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.
