Of Comets, Worlds and Words

The recent surge of comet activity has sparked a resurgence of my owl nights and hazy mornings. Good grief, just when I had committed to NaNoWriMo and 50,000 words for November 2013. It is hard to focus on a disparate topic of poetic writing when I am currently dreaming of stars, shooting stars and space dust. Time to bring out the big guns!

Meantime, whatever This Mind dreams and This Heart loves, This Hand shall write on! The Party ISON! (Pun! Pun! Pun! lol.)

AstroBash!VII : Dear Jacksen

"At this point in time, I have absolutely devoted all of my available time to Astronomy 2001 Singapore. I have precious little time to observe the transition of the planets and constellations, solar and lunar, much less to photograph them for now. The solar spots have been a storm; Mars has been growing too. Soon, soon.. I'm glad to even get a few days off to go stargazing." 25 to 27 May 2001 (Gunung Ledang, Malaysia)

Dear Jacksen,

Gunung Ledang Resort's probably one of the most comfy places AstroBash was ever held at. There's a swimming pool, an air-conditioned in-house café which has local dishes like Nasi Goreng to Fish'n'Chips. A huge helicopter landing area / carpark, which served as our observation grounds at night. A few steps away, a nature trail and waterfalls.

Day 1 was the usual ice-breakers though I must say the Organizing Committee has gotten *very* creative this time.. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun breaking anything. In particular was this weird treasure hunt of sorts. They wanted stuff like 2 slugs, 2 dead-or-alive mosquitoes, 7 bites per group, and the darnest thing was, I couldn't find a single mosquito carcass.

The food was excellent, the servings were most generous.. I should be raving about the service.. I haven't been to an AB party where in the middle of an observation at 10.30pm, I could just stroll out a few steps to the café and order a nice cup of hot chocolate.. *sigh!*

The first night was pleasant. After a buffet dinner, we saw Alpha and Beta Centauri in Centaurus with Crux, twinkling merrily towards the south-west side. A hint of things to come. It was still a little wispy with clouds, but the skies cleared up an hour later. The Comm brought out the C 5 and C 8 scopes and we were soon ferreting the night sky.

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.

There was a little debate going on about "who" was redder. Apparently, we had 3 persons in the group with e-mails or ICQ nicknames related to Mars, Arcturus and Antares. Heck, they all looked about the same to me, Arcturus a little fainter than the orangey Antares, but Mars wins without contest.

The first object to find was Mars. The C 8's collimation was a little off, so the image was slightly blurred. I could still see some dark markings on Mars with a slight touch of white caps at the polar regions. 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, oh.. and we saw M17's Swan nebula.

With the groundsheets out, we took a couple of pillows from the room and simply relaxed under the stars. The helicopter pad was a clean concrete area, and best of all, insect-free! The resort manager kindly turned out all the lights after 12. A few shooting stars threw themselves randomly across the night.

Most of the group had retired by 2am in anticipation of the next day's climb up Mt. Ophir. For those who had stayed up the whole of the first night, Jeannie, Qihui, Peiying, Caiping, Juncai and myself (from Room 106), Choon Guan and 2 others, we got the see the Milky Way from Scorpius to Cygnus.. the most beautiful stretch of stars forming the summer Milky Way.

The rest of us cleared out at 5am.. which also meant we could barely wake up at 9am to set out for the climb. We would soon find ourselves in the midst of an adventure because of this. The first group had set out by 9.30am.. Qihui, Juncai and Jeannie were keen on the climb but decided on breakfast prior. Peiying, Caiping and I joined them for a short hike up to the first set of waterfalls before we parted ways. The 3 of us returned to the resort whilst the 3 of them continued their climb.

Day 2 was mainly hanging out by the nearby stream, and playing ball with Serena, her 2 friends, Caiping, and Celeste, in the pool till evening when the next batch of folks who would take the van up Mt. Ophir and meet the first group there with packets of dinner. Two of us remained, and I jumped right back into the pool.

We went out for dinner and returned by 9pm, which was the beginning of a huge drama. Jeannie, Qihui, and Juncai, never did rendezvoused with the first group. With all the wild speculations that flew around about their getting lost, starving, falling off some cliff, in all a lot of worries and concerns.

There was simply no news of them, and the park rangers would not conduct a search and rescue until morning light, assuming they had gotten lost on the wrong side of the trail which they claimed was a treacherous one.

Another trekker overheard and apparently encountered them on the right trail which brought some sighs of relief. From now, it was a waiting game of when Jeannie would use her mobile to call me, since none of us could get a signal to her phone. I tell you, only Singaporeans would think to trek forests carrying such technology.

The second night continued in uncertain spirit.. many were now too tired to stay up and returned to sleep by 2am. I hung out with Vincent till maybe 3am whereupon a shower of rain sent me back to the room.

6am, my phone rang.. Jeannie!! Everyone was fine, they had survived the night and even made it to the top of Mt. Ophir. A happy group finally relaxed as we sent a van to collect them and their jungle escapade back to the resort. They arrived safe, sound, full of high spirits, scuffed and lots of dirt.

Guess you can get the full story from one of them. Too bad you couldn't make this trip. You'd have enjoyed it. I think there's a videotape somewhere on this AB.

:) Later,, Lin

By Lin . 30th May 2001, Wednesday.
For NUSAS Étoile publication Sept 2001.

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.