Fish & Star-Chips

Stargazing would ensue for the whole night till dawn. This being the final night, few were vowing to stay awake till dawn. They brought out the guitar and were soon on karaoke-high. Others were playing cards by the moonlight. As always, a dose of ghost stories too.. (Apparently, Rooms 13, 14, 15, 16.. have had night visitations a-knocking on their doors.) Soon, a set of mind-games kept everyone awake and guessing. By 4am, only a handful of us were left on the jetty: 3-5 September 2001 (Tioman, Malaysia)

1 September 2001, Saturday. It had been one of those *happening* weekends starting Saturday 01 September. A couple of us pitched out in Pasir Ris park in the full moon, scanning the early evening skies with a C 8. It was a good night. Mars was hovering between the tip of Sagittarius and the tail of Scorpius. We logged in a few of the regular clusters and binary stars despite the full moonlight. (These same clusters would be seen again later.) This mixed with a lot of food and chatter and impromptu games.

We walked a good stretch of Pasir Ris, exploring the nearby night scene at the Fisherman's Village. We later made our way to a nearby 7-Eleven for a 3am food party. A couple of us eventually ended up in another recreational park. The morning air was crisp. Saturn and Jupiter had long risen with Aldebaran & the Hyades cluster in Taurus. Orion was stirring in the distance as the world was waking up to their morning walks around this little park. Sirius was burning somewhere behind the buildings which obstructed the city horizon. By some quirk of imagination, I designed a new constellation using Orion as the body and wings of a damselfly with its tail lit by Sirius.

We watched as Castor & Pollux in Gemini rose over the nearby high-rise buildings. One by one, the sleepy windows of the apartments flickered on to a lazy Sunday dawn. MacDonald's for breakfast, (this group didn't sleep a wink) and a round of morning jokes from Jermyn.

2 September 2001,  Sunday. A busy day indeed. 4 hours later, I was out at East Coast canoeing along the eastern shore lines with my cousin, Mary-Anne. The sun on our backs. The waters look so dull; Dead organic matter completed the seascape. Would Tioman island be any better? I'd find out for myself in 24 hours anyway. I skimmed off the thought and set out on a speed chase after Mary-Anne.

Dinner, home, there was some NUS pageant /retro party at Grease that would've been fun, but I ain't even packed yet.

Fish & Star-Chips (Tioman, Malaysia)
DAY 1 - 03 September, Monday.

5.30am.. I'd barely managed another 3 hours of sleep. I awoke to a shrieking clock that would've gotten the boot and hammer from me had it not belonged to my brother. I've never had a healthy relationship with shrill alarm clocks. I had to assemble at NTU in 2 hours. For the first time since primary school days, my brother and I sat down to a real breakfast. Himself barely clearing 2 hours of sleep after the party at Grease. His friend won the pageant, I heard. :)

7.30am.. Arrived at the Chinese Heritage Centre carpark. The handful who had already arrived didn't look like they amounted to 88 participants. I'd joined the trip knowing only one person: Ban Chon. My brother had this incredulous look on his face when he heard my reply to his question of where-are-your-friends.

We settled down by the edge of the road. Both of us idly scanning the carpark as more people trickled in. Morning faces in want of sleep but negated by the thrill of an impending trip. Everyone was in a chatty mood.. Getting to know people will have to wait, I need sleep..

(Note: Then-strangers, now-friends.. here are my accounts of the who, when, where.. enjoy. :)

(Dave & Ricky) To our left were two guys with tripods and camera bags. Manfotto, I noted. Nikon, as one of them (Rick) held one lens to the light. Photographers on the prowl. Cool. They should be having fun. The Manfotto tripod design was so visually captivating to me. Somehow, I knew I was gonna encounter these guys soon enough.

My brother elbowed my attention to the girl sitting to my right. "Oy. Talk to her leh." Oh.. ok.. ;) "Harlow, are you here by yourself?" "No. I'm waiting for two other friends." "Ok, I'm Lin." "Bernardee." Shook hands. "Bernadee, my brother, Gin. Gin, Bernadee." "Hi." "Hello." I should choke on my own mischief. (Now you know, Bernadee.. ;) Bernadee's friends arrived, Poh Ling (I'd heard Pauline at first) and Huishan. We got to a little chatter and I accepted their offer to bunk in with them.

More people arrived, together with Ban Chon, at which point my brother left for home. The committee bunch, for sure, looking at the amount of things they were carrying. There was a group of girls who looked like they were getting ready for a party night out in Orchard, than island-adventuring. But hey, if they can tackle this trip in platform shoes, that's remarkable enough.

Boarded the bus by 8.45am.. for a moment it felt strange, then I realised why. Everyone around me was talking in Mandarin.. not the way Singaporeans spoke it, but actual Chinese Mandarin (non-Taiwan version). That was when I figured half the bus were Chinese nationals. This should be interesting. We hit the customs by 9.30am, possibly clearing both sides by 10.30am. There was some delay. Apparently one of the participants had not cleared her visa, and was to be deported back to Singapore.

Bus transfer. Roll-call. We were on our way by 11am. I'd pretty much drifted to minimum consciousness by the time I found a seat on the new bus. I didn't even hear the roll-call by this nice chap (Willie) who seemed to have spent the past 3 hours running around looking for participants. Once the bus got on its way, the Zzzs fell in. When next I awoke, we had stopped for a break and were an hour away from Mersing. Roll-call again. Zzz. Mersing town. 2pm. Cloudy, a typical signature of all good astro trips here, I recollected.

Lunch break, 20 minutes. I darted down to town to get some provisions. Bad move. Thunderclouds moved in and rain pelted to the ground. I had 5 minutes to make my way back to the group. Heck, it's only water, and I was perfectly soaked upon reaching the group. Oh what joy. Hadn't played in the rain for some time. A change of T-shirts and we were off to the jetty. The rain had ceased to a few drops. Getting onto the boat wasn't too bad. The after-rain-storm-waves were rocking it moderately. Nice comfy boat though.

I made my way up to the second deck and stayed up there for the rest of the 2-hour voyage. The sea was still rather choppy, which was fun by my definition. A few of the girls got seasick though. The waves that crashed against the boat, sent intermittent salty sprays raining onto the second deck. I can't tell if the others are howling in horror or delight, but I was immensely enjoying the sea, sprays et al.. Cool.. :) It was up here that I got to know Helen and Hanting.

The sun was already blazing through a patchy hole in the sky. We saw 3 jellyfish float by as the boat sped on. A sliver fish skimming between air and water in the near distance brought many excited fingers tracing its trejectory. Hanting persistently promising the sea that he would jump right in the moment he hit shore. :)

4.30pm.. Arrival at Tioman, Mukut. The waves were slamming the boat against the concrete steps of the jetty. Crossing over to land is going to require a little help. It was a regular jetty which led right up to the resort.

Roll-call again as we assembled at the main reception-dining area that was wholly constructed out of bamboo that showed part of the clear sea below, peeking through the slits of the bamboo. A utilitarian design since all the food that dropped through fed the fish swimming underneath, yet still in keeping with the character of a rustic sea village. An orange soup bowl was wedged between some rocks below.

Room-assignment; Room 6 with Bernardee, Poh Ling and Huishan. A nice pathway weaved between the ten 2-room chalets on stilts that stood individually amidst the coconut trees and small boulders. Room-check: Air-conditioned, double beds, hot shower (that didn't work), half & full flush toilet system, yet minus toilet paper.. I like it.

6.30pm.. Dinner by Chef Ah Foo (whoever that is..), rice, tom yam soup, steamed fish, vegetables, chicken, tofu.. and our table-mates were: Dave, Ricky, Dexing and Shihao. Introductions and conversation ensued with food. The moon was beginning to rise from the east just behind the jetty.. beautiful..

Dave and Rick finished Round 1 of dinner and scampered off to take in the moonlit scene. Tempted I was to join them yet lazy I also was to return to the room to get my camera. The moon glided higher between the coconut trees. Ok, photo urge.. I got my camera and tripod out.

Briefing on tomorrow's snorkel-trip. Absorbed in my own moonlit world, I barely heeded a single word. Group up, I think they said. Ok, I'm with whichever group that has the extra room: Group C.. the committee group. (The start of a long day of fun.)

9pm.. Stargazing that night (and the night after) was at the jetty which had totally unobstructed viewing on the east-south-west horizons. Behind us, hills rose to a 20-degree view obstruction. Mars, Sagittarius and Scorpius were sinking towards the southwest. Patchy clouds came and went throughout the night. Telescopes ready, off a-hunting we go.

C 5, C 6, C 8, and a couple of binoculars. Here are the starlogs for both nights of observation:
Mars
At 100x, it was little more than a dull orange disc. I wasn't sure if the dust storm had passed. Details are barely hinted at tonight.
Scorpius - 30x
M4 globular cluster: Faintly glowing, possibly dimmed out by the moon but it's there. The C 8 has a better light grasp on it.
M6 Butterfly cluster: As lovely as ever. Though I seem to be visualizing a dragonfly outline. A faintly yellowish star in the group that could only be BM Scorpii.
M7 open cluster: Naked-eye visible. A deformed butterfly pattern then, for I seem to forever have some difficulty distinguishing this from M6. The cluster is more open with 5 more dominant stars in a cross-like pattern.
In the vicinity of h4889, Mu1 & Mu2 Scorpii, a wide double easily separated in the 6x finder.
Travelling down south towards Zeta1 & Zeta2 Scorpii, a small open cluster NGC 6242. Can't really see where the orange colour is purported to be. Scattered stars throughout the eyepiece. A loose grouping, possibly Collinder 316. A nice open cluster NGC 6231, near three beautiful Zeta gems of pale blue, orange and white.
Sagittarius - 30x
M8 Lagoon nebula: A wispy nebula in the 6x finder. At 40x, the cluster of stars showed within. At higher magnification, nebula detail faltered.
The visible milky way was washed out though sweeping along binocularly, the star fields were rich.
Cygnus - 30x
Omicron1, Omicron2 - Contrasting double-double: Near 30 Cygni a pair of light blue, yellow-orange set. At 50x, they looked more like white stars tinged with blue and yellow.. Atmosphere appears fiercely twinkly. Did not manage to split the double's double.
M29 open cluster: A nice asterism of about 8 bright stars. From Gamma Cygni (Sadr) in the direction of Beta Cygni (Albireo). Another rich patch of stars along this line.
NGC 6888 was a small group of scattered stars, no nebulosity seen.
Albireo Beta Cygni: One more blue-gold pair. Much more saturated colours than the earlier pairs.
Lyra - 30x
And what's the night with a donut from M57 - Ring nebula: The C 8 resolves it most elegantly with a circle of smoke at 100x. Maybe I should imagine a dead star in its center, but I couldn't see one.
Taurus - 30x
M45 - Pleiades open cluster: Still an all-time favourite and a crowd-pleaser. These is one stellar group that can never go out of fashion.
Orion - 30x
M42 - Orion nebula: A pretty one that's just as popular. The trapezium of stars were clearly visible.. (oh, wait, I cannot remember if I saw this in Tioman as well but we sure saw it at Pasir Ris..)
Saturn - 30x - 100x
with rings.. :)

The full moon waning, an accompaniment to the night. Crystal waters sparkling under the moonlight.. I could see the pebbles right at the bottom. Moon-gazing was inevitable. The group tried this way and that to get a glimpse of an almost blinding orb. They finally projected the image onto a piece of paper and has a good time clicking film to that.

The first night we packed up at 3am, knowing that we'd have to be up again at 8am to catch a boat out to sea. I wondered what was for breakfast.. "Big breakfast, MacDonald-style.." someone replied. Yeah, rite..

Fish & Star-Chips (Tioman, Malaysia)
DAY 2 - 04 September, Tuesday.

Day 1 didn't feel right for photography, if only because I was trying to figure out how receptive to the camera, the human subjects would be. The moment I got to know them better, the clicking came naturally. :)

8 am. Breakfast, no kidding.. almost Mac.. with toast, egg, jam, butter, sausage, and baked beans.

Bright and sunny would describe the entire day. We checked out our life-jackets and snorkel-gear. Four boats would bring us up north of Tioman to the Marine Park.

The wind on our backs.. also created huge waves which gave some of us huge yelps of sea-coasting fun (and others huge gulps of sea-sickness..).

I'd forgotten how much I miss the sea. It'd been quite a while since I last rode the waves. I stood up on deck, both hands locked on a wooden column in the bow, as huge waves collided head-on with the puny but steadfast boat. It leapt skywards a couple of feet, the momentum carrying all of us along for the ride in the air before it smashed against the watery surface. Everyone was jolted, concerned ones yelling with the roar of the waves for me to stay down. So sweet of them.. :) I complied though it was less fun.

I sighed. A true moment of content and absolute peace despite the oceanic rock and roll. I lay my head down and closed my eyes, destined for a little nap.. which also got a concerned P.K. wondering if I was sea-sick.. *lol!* No, I replied.. I'm gonna fall asleep.. :)

Some of the other guys picked up on the sea-surfing bit, and had their hands locked to the wooden column. It was too crowded up front so I moved to the back, bent on getting some more sleep. I was surprised to discover more people at the stern; Dave and Rick had been quietly enjoying their piece of the boat. Dave's life-jacket sure made for a good pillow. Zzz..

We'd docked at another jetty. I wasn't sure how long it'd been. I remember feeling the sun burn. Berjaya Beach Resort. A wonderful stretch of beach, many tourists. We'd stopped here for an hour of touring, I guess.

I'd parked myself on one of its beach-side lounge chairs. More sighs.. This is *life*.. The wind rustling the leaves of strategically planted coconut trees, the waves lapping up the sands. I wasn't sure where everyone else had headed. I'd lost them after a while. (They had apparently gone swimming a little further up the beach.)

After a bit of lazing, I wandered off and found Bernardee, Huishan and Poh Ling.. rather, they found me. There was a playground I hadn't notice. The lonesome pair Rick and Dave on the swings. They turned around for a photo. Dexing and Shyh Haur appeared from somewhere and took on the see-saw trying to outbalance each other. I saw this other contraption that I could only identify as similar to those wheelbarrels that people make hamsters run on. Not easy stuff, mind you! (Yes, I tried.) I gravitated to the slide where Bernardee and Poh Ling had just finished a round of photos at.

12.45pm.. Regroup. Two photo opportunities caught my eye: by the coastline, and on the jetty. After much dallying, we were *all* finally on the jetty. The boatmen-in-charge had to shoo us off it into our respective boats.

The second leg of the journey towards the Marine Park. We were all ready, I was prepping my goggles with spit.

At the jetty, one of the guides gave a 5-minute crash course on snorkeling. I heard a small part of his lecture in Mandarin, "Keep a serious face.."

Ok, that was all I heard (I did say "a small part") before I headed for the water.. a chorus of laughter from the ones who finished hearing his sentence.

As some of the guys "Jerominoed!!" off the top into the deep end, I chose to use the ladder down. I wouldn't care to injure any fish that might be swimming pass the deep end.

The water was refreshingly cool, and was immediately greeted by a curious school of small fish hanging out by the ladder. I floated my way towards the plastic island buoy in the middle. Oh boy, *big* fish. The area was cordoned off with nets and buoys further out at sea. Good idea. The species within the net grounds were friendly enough. It would seem they were harboured here for tourists to feed and get fat.. (probably sold to the markets later..) The biggest fish was just over a foot-long.

For a couple of minutes, the few of us who got into the waters first had encountered a couple of schools. I'm no fish expert but I think most were of the edible species. After everyone got into the area, the fish seemed to disappear for a while. Not a moment later, they seemed to be in a frenzy. Ohh.. lunchtime for the fish. Slices of bread crust were liberally thrown in by someone on the top of the jetty. Fish, human and breadcrumbs mixed in a strange sea soup.

I plucked a few pieces of bread from the surface and fed the fish by hand. Most seem to be debating between hunger and fear of us. They would dart in to take quick nips of what they can and speed off again. Oh man, that was cool.. I didn't know fish ate bread with such gusto. I tried to touch those that were nipping food off my hands. Cold and slippery. Some in their feeding frenzy were nipping at my fingers but it would seem they have no teeth.. I let out a grin.. *Bad move.*

Seawater gushed into my goggles. I choked as the salt-concentrated liquid seeped into my nasal passage. Hot DANG! The salt stung; I couldn't breathe and was too far away from the buoy. I floundered a bit and scared off the fish. I made my way to the buoy and got the guys on deck to hoist me up. More concerned looks as I coughed out the salty stuff. "I was smiling at the fish.." I think it was Hanting who amusedly clucked, "Didn't you hear what that guy said? Don't smile at the fish, keep a serious face.. or you'll get water in."

Oh.. heck.. I turned away and spat out the rest of my chagrined ignorance. Dang! the salt so leaves the nasal passage smarting. I've snorkelled before, but never had such a fun time with the fish to smile at them...

Tough lesson learnt: I will never smile at a pretty fish again underwater.

Hanging out on the island buoy with a couple of others, peeling pieces of wet bread, and skimming them across the water surface brought the fish up for food. (By the way, the bread crust was really fragrant.) I saw some really pretty rainbow fish. They really were an artistic riot of green, lavender, pink, magenta, cyan, yellow. And the only thing I could think of was, no camera to take them fish. :(

A final dive and we were off to another coral area. We hosed off the salt with fresh water and got onto the boats. Lunchtime for humans. Nasi lemak with chicken, sausage, egg.. There was an extra packet of food on our boat. It was then that I first noticed we had a boat captain of sorts. His name: Ah Foo.. (I only found out much later that he was the chef.)

He offered the extra packet around, gave the chicken out, and when nobody wanted the rest, he simply dumped it, fried egg and all into the sea.. (minus the polystyrene box, of course..) and the fish came after the food with equal gusto, nipping at the floating egg. Those fish will be headed for a major artery clog.

The next dive site was barricaded only by a nearby rock formation that buffeted the bigger waves from the open sea. The schools here were smaller, the coral features look more extensive. I passed up the opportunity on this dive, staying on board for some casual photography of the others snorkelling.

A day of content and contents. I could get used to a life at sea. On our way back, the sea was much calmer, the ride smoother. Some fell asleep, others shared jokes at the boat's bow. Dave, Rick, and Ein hanging out at the stern. I stood at the bow for a good part of our journey back to the resort, mesmerized by the swirling emerald waters as the boat forged ahead. Occasionally, I took a few shots. A Malay boy of no more than 13 years piloted the boat while his elder brother napped.

A commercial light plane landed on the main island's hidden runway. A military copter dived in low above our boats. A huge red jellyfish of perhaps 2 feet in diameter floated by starboard side.

5pm.. Arrival. Already, they had a volleyball match in tow at 5.30pm.. Poh Ling and Huishan joined in while Bernardee and I opted for sleep. Bernardee was substantially sunburnt. Dinner at 8pm. It was a personal struggle to decide between more sleep and food. Finally, I straggled out with everyone else at 8.30pm.. Dinner was already in progress..

9.30pm.. Bernardee, Poh Ling, Huishan and I started on the cards, too lazy to return to our room after dinner. For the first time in 2 days, we got acquainted with Raymond at the resort, who was quite possibly a champion at "Tai Di". Hey, the man had strategies for winning.. we common-card-folk just want to get rid of our cards.

Stargazing would ensue for the whole night till dawn. This being the final night, few were vowing to stay awake till dawn. They brought out the guitar and were soon on karaoke-high. Others were playing cards by the moonlight. As always, a dose of ghost stories too.. (Apparently, Rooms 13, 14, 15, 16.. have had night visitations a-knocking on their doors.) Soon, a set of mind-games kept everyone awake and guessing.

By 4am, only a handful of us were left on the jetty: Willie, Dexing, Kumar, Poh Ling, Sabrina, Huiling, and myself.

5am.. We had gravitated to the balcony at the main reception as the night cooled. They were still binocular-hunting as Taurus and Orion drew higher. Saturn, Jupiter, Venus. I drew a chair right up front of the balcony, the front row audience.

"What's that bright star over there by the edge of the coconut tree?" Willie pointed excitedly as everyone else checked maps and aimed binoculars. "Capella.." I replied..

In the few seconds of silence that ensued, I watched as the sky slowly lightened blue. This was one of the most enthusiastic groups ever. After a long day of activities, they were still awake. "It's so nice out here, so beautiful, y'think?" I thought out loud. Silence. I thought they were all in silent awe. I turned back to look at them. Only Dexing looked at me and grinned.. the rest were fast asleep in their chairs. I grinned. Oh well.. they did survive till dawn.. and they well deserved their sleep.

Fish & Star-Chips (Tioman, Malaysia)
DAY 3 - 05 September, Wednesday. 

The last day.. I so couldn't wake up..

We checked out by 11am. A couple of parting shots from the balcony. The journey home was even more fun than the journey there, if only because, I now know a number of them. :)

7pm.. Singapore.. Group dinner at Jurong Point. Home was not too far away..Thanks, everyone! I can't wait for the next island hop.



By Lin . 7th September 2001, Friday.

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.

Thai Buddhism and the Stars

"This trip to Thailand really sparked off a lot of new thoughts in me. This field of cultural astronomy is fun to explore. It helped a little to discover that the first realm of the Buddhist heaven lay just beyond the Moon." 26 December 2000 to 02 January 2001 (Bangkok / Chiang Mai, Thailand)

I have no religion. Not to say that I am not religious or that I have no beliefs; simply that I have no current subscription to any existing religion.

I was suppose to have gone on a trip to Malaysia in this period of time, but as with a lot of things in my life, the offer to go to Thailand for a week came only a few days before the 26th. Patrick figured it must be my karma to be able to go to Thailand on such short notice. I just jumped at the opportunity to explore a different set of skies in a different society and this is my experience..

I have been to Thailand several times before, yet this time it seemed as if I had stepped onto Thai land (the seperation of "Thai" and "land" is done with purpose) for the first time in my life.

26th December: Thai Airways TG409 departing from Singapore to Bangkok. I was travelling with an old friend, Patrick, and his grandfather, Keith (or Gramps Keith). We would be meeting up with more friends in Thailand. I was to discover that in the next few days, I would be travelling with some VERY fascinating individuals, and that they would be my most enlightening experiences ever.

The flight was comfortable enough. I never tasted better inflight fare. Conversation ensued between us three. Gramps Keith is a converted Buddhist from Christianity. Patrick had earlier shared some really curious stories about his Gramps' religious conversion. I had some spiritual ideas myself, and we spent the journey trading opinions and philosophical insights.

Bangkok. As with all places touched by globalization, Christmas has arrived in Thailand. Flashing lights, Christmas trees, huge modern x'mas ornaments, spray-on snow flakes splashed on hot, humid central Bangkok. Yet with all the surface structures that tried to coat the season's cheer over this fundamentally Buddhist country, Christmas made Thailand look like a monastic sage trying oh-so-hard to appear disco-hip. No doubt when the season is over, he will return to his serene pace and wisdom.

Christmas definitely throws Thailand off its own equilibrium. On the outside, there is a "Who-ville" appearance ("The Grinch" is also showing at the cineplexes), on the inside, the many wats (Thai temples) with their Buddhas, brahmas, and devas are still actively in session, untouched and unfazed by the trinkets of the season.

I came to Thailand to see what I could find in the local culture about their interpretation of the night sky. I am probably a few centuries too late. The international symbols and Greek constellations have overshadowed the Thai astronomy circles.

What I have found out are mostly glossed over Thai constellations. (Orion constellation is a turtle with a knife where Orion's belt is.) There are no in-depth materials available. The closest clue I got was to search in the Buddhist temples where astronomical knowledge could be found in the scholastic literature of the Sangha, the Thai monastic order. They would not be in English.

One week is too short a time to find out much else. Immersion in the Buddhist philosophy taught much. It helped a little to discover that the first realm of the Buddhist heaven lay just beyond the Moon. (There are 31 planes of existence in Buddhist philosophy, covering all known gods (including the God) and non-gods, creatures and non-creatures, heavens and hells.)

By day, we explored the various Thai wats of Bangkok and Chiang Mai. We were in the company of learned Buddhist scholars. Suffering, they say, is caused by desire. Unhappiness is caused by desire. The desire to own, to have, to succeed, to want.. there's a pretty long list where this vague summary came from. In death, we will have nothing but our karmas to relive again. For every cause there will be an effect. (This is a lousy summary by my sad self. Please refer to the link http://www.accesstoinsight.org for a better discussion.)

I can see where I have been suffering all this time, the desire for better equipment, better skies.. in summary, I want the universe and I can't have it. That should make me pretty miserable. :) But seriously, the Buddhist thought has a piercing truth to it. "Let any intelligent man come to me," Buddha said, "any man who is also without guile, not a deceiver, but an upright man, and I will teach him."

Something tells me that all the knowledge we humans have made for ourselves, our smart technology and our smarter opinions, they can all be reduced to nothing when faced with the insight of true Buddhist wisdom. We still can't find the beginnings of our universe, nor the end of it.

Stargazing in the city is the same as in Singapore. There is this perpetual haze over the whole country, visible from even on board the plane. It wasn't the regular industrial haze, or the forest fire smoke haze, more like a dream haze possibly from all the burning incense that permeates this country.

Over the evenings, the new Moon waxing and its daily conjunction to Venus has been quite a joy to observe; The fond familiarity of it all despite the foreign soil.

I had looked forward to finding the polar star, but the chance didn't materialize. The skies were still as amazing as I remembered it. The winter constellations were out, Orion overhead by midnight. Leo rising. The faint glow of our galaxy's edge. Then out of the silent skies, a brilliant fireball streaked out from under Leo's paw towards the east.

I think there are more treasures to be found in the richness of cultural astronomy. I'm still searching for answers.

By Lin . 5th January 2001, Friday.

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.

Starlit Night

"Waait a minute.. *Ohmigosh!!* Is that the Coalsack??!! Seriously! We're actually looking at the Coalsack patch in Crux! We can actually SEE that?!" 4-5 March 2000 (Mersing, Malaysia)

4th March, Saturday, 8am. I'm still having some reservations about going on this trip. Yes, I made a choice to go on this trip based on instinct. Truth be told, I was expected to be carrying out a work responsibility somewhere else at 11am. And yes, my conscience is stabbing me right now for trading in my work commitments for this trip. 10am, we boarded the express bus to Mersing; I guess there's no turning back now, I'll have to cancel. Excuses run through my head. Thankfully, I have a pretty good track record, so I guess I could mess this one up. How can anyone else understand how important the new moon is to me? (Sounds too much like a cult thing. *sheesh*) 10.45am, we're queuing up at the Immigration checkpoint. The phone dials.. "Ahem.. (I mask my voice with a sickly rasp.) Sorry, but I'm not feeling too well today, I need to postpone today's appointment. I'll see you on Monday. Thanks." Guilty, guilty, guilty! :)

Surprisingly, we sailed through the customs checkpoint. A valid note for worry as this was no petty equipment. It was quite a chore to drag the equipment on and off the bus and fret about the customs officer's moods. But once we passed this check, the rest of the journey would completed in mental peace.

We hit Mersing town by 2pm and hung around the KFC outlet making last-minute preparations. By 5pm, we reached Tanjung Resang. The place looked as picturesque as before. We came early enough today to do some exploring. A cattle herd of 16 grazed the nearby area. One mad cow with horns would be sufficient to take down the Losmandy G11 and its attachments. We prayed for the cows would go home when the sun set, and graciously they did.

Just to the Northeast side of this place was a delightful stretch of sand and sea. I had always thought this was a deserted place, roamed by few, sauf the German(?) guy who lived there in a stilt house. A little walk around the area revealed several other stilt houses, and a semi-resort located by the bay inlet. There was a canoeing expedition group who had just arrived at the beach cove. In addition to the cattle, a flock of sheep was spotted grazing the grassy patch of land seperating the South China Sea from the cove area.

Returned to camp just in time for sunset. A beautiful vermillion orb sinking westwards slowly behind the shadows of the coconut trees. The hunt had begun for the first star of the night.. erm, hang on.. what first star?! We got 5 bright ones right now, and more are appearing by the minute! Jupiter, Sirius, Rigel, Saturn, Capella, and on and on.

The very moment we spotted enough stars in the sky, and figured that it was sufficiently dark, we proceeded onto photography. The first region: Orion, of special interest tonight, the Rosette nebula and M42 and M43. Come to think of it, the entire sky was about flooded with stars, but we had to work with the ones which were setting soon.

Unbelievable! Almost no clouds, just a few little puffs now and then in the lowest stratosphere. This was to be the case for the whole night. But these were strange clouds; None were reflecting light from the nearby resorts. The cloudy puffs were darker than the starlit skies. We only know they are passing by when the stars slowly polarize out of our sight. They were almost like some kind of light-absorbing dark matter. Interesting.

While Remus and I were absorbed in astrophotography, Gavin had located a couple of Messier objects. What excited Gavin most was his first glimpse at the Milky Way next to the Orion and Canis Major region. The faintest region of our galaxy. It can be quite an amazing sight for any city astronomer.

Almost perfect conditions for photography work too. Few clouds, slight wind, and NO DEW from dusk to dawn. Everything stayed dry. It wasn't even cold. The only inconvenience was the biting insects which managed to attack the flesh through our clothes. Occasionally, a passing motorist would temporarily flash us. :) The road was pretty close by. Busy night for aeroplanes too as they zipped around. Unusual though that we could not see the floodlit path of the planes, only their blinking red signature.

There were sporadic meteors abound too. We caught a couple of small ones and a few more with longer trails. They had no specific point of origin. The Milky Way was unfolding magnificently. From The region of Auriga (am I dreaming??) to Monoceros, just past Canis Major and Puppis. The Carina region was about rising and Eta Carina was a patchy sight.

The guys fell asleep just before midnight, leaving me to my own devices. While the guys napped, I borrowed Gavin's binocs and went on a Messier hunt of my own. The binocular stellar views were spectacular and the Messier objects were just waiting to be found. Even with the naked eye, I could make out several fuzzy patches of something or another.

2.15am, the first battery for the G11 was exhausted. Gavin and Remus were starting to stir. Centaurus was up, Crux was on the distant horizon, and Antares (Scorpius) had risen too. The Milky Way continued its glorious path across Vela and Carina, through Crux. Waait a minute.. *Ohmigosh!!* Is that the Coalsack??!! Seriously! We're actually looking at the Coalsack patch in Crux! We can actually SEE that?! That's a first for all three of us and how are we ever going to be satisfied with just city skies from now? Unbelievable.

Sagittarius and Scorpius wove their way into the starry tapestry continuing the Milky Way mosaic. Soon (or so it seemed) the skies were gently paleing; Is it morning already? *Sigh!* Truly one starlit night to remember.

By Lin . 8th March 2000, Wednesday.

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.