Beautiful night in Water Mouth with 24 inch telescope

[Chanlunlun]

Dear ATMs,

The weather in Water Mouth last night was exceptionally good and the sky was very beautiful. With the 24 inch telescope on hand we finally extracted its full power output under beautifully star lighted sky. Undoubtedly the 24 inch telescope is a huge success.

The weather was just so fine that the milky way was unusually bright and sharp hanging above the giant telescope which was busy all over the night. We were all particularly gratified by the superb transparency and stability the sky offered us. Although clouds came and gone, the sky was ABSOLUTELY CLEARED during the majority of time and we were all astonished by how beautiful and magnificent the powerful 24 inch telescope performed.

The 「beast」 resolved ALL the globular cluster observed, no matter big or small, bright one or dim ones, into individual stars DOWN TO THE CORE. The nebula were no longer a patch of light but revealed its structure and tonal variation in an unexpectedly copious manner. Below are a brief report on what we had observed last night Unless otherwise stated all observation were made using a Meade Ultra Wide 14 mm eyepiece, giving a power of 150X.

1. M80 – a condensed globular. Stars resolved down to its center. More beautiful than looking into a photograph.
2. Viel nebula – we all saw it, a arch of thin light running across the entire field above a rich sea of stars. The scene was so beautiful that, if chance comes you have look at it, I』m afraid that you wouldn』t forget the scene in the rest of your life.
3. M4 – All stars resolved so that it just look like an open cluster.
4. M11 – you wouldn』t believe your eyes, so many stars are crowded together that you start believe that you were in space, not on earth.
5. M7 – diamonds on black velvet.
6. M19 – beautiful globular, stars resolved down to its center.
7. M107 – small globular, but looks like a small omega in the eyepiece, all stars resolved.
8. .M24 – swimming in the sea of stars.
9. B95,96 – black nebular inside M24, inside the black patches of dust you still see fine details.
10. M8 – Lagoon nebula. So big that we had only chosen its heart to observe. Beautiful details and tonal variation within nebulosity.
11. M20 – Trifed nebula. Nothing can be more beautiful – four cracks are just plainly there, no imagination, no averted vision, no bluffing required. Looking into the eyepiece were just like looking onto a photo, you will also noticed the reddish brown color of the nebular.
12. M17 – Omega nebular. Very strong and solid. No longer just a 「NIKE」 symbol but we were looking into fine details within the nebula itself.
13. M22 – Big, bright and 3D feel. All stars resolved down into the core and you start to see yellow color of this globular.
14. M28 – condensed and beautiful globular. Of course stars are resolved into center.
15. M69 – tiny globular inside 「Tea Pot」. Beauitiful with stars resolved into its center.
16. M70 – neighbour of M69, stars resolved into center but it takes a different appearance, it looks more diffused, beauty of another kind.
17. M54 – at last we encountered a stubborn globular which resist resolved into stars. Very bright, very condensed, looks like a galaxy more than a globular.
18. M55 – globular that is totally resolved by 24 inch. Big in size and one of the top ten beauty by me.
19. M13 – very bright and very 3D with stars resolved down to core.. It』s beautiful but surely not the top one in the 24 inch.
20. M92 – Globular. Very bright, very condensed and so many stars are there down into its core.
21. M57 – Ring nebula. Exceptional brightness and very solid even in 250X. Different layers of gas with the ring is seen. No central star detected, even on night as transparent and dark as last night.
22. M56 – small globular, resolved down into core ( of course ! ), a very pleaase picture to the eye.
23. M27 – Dumbell nebula. Very bright, solid and 3D. You see the tonal variation inside nebula. A good enjoyment to the eyes.
24. M71 – small and loose globular but still very beautiful. The background is more beautiful – the milky way.
25. Helix nebula – given the darkness and transparency sky we all saw it in the binocular. The 24 inch starts to reveal its double ring structure.

A fruitful night as it was we still made a serious mistake - after busy for one night we left the telescope in open and we all went to sleep. By dawn a sudden rainfall had wetted the silver surface of the primary mirror. Luckily this happened after our observing session. By now the mirror coating suffered another heavy casualty, the raindrops created numerous tiny grey spots onto the coating which is already hazy in appearance. I think this is a price you need to pay for in exchange of the magnificent views of heaven – no pain , no gain.

Given such a beautiful night and a Sunday that followed, there were nobody coming to Water Mouth except ourselves, why?

Best regards
Chan Yuk Lun
27-6-2004

[豆豸苗]

張相好有 feel. ^^ 影埋銀河!

尋晚, 其他人應該去左大埔0既 gathering 吧?

[Chanlunlun]

張相好有 feel. ^^ 影埋銀河!

尋晚, 其他人應該去左大埔0既 gathering 吧?

Dear Miss BeanKitty,

Yes, the feel is good. If you were there last night I'm afraid that the beautiful scene you saw will be quite difficult to be forgotten in the rest of your life.

It's a pity for the majority ( or all people ? ) to be absent from such maginificient starry night. I just keep asking myself if someone had tried very hard to take deep sky photo in Tai Po next to street lamps why didn't they come to Water Mouth where the environment was muich much much more favorable ?

Best regards
Chan Yuk Lun

[Subaru]

真是很吸引, 可惜呢排有野做, 幾難再入水口.

單看Chan sir的描述已經令人很雀躍, 希望日後有機會親眼睇到.

[Wah!]

用乜相機影呢張相呢???睇張相都夠開心喇!

[Chanlunlun]

用乜相機影呢張相呢???睇張相都夠開心喇!

Dear Mr. Wah!,

The photo was shot by Canon EOS300D at ISO1600 setting.

Best regrads
Chan yuk Lun

[Chanlunlun]

真是很吸引, 可惜呢排有野做, 幾難再入水口.

單看Chan sir的描述已經令人很雀躍, 希望日後有機會親眼睇到.

Dear Mr. Subaru,

The 24 inch telescope will be used quite frequently from now to s end of August, taking the best advantage of the transparent sky and fine weather during this season of the year.

So I belief that there must be some date that fits your schedule.

Best regards
Chan Yuk Lun

[Chanlunlun]

Dear ATMs,

As the silvered surface of the 24 inch mirror had been wetted by rain drops on morning of last Sunday we found that nothing happen to the silver coating.

It either shows that the air that night had to be very pure so that rain water had not ben contaminated or the strength of silver coating is stronger than what we initially thought of.

Best regards
Chan Yuk Lun

[Subaru]

真是很吸引, 可惜呢排有野做, 幾難再入水口.

單看Chan sir的描述已經令人很雀躍, 希望日後有機會親眼睇到.

Dear Mr. Subaru,

The 24 inch telescope will be used quite frequently from now to s end of August, taking the best advantage of the transparent sky and fine weather during this season of the year.

So I belief that there must be some date that fits your schedule.

Best regards
Chan Yuk Lun

I must give it a try when there is opportunity.

[Chanlunlun]

真是很吸引, 可惜呢排有野做, 幾難再入水口.

單看Chan sir的描述已經令人很雀躍, 希望日後有機會親眼睇到.

Dear Mr. Subaru,

The 24 inch telescope will be used quite frequently from now to s end of August, taking the best advantage of the transparent sky and fine weather during this season of the year.

So I belief that there must be some date that fits your schedule.

Best regards
Chan Yuk Lun

I must give it a try when there is opportunity.

Dear Mr. Subaru,

We usually go onto Saturday night. If possible you may make some arrangement of your business schedule to fit to our observation session.

Best regards
Chan Yuk Lun