I don’t know what is it that compels me to gaze skywards. Maybe it was the impressions I got as a young teenager looking upward in awe. Maybe it was parental influence. Maybe it was peer pressure. The funny thing is that many of my close friends of whom I grew up with stargazing are no longer looking up. I only know of one other friend who still continues to observe like I do. I never lost that special feeling, the bond, the oneness with the universe above. I never lost that special feeling when I first spotted Saturn’s rings through my small 40mm Celestron Cometron. I am so draw to the stars that I look up even when most would not. One such place is my light polluted backyard back in JB, Malaysia. I grew up in the same compound where I lived half my adult life. It was also here when I first gazed upon some now familiar DSO’s. The skies have changed dramatically from the days of yore. I remember being able to see things in my small scope that would be impossible now. The skies that were once dark are now pink and, at its best grey. They have gotten so bad that DSO’s are only visible if I use the 127mm Celestron Firstscope. My Cometron CO40 is only good now for bright solar system objects. And it is set to get worse with new skyscrapers adorning the southern sky (mostly KSL City’s new office and hotel block).
Its funny how people take things for granted. I used to just say meh to observing here. I had it good in Brisbane, Australia. The skies there are heaps better than back here in Malaysia. Suburban observing was good. And I had a whole new southern sky to gawk at. The old saying goes that all the good and bright stuff is in the southern hemisphere. That is very true. I now live in the northern hemisphere, and while I still have the same urge to gaze skywards, I miss the times when I could just go out and scan, at low magnification, the glorious star jammed regions surrounding the Eta Carina Nebula. There is no northern sky equivalent to this region. Those skies seem so far way now. From my dark sky site at Mount Pinos, the heart of our galaxy is a horizon hugger (maybe I am exaggerating things a bit as it is a tad higher than that). My once fave objects such as Omega Centauri just skims the horizon now. The only way to see them again is to brave the hordes of mozzies and the heat and humidity when I come home to visit. I guess the advantage of living on the equator is that you get the best of both celestial hemispheres.
Observing from the tropics has its downsides too. The weather is often uncooperative and there are many days of clouds and rains. In fact the recent longest lunar eclipse on June 16th got washed out by rains, right when totality was about to happen. Major bummer? I think so. The best times are to observe are right after a huge thunderstorm. The skies are the clearest and most transparent during these times. Fortunately I came back in the May/June period when Centaurus and the southern cross are riding high in the southern sky. Well higher than Los Angeles for sure. Coming back for five weeks gave me more time to plan my observations. The number one object on my list was my good old friend Omega Centauri, and the jewel box. I also wanted to see Eta Carina, but at this time of the year, it lies uncomfortably close to those stinking KSL towers. Will try for it in my trusty 10x50 binoculars. More to come on this……
My first try in early June was disastrous. I had not quite come to grips with using the relatively heavy 127mm Firstscope OTA on a photo tripod with no fluid panhead or slow motion controls. In order to get an object in the FOV, one had to overshoot the target, tighten and then let the object drift into view. With a whole heap of cussing, I finally managed to get some DSO’s in the field. It was a practice in frustration! Mental note to myself to bring back a EQ1 head (without counterweights as that would be too heavy) next time. This scope will be my nephew’s firstscope. I want him to get a better headstart with a much larger scope than my puny CO40. Such a small scope would no cut it under such observing conditions!!!!!!
The first object on my list was the jewel box. Not as pretty as I remembered it from Brissie, but then the skies are a whole heap better there (5.6 versus 4 magnitude limit at zenith!!!!!). I played around with magnification, but overall the best views came using the 24.5mm Meade Superwide in the 1000mm focal length scope for a magnification of 40x. The jewel box looked prettier at 50x with the Orion 20mm Expanse. Next stop Omega Centauri. Boy did I have trouble finding this one. Going from memory, I pointed the puny 5x24 plastic finder and then stared into the eyepiece. No go. Had to scan around a bit and finally found the fuzzy cottonball that was Omega. Was it pretty??? The answer was no. But as I found out that night was not a very good night. I have seen it better on three separate occasions, using the same magnification. I can almost make out some graniness to it, with some stars winking in and out. Any attempt to look at it with higher magnification was met with failure. I need a better mount with slow mo controls.
We had some rains in the day yesterday, the 20th of June and with the skies clearing to a glorious nice and clear day, I brought out the scope and was once again under the stars. The jewel box seemed a lot snazzier last night, easily revealing more stars within it’s a frame of brighter stars. Star colors were also a lot more noticeable tonight (even better than Friday’s session). Omega stood out more boldly and there were many more stars “resolving” tonight than on previous occasions. Still a vague caricature of its spellbinding self under dark skies but one cannot complain when all one has is this. Also as it was almost 2 weeks since my first observation session here, Scorpius and Sagittarius were much higher too. Visited more old friends such as M6, Ptolemy’s cluster and M7, the butterfly cluster. Both looked better under my light polluted LA skies than here, which only showed how bad the skies here have grown. I tried for the planetary nebula, the bug nebula but had no success. Maybe I should try for it with the NPB filter in place. Speaking of the NPB filter, I also had a chance to look at M8, the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius. Wow hardly any nebulosity apparent. With the NPB in place, I could just about make out some. I guess the 40x magnification did not help either. From experience the best views I have gotten of M8 is at very low magnifications, even better if you can get both the Lagoon and Trifid nebula in the same view. Also had a good look at the Sagittarius starcloud and the false comet cluster at the tail of Scorpius. No luck with M17, the swan nebula as yet. Will try for it and have another write up when I do.
Fastforward to the 23rd of June. We had a huge downpour in the morning, leading to gloriously clear skies, the best I have seen since coming back! I estimated the magnitude limit at zenith to be 4.5 or better. This was the make or break night seeing how I will be leaving for the northern hemisphere in a couple of days time. Both Omega Centauri and the jewel box looked spectacular tonight (well still nowhere near as nice as what you would see from a dark sky). I think I have finally mastered the mount! I find I can now push the magnification higher. Plus it helps when you elevate the mount to eye level (what was I thinking duh!). I guess bending over to look in the eyepiece makes it harder to make out detail, or very faint objects! Omega once again looked “peppery” with stars winking in and out at 50x magnification. I generally find the best views of Omega come at about 50 or 60x magnification.
Seeing how good the skies were, I decided to go for broke and hunt some of the objects I failed to see the nights before. M104, the sombrero galaxy was “glimpsed” barely at 80x magnification (skies in LA a definitely better as it was much easier to see in LA). More like a smudge with no detail with averted vision. I tried for M83 at the head of Centaurus with no success. I was hoping to at least see the core of the galaxy. I then moved over to the Sagittarius-Scorpius region. The first stop was M4. I know its crazy but I have not had any luck finding this bright globular on previous occasions. Not today. It was faint but definitely visible. The bar of stars going through the middle of the cluster was definitely visible at even 50x magnification.
M6 and M7 were glorious tonight. At least the skies did not appear as grey (must be all the dust and moisture in the air on the previous nights). Both filled the eyepiece with sparkling diamonds, with the butterfly cluster’s shape standing out. The false comet cluster looked great tonight too. Seems like all the open clusters were showing off (even the ones around Eta Carina were visible earlier on while scanning, with the glow of KSL towers not far off!). The next logical target was the bug nebula. This was a no show a couple of nights ago too. Tonight, using the blinking method, I finally confirmed that I was indeed seeing it. Again unspectacular, looking like an unfocussed elongated star.
By now the whole constellation of Sagittarius was easily visible. Started off at M22. Big cotton ball with only a slight hint of resolution. I felt I needed more magnification on this one, so I popped in the 2x Orion Shorty Barlow. The views were only marginally better. M8 and M20, the Lagoon and the Trifid looked heaps better tonight though. The views of the Lagoon tonight sans the NPB filter looked just like what I saw a couple of nights earlier with the NPB on! Niceeee. Tonight the dark lane that gives the Lagoon its name was clearly visible, as well as some of it outer wisps. Even the Trifid was visible tonight. No details were visible though, just some faint nebulosity surrounding a star.
Emboldened by my success, I set out to see if I could find M17, the Swan Nebula. No luck there as well…what gives. My final two objects of the night were bright objects, a globular in Hercules and a planetary in Lyra. M13 was a nice concentrated ball of unresolved stars. The core looked starlike with no resolution. M13 appeared brighter than Omega and M22, probably due to its compactness. And M57, good old M57 the Ring Nebula, my old nemesis. Was never certain I ever saw this object from JB skies. I caught glimpses of it in my CO40, but was never certain. Looked like an out of focused star. But tonight I finally saw its ring shaped visage at 80x with the NPB filter in place. Guess my observing career in JB has come full circle with me spying M57!
The moral of the story is stargazing and DSO observing is possible even from the worst locations. One just has to be very persistent and have sufficient light gathering power (nothing smaller than a 4.5” in my opinion). Oh and I forgot to mention my most valuable tool to combat light pollution, my ever trusty dark monks hood cloak. Never leave home without it!!!!
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