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.
