Diary of a Sky Watcher

- Long 103.802E, Lat 1.445N

• 12/21/98 Mon 20:45 - 21:10 Southern Sky study - Canopus rising in SE, Achernar South & Fomalhaut in the West.
• 12/22/98 Tue 06:19 Russian Mir make a fantastic mag 0.4 passing through delta Centauri.
• 12/25/98 - Iridium 68 @ shines at -1.0 mag early morning and pass under Leo. Jupiter and Moon make a fine naked eye pair tonite.
• 12/26/98 - Caught on video Cosmos 756 drift pass Canis Major at 3.6 mag heading towards North 06:06:57. Crux and the 'two pointers' hung low in the South.
• 12/27~12/31 01/01~ 01/04/1999 Bad weather
• 01/06/99 Viewed the finest globular cluster - Omega Centauri in predawn sky through binos & camcorder. Venus returned to western horizon around 7:30pm
• 01/07 Orion & Canis Major in full splendor in the east
• 01/11 Iridium#26 on time 06:28:42 mag 0.0 ~5 degree near under an upside down Leo Major. Earlier ~06:21 an unknown satellite pass under Regulus heading north.
• 01/14 Iridium#33 flares to -3 mag less than 1 degree from alpha Eridanus mag(0.26) at 20:12:12 Elv 26 degree, Az 186 right outside my hall window. This one is NOT on GSOC prediction.
• 01/19 Iridum#23 put out a -4.0 mag flare through hazy morning sky @05:49:41.
• Hit by bad weather lately 1/29/99
• 02/01 Iridium #60 put on a MINUS 8 cloud-piercing flare this morning 06:34:14 despite cloudy sky. The only star visible nearby is alpha Boo or Arcturus. At zenith the red planet Mar keeping a widening separation with his companion - Spica
• 02/03 CHANCE observation of Iridium#36 @20:23:25 - NOT on GSOC list. Clear sky.
• 02/04 Despite the overcast sky (Canopus and Sirius can't shine through) but IRIDIUM #7 -3.8 flare managed to shine through clouds and on time 20:17:20.
• 02/05 Iridium#37 flared at -1 to -2 mag viewed in CauseWay Point, Woodlands minutes after I disembarked from MRT. 20:11:09
• 02/09 Sky clouded over.
• 02/13 Iridium#34 put out a -7.4 flare in pre-dusk sky 19:31:01 AZ=180d Elevation 43degree. The flare is as bright as a cresent moon for 4-5 seconds.
• 02/14a Large arrays of sun-spots ( like a figure of '11'mid disk ) visible through Full aperture Solar Filter / C5+@~ at x50. UT:08:00(local 4:00pm). DANGER##-IF YOU ARE NOT SURE HOW TO VIEW DO NOT EVEN TRY.
• 02/14b Watch a nice long duration ( 1 1/2 minutes!)flare from IRIDIUM#10 at LOW elevation of 18 to 10 degrees@ 21:12:30. Enough time for me to reframe and reshoot the satellite twice in 30 seconds exposure. Flare outshines Canopus nearby and exceeded false cross's members A 107mm lens two 30 seconds composite shot here
• 02/16 Sunspot seems to diminish but the main complex is still there. Another bonus this afternoon is the partical eclipse. My handheld Canon powershot350 image placed at the end of 25mm /C5+/Solar Filter here. Do some prime focus shots and eye-piece projection.
• 2/17 Great clear sky for two straight nights. Start CCD imaging. Study and sketch stars visible in M7 with tripod mounted 7x50s with LM 8+.
• 2/20 Iridium#52 on time peak 20:44:05 near Canopus and outshine her. View the whole event (40secs) with both my 4 & 5 years old. (She is going to tell teacher seeing sa-te-lite with Daddy!) Tape play back matches iridflar163 prediction and exactly fit SkyMap plot. Sky hazy/cloudy again. Earlier Jupiter & Venus closer to each other than Feb 16. Expect closest pairing on Feb 24 pm.
• 2/22 06:00:00 ~ 06:30:00 Observed and set up both video /camera to bag Iridium#61 @-6.6 mag at nearby Mandai-Tekong park. LM is ~3.5+. Scorpion in the east, Crux in South, Mars and Spica nearly overhead. In the North - Bootes, and 'tail-up' Ursa Major. A total of 6 naked-eye satellites seen. Not prepare to id them.
• 2/26 Observed Iridium#18 flares -0.8 mag 20:15:55 near Canopus through cloudy sky. A warm-up for tomorrow -7.6 Flare.
• 2/27 Iridium#52- Minus 7.8 flare on time and despite cloudy sky ( Canous cannot shine through) put on a pretty growing 'ball' of white light till max mag. Composite video still sequence*** show a typical flare event.
• 3/06-3/07 7x50s Visual-study of Carina. Starting from the 2nd magnitude members of 'false cross'. Locate some easy open cluster- IC2391(OC), NGC2516(OC),IC2602(OC) and step-through a cascading strings of stars around rich NGC 3372(Eta Carina Nebulae), notice a 'comet-like' object near triangular stars r-p-s. SkyAtlas 2000.0 indicate NGC 3293 in its place and confirm visual with Robert Burnhams's Handbook. April copy Astronomy p. 82 apparently left this out.
• 3/10 Observe Lacrosse 2 through thin veil of cloud. Negative observation on 3/11 due to clouds. Will try again to see this 'red' satellite. Venus - Saturn in the west.
• 3/12 Mars getting larger - the disk is more apparent. Unknown day-light bright object this morning ~07:37 am. Likely candidates are high-fly balloons. A repeat of my 1978 'Weather Balloon' sighting in pre-dusk Wellington Sky,New Zealand. ( at least in the later case folk at Carter Observatory confirmed that).
• 3/13 Heavy downpour ~7.00pm.
•  3/14 Iridium 17 ( mag -7.6) put on a fine display despite hazy condition. Nearly miss this in my video view (no visible background star to point to). Started with a yellowish hazy venus-like 'star' that grow into a ball of white light with diameter x20 times over at peak. And it gradually shrunk and vanished from view seconds later. Check out SkyMap plot here
•  3/17 Iridium#54 on time put out -7.8 flare today @06:33:28 not far from alpha Boote. Observation at Woodlands MRT/Causeway Points shopping Centre. Flare was a bright yellow with disk-like edge at 8 o'clock position. Satellite vanish from view on 06:33:43. Ursa Major's - tail was up. 15:00 - Brought out the C5+ to look at the sun. Saw a couple of large sunspots groups at x60. 20:26pm Bright Venus and Saturn on top (the dimmer one) at western horizon.
• 3/18 Observed Saturn and the gibbous Venus through kitchen window. Saturn wide-open ring system apparent at x120.
• 3/19-3/20 Video-taped eta-Carina & Sco region. Bino-viewing of M4 and tried sketching M7 with C5+ drive running at x31. Spy satellite - North-bound Lacrosse 2** on time 06:15 and the orange-red color is evident through 7x50. Observed through thinned out clouds while sat is between Centaurus/Sco region. It's a pity not able to see all 3 'red' guys - Antares, Mars and Lacrosse 2 together due to cloud.
• 3/21 Iridium#17 on time, bright( cresent moon) yellowish light. My 5 and 4 yrs old witnessed this as well. SkyMap plot here
• 3/27 cloudy Looks like we are going to have a long spell of bad weather.
• 3/28-4/2 Wet Wet nights.
• 4/4 5:00pm peep at Sun using my C5+/Solar filter through kitchen window. Only a small string of sunspots visible at x48 @mid disk.
• 4/7 20:05:40.6 Heavy downpour when I left office today but the sky clear up in woodlands! Iridium#65 flares ( mag -7.7 ) on time no far from Castor/Pollux outshining the Venus.
• 4/8 19:59:35 Iridium#68 @ 0.1 mag very near last nite location. Flare last ~20 seconds. Shot at ASA800 20 seconds @80mm aiming at last nite coordindate. Ursa Major's head rising from the North horizon while the large Leo - Sickles first mid way up from the east.
• 4/11 11:15pm Dragged out the C8 classic from bedroom. Sky was hazy. Managed to do a quick observation through my study window 12 storey up, picking NGC/IC objects from the rising Alpha Centauri/Crux to False Cross. Small(7x50s view) IC. 3293 resolved into tight group of white stars all in 12.5 mm eyepiece view.
• 4/12-13 Hazy pm/am sky.
• 4/22**** Beautiful evening sky. Set up the C5+ with pixel255 (in-door). Sky getting cloudy again. A unknown satellite drifted pass in my eye-piece(first telescopic sighting). Managed to get a couple of short durations image of the familar ( 3-5 seconds)Southern GEM IC3293 in CARINA.
• 5/01** 11:00pm Viewed Mars with C8. Quite a number of features are visible. At x200 unfilterd view :(South up)the white Hellas smaller polar cap in the 4 oclock position. Dark patches - Syrtis Major, a linear dark 'ridge' extending to disk edge (Sinus Sabaeus?) at 7-8 o'clock position and Utopia patch near polar cap. In brief moment of steady seeing I thought I saw 3-point whitening at limb - Hellas,Polar Cap and Elysium?
• 5/02 10:00pm Similar set up as lastnite. Again Syrtis Major/Iapygia is the most prominent feature,with Mare Cimmerium 'island' to the South and 'horn' of Utopia. The north polar cap striking white spot is seen in steady air. Sinus Sabaeus have not swing into view yet. Island like - Alycyonius Nodus reamin visible. Area bounded by Aly Nod - Utopia - Syrtis Maj seems to be darker shade then others. Earlier in the nite both Venus and Mars are visible even in downtown Orchard.
• 05/9-5/10 *Negative observation of Comet Li due to slight hazy sky. Tonite 5/10, three satellites cross my 7 1/2 degree fields. Two of them (North Bound) identified as Spot2r 20:33:55 and a short while later Cosmo 961 20:45:05 with the help of Skymap and latest TLEs
• 05/15 Sweeping for Comet Lee without success.
• 05/16 Cloudy sky recent nites. Sketched solar sunspots instead. Today there are two major 'strings' of sunspot at E and Western end. Counted a total 15 groups via C5+/ 1000 Oaks TypeII filter/ using a 25mm eyepiece. Spend the rest of nite sketching stars fields near Comet Li
• 05/21 Rain. 05/22 11:45pm Cloudy. Set up the C5+ in the kitchen window and do some handheld afocal shots of the setting moon. Near terminator seen 'saw-tooth' shadows through my Sony camcorder shot. Mars & Spica visible in down town Orchard Sky.
• 05/24 Cloudy night, 05/25 Rain.
• 05/27-5/28 Slight hazy sky. Locating Nova Velorium is easy with 7 x 50 bino. The 7.5 degrees FOV fit nicely the Pi Cen and orange color Mu Vela. At 20:43:03 Cosmos 2322R drift pass ~2-3 degree left of Nova. 5/28 Nova Vela had dimmed from brighter than mu at discovery date to now mag 4.6?. Mars getting closer to spica overhead. Full Moon in the East and bright Venus in the West. Still hazy sky despite heavydownpour in the afternoon. Tonite pick out a NE bound satellite at 21:33:24 near Mu Vela.
• 05/30 Interesting sunspot groupings today. Sketch + Handheld digital camera shot here.
• 06/01 -5.0 Mag Iridium 33( 19:25:25) outshine Venus this evening.
• 06/05-06/06 Cloudy nite/days...Brought the C5+ downstairs and observed two interesting groups.
• 06/09 20:00-20:30 Negative observation of Comet Lee, instead enjoyed the magnificient loose Beehive(M44) clusters bounded by 4-stars. Meanwhile Venus shine brightly nearby. Get acquainted with the barren constellation of Cancer and the bright Hydra's head. the South, Nova Velorum 1999 dim to about mag 6.4, still outshine the 3-triangular mag 6.7-6.8 stairs. Seen 2 bino dim satellites, 1 swift meteor through my bino view.
• 06/10 - Best clear sky of the months, too bad is not on a weekend.
• 06/11 - 20:46:00 Mir glide pass Venus in western hazy sky and enter shadow shortly. Limiting mag in 7 x50s is ~6.7mag but Comet Lee is just not visible.
• 06/12-13 Clouded out.
• 06/15 Beautiful trio - Bright Venus - 2d Cresent Moon (bath with earthshine) - gibbous Mercury in the west after dark. In the South-West, Nova Vela still visible hovering in mag 6.5~6.6?.
• 06/19-06/20 Milky-Way delight! Travelled close to 100km just to move 1 degree North. The gland view of Milky Way unfolded before me. I have not seen so many stars in my 7 x50s. Even a familar Antares took me a while to pick out from equally 'bright' competing stars. M4 literally jumped at you ,M7 and M6 a round balls of stars. Omega Centauri looks resolved around the edge. Woke up 2 hours later to catch the other 'branch' of the Milky -Way that run through Deneb-Aquila-Lyra. In the East Jupiter rises and follow by Saturn. Whereas in the East is the distored cross of Grus. Viewed Jupiter and Saturn through C5+.
• 06/26 Hazy 05:00-06:00 Am sky. Constellation Study - GRUS.
• 06/27 Clouded out.
•  06/28 Mars- a featurelss blob x210 in C8.
•  07/01-07/02 Hazy sky. SCO overhead midnite.
• 07/06 LM ~mag 4.0! Sketched M22 and M8.
• 07/09 Tinker with cooled CCD with 75mm lens. 07/11 - tried out video observation of solar sunspot. 07/18 - Video taped ISS pass by moon. 07/19 - negative observation of Comet Lynn 1999/N2. 
• 5/01** 11:00pm Viewed Mars with C8. Quite a number of features are visible. At x200 unfilterd view :(South up)the white Hellas smaller polar cap in the 4 oclock position. Dark patches - Syrtis Major, a linear dark 'ridge' extending to disk edge (Sinus Sabaeus?) at 7-8 o'clock position and Utopia patch near polar cap. In brief moment of steady seeing I thought I saw 3-point whitening at limb - Hellas,Polar Cap and Elysium?
• 5/02 Mars 10:00pm Similar set up as lastnite. Again Syrtis Major/Iapygia is the most prominent feature,with Mare Cimmerium 'island' to the South and 'horn' of Utopia. The north polar cap striking white spot is seen in steady air. Sinus Sabaeus have not swing into view yet. Island like - Alycyonius Nodus reamin visible. Area bounded by Aly Nod - Utopia - Syrtis Maj seems to be darker shade then others. Earlier in the nite both Venus and Mars are visible even in downtown Orchard.
• 05/9-5/10 *Negative observation of Comet Lee due to slight hazy sky. Tonite 5/10, three satellites cross my 7 1/2 degree fields. Two of them (North Bound) identified as Spot2r 20:33:55 and a short while later Cosmo 961 20:45:05 with the help of Skymap and latest TLEs
• 05/15 Sweeping for Comet Lee without success.
• 05/16 Cloudy sky recent nites. Sketched solar sunspots instead. Today there are two major 'strings' of sunspot at E and Western end. Counted a total 15 groups via C5+/ 1000 Oaks TypeII filter/ using a 25mm eyepiece. Spend the rest of nite sketching stars fields near Comet Li
• 05/21 Rain. 05/22 11:45pm Cloudy. Set up the C5+ in the kitchen window and do some handheld afocal shots of the setting moon. Near terminator seen 'saw-tooth' shadows through my Sony camcorder shot. Mars & Spica visible in down town Orchard Sky.
• 05/24 Cloudy night, 05/25 Rain.
• 05/27-5/28 Slight hazy sky. Locating Nova Velorium is easy with 7 x 50 bino. The 7.5 degrees FOV fit nicely the Pi Cen and orange color Mu Vela. At 20:43:03 Cosmos 2322R drift pass ~2-3 degree left of Nova. 5/28 Nova Vela had dimmed from brighter than mu at discovery date to now mag 4.6?. Mars getting closer to spica overhead. Full Moon in the East and bright Venus in the West. Still hazy sky despite heavydownpour in the afternoon. Tonite pick out a NE bound satellite at 21:33:24 near Mu Vela.
• 05/30 Interesting sunspot groupings today. Sketch + Handheld digital camera shot here.
• 06/01 -5.0 Mag Iridium 33( 19:25:25) outshine Venus this evening.
• 06/05-06/06 Cloudy nite/days...Brought the C5+ downstairs and observed two interesting groups.
• 06/09 20:00-20:30 Negative observation of Comet Lee, instead enjoyed the magnificient loose Beehive(M44) clusters bounded by 4-stars. Meanwhile Venus shine brightly nearby. Get acquainted with the barren constellation of Cancer and the bright Hydra's head. the South, Nova Velorum 1999 dim to about mag 6.4, still outshine the 3-triangular mag 6.7-6.8 stairs. Seen 2 bino dim satellites, 1 swift meteor through my bino view.
• 06/10 - Best clear sky of the months, too bad is not on a weekend.
• 06/11 - 20:46:00 Mir glide pass Venus in western hazy sky and enter shadow shortly. Limiting mag in 7 x50s is ~6.7mag but Comet Lee is just not visible.
• 06/12-13 Clouded out.
• 06/15 Beautiful trio - Bright Venus - 2d Cresent Moon (bath with earthshine) - gibbous Mercury in the west after dark. In the South-West, Nova Vela still visible hovering in mag 6.5~6.6?.
• 06/19-06/20 Milky-Way delight! Travelled close to 100km just to move 1 degree North. The gland view of Milky Way unfolded before me. I have not seen so many stars in my 7 x50s. Even a familar Antares took me a while to pick out from equally 'bright' competing stars. M4 literally jumped at you ,M7 and M6 a round balls of stars. Omega Centauri looks resolved around the edge. Woke up 2 hours later to catch the other 'branch' of the Milky -Way that run through Deneb-Aquila-Lyra. In the East Jupiter rises and follow by Saturn. Whereas in the East is the distored cross of Grus. Viewed Jupiter and Saturn through C5+.
• 06/26 Hazy 05:00-06:00 Am sky. Constellation Study - GRUS.
• 06/27 Clouded out.
• 06/28 Mars- a featurelss blob x210 in C8.
• 07/01-07/02 Hazy sky. SCO overhead midnite.
• 07/06 LM ~mag 4.0! Sketched M22 and M8.
• 07/09 Tinker with cooled CCD with 75mm lens (reach mag 9.0 in 6 seconds exposure).
• 07/11 - tried video observation of solar sunspot.
• 07/18 - Video taped ISS pass by moon.
• 07/19 - negative observation of Comet Lynn 1999/N2.
• 07/19 Early AM 7x50s view of NGC 104 or 47 Tuc at Dec > -70!. Brighter and more condensed than Omega Centauri ( visible early evening).
• 07/21 Video taped a large complex sun-spot wih C5+/TypeII+ filter. View 9th day moon through C8 & x5 Powermate!
• 07/28 Partial lunar eclipse this evening. The orange-yellow moon cleared horizon haze around 7:30pm and already missing a big 'piece'. Viewed through C8+ and naked eye. A digital C8 view here. Haze from Indonesia forest fire turn the moon into yellowish orange disk.
• 08/01 Sunspots - beautiful two large groups seen. Composite video-frame captures here Showing the two main group color/gray image/hand sketch/full disk.
• 08/03 - 6:16am A bright satellite entered my 7 1/2 degree binos field this morning while sweeping for 47 Tuc. The sat was identified ( using SKYMAP and latest TLE) to be Lacrosse 3 r which explain the the visual red-color (from the kapton material used). On my way to work notice Moon - Jupiter-Saturn trio were directly overhead. PM looking for Comet Lynn for the 2nd nite. Couldn't confirmed sighting due to hazy sky.( I might hv seen her but it appears to be brighter than 7.5 that others saw).
• 08/7-8/08 Poor weather at location 2.4 N, 103.8E.
• 08/10. With Moon rising in the east and severe light pollution from the New Racing Track managed to video taped M7 and NGC 6231 -'Table of Scorpion' C8 at prime-focus.
• 08/11 Russian Mir on time. Plainly visible in hazy/cloudy sky at ~20 degree above SW sky. Video tape passage in my low lux TRV99E handycam.
• 08/12 Plan to watch Perseids meteor showers ( peak at 04:30Am aug 13) in neighbouring country aborted 'cos of poor weather. Evening 20:05:00 SE bound Iridium #63 at mag -3.0 on time (~9 degree from 'Sting' of SCO) and went into a cloud. Caught on my video and hopefully in my camera set up as well. ( set up in corridor 12th storey up).

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