpack; WYO scope on one hand, the Vixen HAL tripod in another. As I expected, I got detained while the officials checked out the FluoroStar. They had their suspicions that it was a telescope capable of far more than just a mere telephotographing. Fortunately, I had pasted a huge Canon sticker over the aluminium case, and a smaller Canon Sticker over the WYO logo on the FluoroStar. They checked if the brand was non-dutiable before releasing me.

Back to the group. It wasn't long before they got comfortable with each other card-playing "tai di" & bridge. Being their first train ride, there were a couple of pointers they weren't aware of. One was the customs check protocol of "Quick = No Need to Wait in Queue." The other was the alighting procedure upon reaching destination Segamat. I was fraught with anxiety that one of them might just get left behind on the train.

12.15pm Segamat. There was a slight delay at the tracks. We were met at the station by Vincent. Two taxis were catered for the transfer to Felcra. Upon arrival, we checked in to rooms 217, 219 & 221 on the third floor. Lunch was a little late at 2pm. Free time. I dropped into bed after making sure that everyone was fine and settled.

Being a small group gave us the luxury of deciding when we would like to do what. We didn't exactly follow the planned schedule. Turned out that a couple of us (me included) were in need of afternoon naps. But in the spirit of astronomy, we were all up at 6.30pm for an introductory course in star-hopping and constellation mapping.

8pm, a slight drizzle but nothing more damaging. Venus hung low in the West sky. Jupiter and Saturn are still in Taurus. Orion was overhead. Mr Au arrived from Singapore to join us. Mr Au and I set up our equipment on the main carpark and pretty much stayed there for the night.

We had our dinner at 9pm. At about 9.30pm, a group of 8 arrived from the Segamat Teochew Association to join us for a few hours of observation. The first night was pretty relaxed. A couple of low clouds flitting in between the stars. Mr Au had plenty of stories to share with everyone.

We had a glimpse of Jupiter and Saturn. M42 Nebula in Orion. M45 Pleiades in Taurus. NGC 2237 Rosette. NGC 2264 Christmas Tree cluster. Etc. Our first night was pretty much free & easy. We hopped around to any objects that came to our minds.

M104 Sombrero Galaxy near Corvus. One of Mr Au's personal favourites. There was a thin layer of atmospheric obstruction. We took turns to search out the object. It wasn't easy. Finally after 30 minutes of sheer eye strain from both of us, I spotted the ghostly glow emanating from the dark central lane. Very NICE! To think that it was there all this time, and we just couldn't figure out why we weren't seeing it. Light pollution was very mild, I would hazard a guess about atmospheric clarity for the difficulty in seeing M104. Lijie and Xiaoqi tried really hard to glimpse this elusive galaxy. Their attempts were swathed by thin cloud layers, unfortunately decreasing overall brightness of the low magnitude object.

15th March, Thursday

2am, clouds had fogged out the stars. The Moon was out, diffusing its light from behind the clouds. We called it a night. Most of them were already off to dreamland. But not bad for their first night under the stars.

7am, the campers were up and ready for breakfast. This was the first in a series of 6 meals (7am, 10am, 1pm, 3.30pm, 7pm, 10pm). *lol!* I think there was general fear of more food today. After breakfast, we dropped back into bed, waking up to lunch at about 1.45pm. After lunch, we dropped back into bed, lazing around so to speak. An hour later, we congregated comfortably in one dorm to expound some ideas and concepts on astronomy.

7pm, dinner, and a session on observation planning before starting out tonight. This being our last night, we had minimum time to do maximum cosmic hunting. Each of us took on at least one constellation, combing out all the NGC-IC-M objects. The list is impressive. Now the hunt begins.

9pm, we were joined by two teachers who had heard about our session at Felcra. Vincent had drove up with his SkySensor unit and scope. Thin clouds soon dispersed, unveiling a nice canopy of stars which became loads clearer when we switched off all the lights at Felcra. 3-point alignments and we were zooming in on stellar treasure troves.

:) SkySensor units on both sides, we pretty much covered the entire universe that night. It made the stars so accessible to the campers. Star clusters were plentiful, as were the number of galaxies. Faint structures could be discerned to the keener eyes, and with seasoned averted visions. The good news then was that some of them managed to finally see M104 in Corvus. I was personally having a field day (night). It was hard not to appreciate the clear skies that we had at Felcra, even if the waning quarter Moon did wash out a lot of the skies after it rose at 1am.

We panned across the lunar surface, crater hunting. The features were sharp, shadows drew long over the lunar mountains into the valleys. A couple of Felcra management trainees joined us then. The Moon was fascinating to say the least.

But the best is yet to come. That also meant that Mars was out. At 150x, it resolved nicely into a faint orange globe with a prominent white polar cap on the southern end. It wasn't a uniform sort of orange, there were some slightly darker markings. I'm wishing now that I'd logged in more time to observe this planet.

3.30am, after all that cruising around the universe, the battery finally ran out. I'm personally quite satisfied at the amount of objects that we'd managed to clock together. I'm just thankful there was no serious cloud injury to the second night's observation.

Thanks for the espirit de camp, everyone! I had a really nice time. I'm really appreciative of the help that everyone offered. The Camp would not have been what it is, had you all been too reserved. Glad that none of you are too coy or shy to get a little crazy down at Camp. :)

Special thanks to Mr Au, Vincent and Sua for dropping by.

By Lin . 20th March 2001, Tuesday.



Camp Vega: 19-21 June 2001 (Gunung Ledang, Malaysia)

The second off-island camp in the spirit of Astronomy 2001. This time we had the stars in our hands. The binocular views of the universe were spectacular.

19th June, Tuesday
I could rest a little easier this time. One bag, a pair of binoculars, my faithful atlas, a change of clothes. *sigh..* The luxury of travel without the astronomical package.  The day progressed smoothly enough. A long lunch, a short hike up the waterfalls, a little nap, a big dinner.

The first night was pleasant. We saw Alpha and Beta Centauri in Centaurus with Crux, twinkling merrily towards the south-west side. A hint of things to come. Constellation-wise, Sagittarius and Scorpius were overhead by midnight. The Big Dipper (Ursa Major) to the north. Near Antares in Scorpius, the planet Mars. A little further out north, two other brighter stars, Arcturus in Bootes and Spica in Virgo; Leo sliding down to sleep in the west. The summer triangle of stars Altair in Aquila, Vega in Lyra, and Deneb in Cygnus, were beginning to rise. The water signs of Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces followed alongside. We managed a glimpse at the Omega Centauri cluster before it set. A delectable glob of stars, one of the finest in the sky. The open clusters M6 & M7 in Scorpius, and we saw M17's Swan nebula.

19th night to 20th morning
4 am, going on 5..
By Lin . 25th June 2001, Monday.

AstroBASH!VI : Of Rain & Stars

"How does one make a pact with the skies to be both full of stars and NOT rain at the same time? Then again it's the monsoon season and no one bargains with the weather. Pegasus and Andromeda overhead, Orion to the east, Gemini and Cancer rising from the seas, water splashing into our upcast eyes; Not too bad really." 27-29 November 2000 (Air Papan / Teluk Godek, Mersing, Malaysia)

27th November, Monday : Talk about a bad building design. The Singapore checkpoint at Woodlands wins hands-down for being the most unfriendly place for any tourist to get lost in. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, Woei Jiin & I had landed ourselves in a rather inconvenient (but most enlightening) situation in which we had to experience first-hand the Checkpoint system on foot, towing with us some 40kg of equipment.

We dropped off at the taxi stand at Woodlands checkpoint. I figured I would go ahead and try to locate the bus terminal. Bad move. I did not know that the main control area was planted a good 500metres away. It was an endless path of corridors and stairs and doors before one even meets a customs officer to get some directions. I took a good 15 minutes at brisk pace, telescope in backpack, before I found the officer.

That aside, I returned to the taxi stand to fetch Woei Jiin, and trekked back again. By which time, I absolutely LOATHE the building structure.

Passed through the checkpoint, hopped onto the public bus 170 to Larkin. No problems with the Malaysian customs. ("What's inside?", "Camping stuff.", "Ok.") Next, a 2-hour cab ride to Mersing. Along the way, dense gray rain clouds lumbered sluggishly across the sky. The cab was hit with a heavy downpour once. We arrived at 1.30pm, Air Papan Resort.

7.30pm, Venus punched a powerful beam of light through the thin veil of clouds in the west. 8pm, the Pegasus square and Andromeda opened a glorious window of stars among the clouds. A slight smear of M31 could be seen. Woei Jiin and I tore down to the café to announce the good news. Everyone was still having their dinner. Barely 15 minutes later, the clouds rolled in again.

8.45pm, the weather took a turn for the worse. Ferocious winds whipped in from the South China Sea, creating a low-level sand storm with the minute silicon dioxide particles from the beach. We heard that Choon Guan had set up his C5 at the beach and were heading out to warn him when I recognize an all too familiar drone that was increasing in volume: Incoming Rainstorm! The few who had started their observing sessions at the beach were scampering for cover. The few of us who were heading out to warn them, froze, caught on to their actions, turned tails, and sprinted for shelter. No sooner had we reached cover, a flood of rain pelted down.

Less than 15 minutes later, only a slight drizzle remained. The downpour had created small artificial rivers that were flowing swiftly past our line of chalets towards the beach. Indents in the ground were now miniature mud ponds. Woei Jiin & I made our way to the AstroBashers' lodge.

The clouds remained temperamental for the rest of our stay. By 11pm, a couple of us decided to take our chances and ventured out. Clear patches of stars were visible. Sometimes there was a thin veil of high clouds, other times, total smoke-out. For the next 3 hours, binocular hunting and naked-eye observations were the best options for these unannounced hit and run rain drops. Orion, Canis Major, Gemini, Perseus, Taurus, Auriga, Eridanus and Cancer. The Praesepe cluster basked beautifully above the eastern horizon.

I had attempted several times to bring out the GPDX & WYO. The clear patches were just too tempting, plus Jupiter and Saturn were right overhead. We managed to snitch a glimpse at Jupiter before the jealous clouds swooped in. Half the time, I was teetering on uncertainty; My senses on hyperdrive for any hint of rain. I was shifting the equipment in and out of the chalet when I thought I felt drizzles. The whole situation got the better of me and I swore I would never stargaze telescopically again in the monsoon season until I get a JMI observatory tent.

The first night was still loads better than the second. We took periodic naps throughout to awake to either a black sky with no stars or heavy downpours.

But dang the skies! The AstroBash party was still a hit largely because of the spirited camaraderie, and the cheery folk who took the lousy weather in their stride. They could always found something new to amuse themselves and everyone around them. In my many trips up to Air Papan, it was the first time I noticed the teeming beach life. Four guys squatting on the beach, looking with intense concentration at the sand; That piqued my curiosity. Crab-catching. Ah.

Soon it became a full-fledged event as more people noticed the few of us peering intently at the sand. It became a practical session on seashore life. There were hermit crabs, a starfish (dead, i think), a small soft-shell crab, a couple of sea snails, and even more seashells. There were monkeys overland too. Woei Jiin and I caught a few rummaging through our trash can.

The Committee did a great job of trying to keep the rest entertained when there were no stars to see. Thanks for the memories, everyone! Hope to see you all at the next Bash.

By Lin . 3rd December 2000, Sunday.

Of Planets, Moon and Leonids

"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)

It had been raining the day before, no, POURING with dark, ominous clouds on the horizon was more like it. There had been some plans for a Leonids observation this night with a couple of my friends, but given the portent warnings on the 16th, the observation plans for the 17th vapourized.

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.

Gas Giants Gazing

11 November 2000 : GAS GIANTS GAZING :
Starring the WYO Fluoro Star 100 (Singapore)

The past few nights have been cloudy with not much hope of seeing even a moonbeam. I received the Fluoro Star 100 on Wednesday morning via Emery Shipping. I had received a call saying that the telescope had arrived in Singapore on Monday, 6th November, but they had to clear some customs check which would take a day of processing. Do note that the customs has every legal right to open up the package without prior permission of the recipient or sender.

The Fluoro Star OTA arrived with an aluminum case fully lined with high density foam. Its identity keeps getting confused with the old TMB which looked pretty similar to the WYO (well, it had the same designer, William Yang.) The exterior was a classy coat of pearl-white, with a touch of 18-carat gold plating around the 4-inch focuser and extendable dew-cap. The scope itself was already a visual treat but can it pass the ultimate test of visual astronomy?

Tonight, a group from the Singastro community got together at Eunos to catch the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. It had been raining earlier in the afternoon. I prepped the Fluoro Star for its first public appearance here in Singapore. The full moon was fogged up at 8pm. I kinda expected to head home should the weather not get better. Guess what?! The clouds turned away by 8.30pm. Jupiter was first spotted, followed by Saturn. *All rite!* Party time! :)

When everyone was present, the Fluoro Star's presence was announced. That probably took some by surprise. I gave a short commentary on the scope and it was observation time! (All possible digits crossed for the visual verdict.)

Jupiter at 160x. The image was excellent despite the boiling atmosphere. Distinct bands across the planet could be seen together with 4 of its satellites.

Jump to Saturn at 160x. Again, distinct bands across the planet, and the Cassini division separating the rings around Saturn. *whoa!* I haven't exactly observed Saturn this closely before.

Jump back to Jupiter at 320x. Now this was getting exciting. The image still held beautifully. Distinct red bands running across the planet's surface. 10.45pm, the GRS was beginning to appear. Ok, wow. The last time I remembered being this amazed was at Malaysia looking at Jupiter through the AP 4-inch Traveller. Jupiter held the group's attention for quite a while. I took a closer look at the planet. Hang on! I can see the moons of Jupiter! Not as pricks of light but as actual spheres with differing sizes! Now that kinda shocked me. And I mean, REALLY shocked me. My first true glimpse from Earth of the Jovian moons. This is truly excellent. It also means the Fluoro Star could possibly be pushed to 400x, maybe a bit more.

Ok, it's not the Hubble or the Voyager. I'm no expert in equipment testing, but this takes the cake of the year for me. And to think this was an observation from a light-polluted city area. Atmosphere was cooperating for the first time in a long time. It wasn't totally clear nor steady, but it was the best in the past few weeks, I think. I can't wait to bring it out to Malaysia and unleash the full visual potential of the Fluoro Star in darker skies.

That was about it for the Fluoro Star. I didn't have a finder with me so we didn't get to explore other deep-sky objects. It was already hard enough trying to locate the Moon and planets manually.

The Gas Giants party got crowded after 10pm when curious passers-by joined in to see what we were looking at. Residents from the neighbourhood began looking out of their windows with their binoculars at us and at the sky. Although a little shy at first, they started coming out of their homes to join us for the observation.

Personally, I haven't quite got the chance to fully explore the telescope's visual capabilities before I brought it out to share with the Singastro group. But now, after tonight's session at Eunos, I am really over the moon and genuinely pleased by the telescope's performance. I don't know about the others who were there, but personally I was really hopping happy. This Fluoro Star is one true gem in the visual realm. (I eagerly await comments from you other guys who were there!)

William Yang wasn't kidding when he said this would rival AstroPhysics and Takahashi. I see why now and I wish him well in breaking the astronomical market the world over.

By Lin . 12th November 2000, Sunday.

the Leonids of Mersing

"I WANT a fireball.. a big, fat, long, colourful and noisy fireball. As if in response, a blinding white flash zipped instantaneously from cloud to earth followed by a resounding crack." 16-18 November 1999 (Tanjung Resang / Teluk Sari, Malaysia)

[16th / 17th night]

We had been talking about this trip forever. Tanjung Resang was a half-hour drive further up north from Teluk Godek Resort. The isolated gravel road leading to the observation site is not a well-trespassed one. It seemed almost amazing that anyone could ever have suspected the existence of this place which has been favourably compared to the open skies of Hawaii. I can understand why now. Ten coconut trees diffused in an area the size of eight football fields. To the south, a small hill grew from the otherwise unobstructing physical landscape. In the east, the South China Sea dominates. Winds touch the lovegrass-saturated vicinity, making it rather chilly. Light-dispersing clouds ride the winds for most part of the night carrying with them, the threat of sporadic showers. Under the setting moon, our shadows drew longer.

In the distance, thunder rumbled. No one wanted their equipment to take a shower, so other than binoculars, the Celestron ShortTube 80 and C90, all the major league names of Takahashi, Astrophysics, and TMB stayed comfy and dry in their owner's car. The first constellation to be recognized was Cassiopeia. At about the same time, a couple of us spotted the first meteor for the night. Cheers and claps erupted spontaneously. The night was still young at 8.30pm and we all had high hopes of better skies later.

Patches of stars played hide-and-seek with us behind the billowing curtains of clouds. A thick thundercloud smogged the eastern horizon, moving southwest at an alarming rate. Distant lightning flashed followed by rumbling echoes. It seemed to be headed our way. We started to practise scrambling for cover. False alarm, the storm passed south down the coast without touching us.

As the night wore on, the thick fog of clouds started to disperse revealing the potential of Resang as the clearest window to the universe I have ever witnessed to date. I'm beginning to understand the phrase "diamonds in the skies". The quality cut of the stars is absolutely brilliant. (De Beers, Tiffany's and Mondial need polishing up.) Still, no one brought their equipment out. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something else. Under these exceptionally clear seeing conditions, even the small scopes shine in performance. Naked eye, it was a picturesque scene. Gradations in the magnitudes of the stars were remarkably obvious, especially in the Pleaides where I could see five bright blue-white stars plus a dimmer one on the side. Using averted vision, there seemed to be two more in the M45 cluster. The beehive cluster was easily detected, as were a few other star clusters. The fainter stretch of the Milky Way from Vela and Carina to Monoceros was equally discernible. Through the ShortTube 80, M42 in Orion already had an incredibly detailed cloud-like structure. The nebula's tendrils fanned out in distinctive shades. This was something I thought I'll only be able to see in a picture, not in a spotting scope. The observed colour was something of an off-green and grey mix, unlike the characteristic pink in astrophotographs.

I am impressed. Suddenly, every other site that I had ever been to in this region wilted to ashes in comparison. This is one of the best gateways to heaven. It is also the most accessible site for the non-motorist from Singapore.

Standing out in the open grounds, watching the immediate transformation in the atmosphere was amazing. The veiling and unveiling of stars by errant clouds, the scatter of isolated meteors, inter-cloud and intra-cloud lightning. Mentally, I set down the conditions for the ultimate meteor sighting: I WANT a fireball.. a big, fat, long, colourful and noisy fireball. As if in response, a blinding white flash zipped instantaneously from cloud to earth followed by a resounding crack. *WHOA!* I reeled back a little, temporarily blinded as lightning whipped a close-up surprise on me. It was close. Too close. And whoever said Nature doesn't have a crack sense of humour. (I didn't mean *that* kind of fireball! I raised a mental fist at Nature, who I imagine, no! wait.. who I hear rolling on the cloudy floor, rumbling away in laughter.) My friends who'd witnessed my split-second look of shock were laughing too after I told them about my dream fireball. *sheesh*

Soon, I sought refuge in the tent, driven there by the cold and the unforgiving insects out feasting on us. The rest of the group kept their eyes peeled for streaks of light. Meteor sightings (and lightning) were increasing in volume, causing much ado among us. Throughout the night, dispersed shouts and exclamations continued. Two hours later at 3.30am, there was a major buzz of sudden activity as everyone scrambled around frantically outside. I couldn't make out what the commotion was about but before I could pop my head out of the tent to take a look, Tingchuan entered the tent. Almost immediately after, I heard a swooshing sound that was growing louder by the second. A fierce patter of rain beat down on the tent. As sudden as it came, it disappeared ten minutes later. It left quite a few things soaking wet.

After this downpour, I stayed out of the tent till dawn. We were threatened with passing showers two more times that night. 4am, Leo had risen from the east and between the few of us, there was almost a meteor every few minutes. Most of these were springing up across the constellations (Orion, Canis Major, Gemini, Taurus, Capella, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Hydra) surrounding Leo. There were also several earth-crossing satellites. The meteors we saw appeared with trails that lasted from one to five seconds. There were at least two short but fat meteors leaving smoky trails. (I caught one and heard about the other.) I was still hoping for my dream of a fireball, but none materialized. There were a few random meteors that didn't seem to belong to the Leonids as they were not radiating away from Leo.

An hour before the sun, Venus rose with a brilliance rivaling Sirius in Canis Major. It became an honoured source of light pollution. Not long after, the final curtain of clouds fell across the sky and dawn approached. Now please let the second night be good.

[17th / 18th night]

Eight of us decided to try out the observing site next to the beach front at the resort. It was unobstructed from the North to the Southeast side. Loo had requested for the lights at the resort to be turned off, which the manager kindly did. Five scopes were set up on the beach: Takahashi FS78, Celestron Firstscope, C5, C90 and the Astrophysics Traveller.

Again, patchy skies which looked worse than the first night. Closer to midnight, there was a gap in the clouds and Jupiter had its break. The scopes were quickly trained on it. This was one thing I *had* to see through Loo's Astrophysics. All the circumstances could be considered ideal. The image of Jupiter was more than magnificent.

Before I describe what I saw, I have to admit something: Other than the pictures that Voyager took of the planets in our solar system, I have never been impressed, dazzled, wowed, or struck by any image with ground-based telescopes before. This would have to be my first experience, and I am impressed, dazzled, wowed, AND struck by the image. In all honesty, even the 6-inch apochromatic scope at the Science Centre's Observatory was no match. Quite possibly, this is not a contest of equipment, but of environmental factors.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot was easily detected, along with its two major red bands. There were numerous fainter bands at the poles. Was I dreaming? I don't think so. It was almost like looking at an image taken off the Voyager with probably 30% less details. Colour shades range from the palest cream yellow to brownish-red. It looked like an artist's palette with intricately blended colours that still remained distinctive while flowing across its cream surface. Now THAT is one heck of a scope on one heck of a planet.

The sky fogged over and looked set to stay that way for the whole night. Lightning, thunder and clouds swept the eastern expanse with a thick and heavy brush, signing off our last night at Mersing. The Leonids weren't too disappointing this time round. There were many faint meteors but no fireballs. I have a vague suspicion that we could really be having a storm if not for the monsoon season. But in comparison to what I saw last year at Sentosa's Tanjung beach, I have no complaints.

By Lin . 20th November 1999, Saturday.

AstroBASH!III : the NUSAS Star Party

"This was our third star party and first overland trip to Tanjung Sedili - a rustic getaway lazing on the east coast of Malaysia. 21 amateur astronomers, amateur *city* astronomers, most of whom are about to be initiated into the physical world which inspired the mappers of the URANOMETRIA. With open skies to North and East, and little city glare, the chances of having good stargazing settings were high." 14-16 June 1999  (Sedili, Malaysia)

It was everything I had hoped for.. except for the black sand, which wasn't really "black sand" but pristine sand which had been polluted by I-have-no-idea-what. Pity. There were subtle hints that the place could have been a really beautiful white beach. But that's not what this article is about.

It's suppose to be about dark nights, great skies, many suns, zero Moon, and the only cloud-like thing that won't be cursed at is the Milky Way. Of course, no significant details shall be mentioned about insects. The fireflies were lovely. I think they were the only ones that flew around and DIDN'T bite.

In fact, I'll say the whole trip was great. Two glorious starry nights are worth the zombie-fied state that followed the time after dawn.

[14th / 15th night]

It was still heavily overcast at dinnertime and hopes of prospecting for stars that first night appeared bleak. A picture-perfect sunset awashed with a thousand hues appeared with the sea mirroring in kind. The clouds eventually dispersed at 8pm. Other than the occasional cirrocumulus, the night was otherwise excellent. The Big Dipper, just above the eastern sea, was the first constellation to greet the observation site that was located on a bay. Attention was given to Mizar, a visible double star system in Ursa Major. To the west, Leo was readily visible with Regulus twinkling brightly. Draco, Aquila, Cygnus, Lyra, Pisces, Aquarius, among other constellations, slowly made their way across the east side.

The Milky Way, which many mistook for a wisp of cloud, became clearer as the night wore on. Conditions improved greatly at around 3am when the hazy band stretched across the zenith. It poured out from Sagittarius' teapot, with Scorpius' tail dipping in, and Cygnus careening over its surface. Scorpius was strutting around gloriously. Antares, the heart of Scorpius, and the red rival to Mars (which was close to Spica in Virgo), was bloody brilliant. The M7 open cluster and NGC 6231 were discernible. M7 looked good through a pair of 7x50 binoculars. The hunt continued for star clusters and distant galaxies.

As the stars saturated the night, they overwhelmed the novices who had a challenging time figuring out the various constellations and asterisms. Someone in his stellar confusion, thought he had seen Orion, oblivious to the fact that Orion was on his personal June vacation from the night. Light sabres cut through the night as bright and focused torchlights were used to help these budding stargazers scan the myriad of stars and guide them around the star-speckled neighbourhood. Human ingenuity never fails in confusion. Soon, one of them discovered that myopic stargazers could simply remove the glasses they are wearing. A pair of unaided myopic eyes acts as a crude filter that allows only objects brighter than magnitude 0.0 to be visible. Known unofficially as "Kelvin's Zero Magnitude Filter", it proved to be a big help to many novice stargazers. (Kelvin was our cameraman for the trip.)

Other miscellaneous objects in the night sky included artificial satellites and meteors. The brighter satellites observed that evening numbered around four. While many were delighted to see these man-made shooting star wonders, meteors drew an even warmer response when spotted. At around 5am, The stars looked even brighter and many other stars that were previously too dim now appeared. By this time, Jupiter and Saturn have risen. It was a good chance to observe Saturn as the light polluted skies of Singapore mars most planetary details. Through a 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain, Saturn looked like (quote) "a yellow squashed hamburger", an apt description which many identified with. Over at Jupiter's, two of the Galilean moons were visible, together with the two brown bands on Jupiter.

The sun rose from behind the hills at around 6.30am. It showed itself bit by bit, against a background of orange, yellow and red formed by the clouds. The sun first revealed a little edge, then a bigger fragment, which grew into a semicircle. Eventually, the sun was totally visible. The clouds became a kaleidoscope of colours, changing with each moment as Helios awoke and continued on his path across the sky. Those who were patient enough to delay bedtime by an hour to catch the sunrise were justly rewarded. By this time, the sea had receded about 500 metres from shore, and one could literally walk across the seabed.

[15th / 16th night]

The second night was dedicated to astrophotography. The southern skies looked better this evening, with Crux and Ursa Major vying for attention. Unlike Singapore skies where only Alpha and Beta Centauri are visible, the whole shape of Chiron the Centaur could be made out clearly. Through a pair of binoculars, the Jewel Box in Crux enchanted many. The Ring, Swan and Dumbbell nebulae were also observed through the telescopes, much to the delight of many who saw them for the first time. The Ring nebula was a fuzzy patch with a pinhole-like opening which require the viewer to be visually gifted in order to glimpse it. Most could not quite see the pinhole in the nebulae. The Swan nebula was even more demanding on one's imagination to visualise a bird out of a fuzzy patch. The Dumbbell nebula looked more like an apple eaten to its core, than a gym apparatus.

Just when everyone thought the second night was better then the first, dark clouds suddenly marched across the sky, snuffing out all celestial bodies in its wake. All equipment was swiftly moved into shelter for fear of rain. For most, the second stargazing session had ended. Some of the more enthusiastic ones remained under the sky, hoping that it would clear. Though shorter than the first, the second session was still quite an eyeful.

By Lin . 25th June 1999, Friday.