First Light: SkySensor2000

"Ever seen the Milky Way in all its glory, a storm of golden lightning on the horizon and a host of meteors all at once? Whoa. Still I managed to get a couple of decent shots on my 4-camera assembly." 6 May 2000 (Mersing, Malaysia)

30th June, Friday, 4.30pm, we were loading up. This was going to be the first time my Mom and Dad were joining me on an astro-expedition. I can't say it was easy to convince them to go with me on "one of my crazy outings to nowhere to see stars." I had brought the idea up about two weeks back. Dad was paranoid about the customs and my equipment; Mom claimed she didn't hear my earlier announcement until the night before. This was SO not going well. Me and my brilliant plan to educate my parents about astronomy and the beauty of dark sites were starting out all wrong.

I'd spent the night before practicing mount-loading and a good part of the morning packing my stuff: Pentax105 & body holder; GPD & SS2k; eyepieces & adapters; guiding reticle and finder; wires; battery & charger; tripod, half-pier & counterweights; cameras & lenses; film; accessory plate; torchlight; more batteries; clothes.. everything seemed to be in place. I had two bags, one toolbox and one scope box. I checked and rechecked to make sure I had everything I needed for one night of astrophotography and another night of observation. after we loaded everything, I made a third check just to be sure.. there was a nagging feeling that I might have overlooked something.

This was my first solo trip out without fellow astronomers to fall back on to borrow odds and ends, one missing bolt was enough to ruin the night; What more that I had my parents to impress. Boiling it down to nerves, I ignored the feeling. 5.45pm, we were stuck at the Woodlands checkpoint. In the time we were crawling painfully over the Causeway, I was running through all possible customs scenarios in my mind, all of which had them pulling the car over for a check. Looks like my Dad's "tales of customs terror" were getting to me. I was not about to let them hold us back because of my equipment. (Dad had earlier related that his friend got held for five hours over a piece of old, rusted thing in his boot. I had to steel myself in the event they were going to try anything.) This can be such a mental pain in the cortex.

Malaysian checkpoint. We'd just collected our passports. I just remembered that I had locked my Pentax box and fumbled with the key to open it before the customs officers could ask.. the car drove on.. I looked up.. Huh?! This didn't look like the customs. Had we been pulled over? Where are the customs officers? Dad coolly replied we'd already passed them. We'd what?! It took my mind a long minute to register that I no longer had to fret. All RIIIIITE!!! I was all in a joyful noise. Looks like the causeway jam had an advantage after all.

6.30pm, another traffic jam along the Johor highway leading to Kota Tinggi. I don't care. We'd gotten past customs, that was it. I fell asleep. When next I awoke, we'd pulled over at Kota Tinggi for dinner. It was 8pm, clouded over and raining.

By the time we checked in at the resort, it was 10pm. My energy levels had perked up and I was setting up the base structure of my equipment for astrophotography. I had convinced my Dad to drive me out to Teluk Sari. Mom was being Mom with her barricade of reasons NOT to go anywhere else because it was already too late and too dark. *DUH!!* When else are we going to see stars? In the day?!

I was attaching cameras and adapters to the accessory plate when suddenly it hit me: I had forgotten to bring my guidescope!! *OH MAN!* The Pentax was too heavy to be configured in with four cameras; Balancing would be tough. *Argh!* I cannot believe my stupidity! I brought the adapters and guiding eyepiece but not the guidescope.. ooh, I was SO strangled by this.

Looking out at the sky from the chalet. The clouds were gone and in spite of the two really bright lamp posts to the left of the chalet, Scorpius and Sagittarius were beaming down at me! Worse! The Milky Way was out in full array AND ME WITHOUT MY GUIDESCOPE!! Oh, I could kill myself..

I was too tired to rethink configuration load and elected to drive something else other than my mind crazy: the SkySensor2000. And since it would a visual night, the open patch outside the chalet would be sufficient. Setting up the equipment was easy enough. This would be the second time I'm trying the SS2k's three-point alignment. (The first time was a total disaster with the scope pointing the wrong way, the motors failing to respond.) I'd since been practicing and running motor and GOTO trials at home. I figured I was ready to take on the stars.

A rough alignment North from past memory of where the sun rose. (I need a compass.) I selected a reference star: Antares (Scorpius). I took a deep breath as I depressed the GOTO button. *WHHIIIRRRRRRRR!!!* GPD responded in a split-second at 1500x speed turning RA and Dec simultaneously. That in itself was quite an amazing thing to watch. The motors slowed to a stop. Antares was several degrees off and I had to do some adjustments. When I finally had Antares in centre view, it was so satisfying to hear the beep registering 1-star alignment confirmation. I set the Quikfinder and was off looking for my next star.. Altair (Aquila). The motors were zooming in. This time, the star was in the periphery of eyepiece, not centred but an improvement over Antares. 2-star alignment beep. Next star: Vega in Lyra. This time it was right in the middle. Excellent! 3-point alignment beep. (I could get used to this. :) Just for the heck of it, Deneb in Cygnus. Right on!

I sent the scope back to Scorpius region and WATCH OUT UNIVERSE, HERE I COME!

From Scorpius: M4 gc; NGC 6231 oc; NGC 6242 oc; NGC 6281 oc; NGC 6441 gc; M7 oc; M6 oc (Butterfly) : Superb! I was proudly showing off to Mom (who found it tough to get her eyes in the right place to view through the eyepiece and decided that sleep was much more fun) and Dad (who commented that they all looked like sandpaper to him). So much for stellar appreciation. I guess it's a similar case to how I'll never understand what exactly do people find so exciting about football.

From Sagittarius: M54 gc; M70 gc; M69 gc; NGC 6522 gc; NGC 6520 oc; M8 (Lagoon Nebula); M20 (Trifid Nebula); M21 oc; M28 gc; M22 gc; M25 oc; M24 (Star Cloud); M17 (Omega Nebula); M16 (Eagle Nebula); M23 oc; M9 gc; M19 gc; M62 gc : Oh WOW! Some of the fainter clusters were really small. I spent more time wowing the nebulae than the open clusters (oc) or globular clusters (gc). Even with the lights at the chalet, I could still discern nebulosity in M16 and M17. I could see the Number 2-shaped nebula in M17 quite clearly. Lagoon Nebula was a fuzzy flower-like patch. (Dad was still up. He definitely preferred the nebulae.) Trifid was particularly interesting; Two cloudy patches exactly like the one in pictures but in greyscale. One patch was visibly of a different wavelength from the other. The skies were more than excellent. Not to sound pompous but the clusters were beginning to get boring. The SS2k was making it all too easy for me. I was seeing more this night than all my observation nights combined. It is overwhelming. So here I am showing off to you too and it probably sounds like I'm gloating but I sure am not exaggerating. This more than makes up for not bringing the guidescope. :)

Wait! There's more! From Aquila: NGC 6823 oc; M71 gc; M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) : Ooh.. M27 is looking a lot like a dumbbell tonight. Regret tinge my mind at not being able to do photography, but I guess the visual loaf is better than none at all.. hey, it could've been raining the whole night through.

From Lyra: M57 (Ring Nebula) : Now M57 was somewhat of a blooper. When the SS2k stopped, the scope showed four bright stars. Try as I did, I couldn't figure out why there were four stars and no doughnut. At first I thought the SS2k was kicking up a fuss at being abused on its second night out. I commanded it to Vega and it complied, centering the star beautifully. Odd. I sent it back to M57. Four stars. Ok. Where's the doughnut?! It took me a LONG while staring through the eyepiece till my vision was blurred before suddenly a quirky movement jolted my attention to the middle star that was NOT a star because there was a hole in the middle. *Ack!* I slapped my forehead. You mean M57 was that bright and THAT small?! I pumped up the magnification but the kidney effect of the eyepiece was eluding my already failing vision. I wasn't about to give up. I furiously repositioned my eye, determined to see M57 up close. When my left eye gave up, my right one took over. That got me occupied a good ten minutes. When I finally saw it, I was beside myself with joy and congratulated myself. This has got to be the craziest moment of my observations ever; Twenty minutes on M57. That was it, I had it with this side of the sky. :) I gave NGC 7000 (N. American Nebula) a miss.

I was eager to see Andromeda and Cassiopeia. I wanted a galaxy. No, I NEEDED a galaxy to end this feast. Sadly, the Northeast side was blocked by the lights and trees. It was already 5am, although it felt as if the night had barely begun. The constellations were just not turning fast enough to catch up with the SS2k. I couldn't wait to get back home and share.. ok, gloat :) about this to the other guys. One of them had playfully cursed my trip with rain, and now he can take his rain and drink it! *lol!* :)

Ok, that was more than enough confidence boosting for one night. I still have tomorrow night to conquer. Zzz.

1st July, Saturday; The day was fine, bright and hot. I roamed around the beach now and then. My parents and Uncle Roland had gone back to Johor to do some stuff. I hid in the cool shelter of the a/c chalet for most part to see if I could get at least two cameras attached with the scope. Precarious as the plate was not designed for this but achievable nonetheless. 3pm, I was back on the beach with my camera. That's where I met up with Jeremy, Debbie, Rebecca and Bethany. Now we'd have an audience for the night. :)

As with the previous night, rain swept across the evening sky. 10pm, everything cleared up, Scorpius and Sagittarius were back for round two. Jeremy and I drove up to Tg Resang; Everyone else was too tired to go gallivanting for stars. In about ten minutes, our equipment was up and raring to go. It was only then that Jeremy noticed a red light flashing intermittently. He drew my attention to it and I recognized it as the TASOS group's. They had used the signal before to notify other astronomers of their position. Thing was, the both of us had already set up our stuff and I wasn't feeling all too energetic to move it across the breadth of the field to the other side. So we stayed put. Let the alignments begin. :)

I was still getting used to the speed and sound of the SS2k. It drowned out the crickets and amphibians as it zoomed towards its first star. Jeremy has the SS3D which was so quiet in its efficiency. That night I discovered that I couldn't use Messier objects to align. An hour later, a flashlight strolled towards us from the TASOS group; Michael had spotted us when we came in and had been observing us via binoculars as we settled in. It was his red light that we saw. There were five of them doing CCD and photography at the other end but the sky wasn't too favourable, according to Michael. The high clouds were hazing in and out, thwarting drift alignment and guide stars.

After a short while, Michael left to rejoin the group. Jeremy and I zoomed off in search of a couple more Messier and NGC objects before the clouds started to roll in again at 1.30am. I did try for a faint 9th-magnitude barred spiral galaxy but there was too much interference from the clouds. That's when Jeremy suggested that we call it a day and I told him I wouldn't mind calling it a night. *lol!* (Ahh.. the beauty of language. :) We returned to the chalet at 2.10am. I guess the weather remained that way for the rest of the night.

Not too bad for a solo trip. I am rather pleased with the SS2k.. Ok, I'm more than jubilant and way over the moons of Jupiter. I've never seen so much in so short a time. All that time spent hunting when we could be observing. Still, I guess that's the whole challenge, not to mention a whole skill in itself. The GOTO hunters are probably the next generation of amateur astronomers who are going to have the entire universe at their feet.. erm.. fingers. Way cool. :)

By Lin . 2nd July 2000, Sunday.

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.