5.30am..
I'd barely managed another 3 hours of sleep. I awoke to a shrieking
clock that would've gotten the boot and hammer from me had it not
belonged to my brother. I've never had a healthy relationship with
shrill alarm clocks. I had to assemble at NTU in 2 hours. For the
first time since primary school days, my brother and I sat down to a
real breakfast. Himself barely clearing 2 hours of sleep after the
party at Grease. His friend won the pageant, I heard. :)
7.30am..
Arrived at the Chinese Heritage Centre carpark. The handful who had
already arrived didn't look like they amounted to 88 participants.
I'd joined the trip knowing only one person: Ban Chon. My brother
had this incredulous look on his face when he heard my reply to his
question of where-are-your-friends.
We
settled down by the edge of the road. Both of us idly scanning the carpark
as more people trickled in. Morning faces in want of sleep but
negated by the thrill of an impending trip. Everyone was in a chatty
mood.. Getting to know people will have to wait, I need
sleep..
(Note:
Then-strangers, now-friends.. here are my accounts of the who, when,
where.. enjoy. :)
(Dave
& Ricky) To
our left were two guys with tripods and camera bags. Manfotto, I
noted. Nikon, as one of them (Rick)
held one lens to the light. Photographers on the prowl. Cool. They
should be having fun. The Manfotto tripod design was so visually
captivating to me. Somehow, I knew I was gonna encounter these guys soon
enough.
My
brother elbowed my attention to the girl sitting to my right. "Oy.
Talk to her leh." Oh.. ok.. ;) "Harlow, are you here by
yourself?" "No. I'm waiting for two other friends."
"Ok, I'm Lin." "Bernardee." Shook hands. "Bernadee,
my brother, Gin. Gin, Bernadee." "Hi."
"Hello." I should choke on my own mischief. (Now
you know, Bernadee.. ;) Bernadee's
friends arrived, Poh Ling (I'd heard Pauline at first) and Huishan.
We got to a little chatter and I accepted their offer to bunk in
with them.
More
people arrived, together with Ban Chon, at which point my brother
left for home. The committee bunch, for sure, looking at the amount
of things they were carrying. There was a group of girls who looked
like they were getting ready for a party night out in Orchard, than
island-adventuring. But hey, if they can tackle this trip in
platform shoes, that's remarkable enough.
Boarded
the bus by 8.45am.. for a moment it felt strange, then I realised
why. Everyone around me was talking in Mandarin.. not the way
Singaporeans spoke it, but actual Chinese Mandarin (non-Taiwan
version). That was when I figured half the bus were Chinese
nationals. This should be interesting. We hit the customs by 9.30am,
possibly clearing both sides by 10.30am. There was some delay.
Apparently one of the participants had not cleared her visa, and was
to be deported back to Singapore.
Bus
transfer. Roll-call. We were on our way by 11am. I'd pretty much
drifted to minimum consciousness by the time I found a seat on the
new bus. I didn't even hear the roll-call by this nice chap (Willie)
who
seemed to have spent the past 3 hours running around looking
for participants.
Once the bus got on its way, the Zzzs fell in. When next I awoke, we
had stopped for a break and were an hour away from Mersing.
Roll-call again. Zzz. Mersing town. 2pm. Cloudy, a typical signature
of all good astro trips here, I recollected.
Lunch
break, 20 minutes. I darted down to town to get some provisions. Bad
move. Thunderclouds moved in and rain pelted to the ground. I had 5
minutes to make my way back to the group. Heck, it's only water, and
I was perfectly soaked upon reaching the group. Oh what joy. Hadn't
played in the rain for some time. A change of T-shirts and we were
off to the jetty. The rain had ceased to a few drops. Getting onto
the boat wasn't too bad. The after-rain-storm-waves were rocking it
moderately. Nice comfy boat though.
I
made my way up to the second deck and stayed up there for the rest
of the 2-hour voyage. The sea was still rather choppy, which was fun
by my definition. A few of the girls got seasick though. The waves
that crashed against the boat, sent intermittent salty sprays
raining onto the second deck. I can't tell if the others are howling
in horror or delight, but I was immensely enjoying the sea, sprays
et al.. Cool.. :) It was up here that I got to know Helen and
Hanting.
The
sun was already blazing through a patchy hole in the sky. We saw 3
jellyfish float by as the boat sped on. A sliver fish skimming
between air and water in the near distance brought many excited
fingers tracing its trejectory. Hanting persistently promising the
sea that he would jump right in the moment he hit shore. :)
4.30pm..
Arrival at Tioman, Mukut. The waves were slamming the boat against
the concrete steps of the jetty. Crossing over to land is going to
require a little help. It was a regular jetty which led right
up to the resort.
Roll-call
again as we assembled at the main reception-dining area that was
wholly constructed out of bamboo that showed part of the clear sea
below, peeking through the slits of the bamboo. A utilitarian design
since all the food that dropped through fed the fish swimming
underneath, yet still in keeping with the character of a rustic sea
village. An orange soup bowl was wedged between some rocks below.
Room-assignment;
Room 6 with Bernardee, Poh Ling and Huishan. A nice pathway weaved
between the ten 2-room chalets on stilts that stood individually
amidst the coconut trees and small boulders. Room-check:
Air-conditioned, double beds, hot shower (that didn't work), half
& full flush toilet system, yet minus toilet paper.. I like it.
6.30pm..
Dinner by Chef Ah Foo (whoever that is..), rice, tom yam soup,
steamed fish, vegetables, chicken, tofu.. and our table-mates were:
Dave, Ricky, Dexing and Shihao. Introductions and conversation
ensued with food. The moon was beginning to rise from the east just
behind the jetty.. beautiful..
Dave and Rick finished Round 1 of
dinner and scampered off to take in the moonlit scene. Tempted I was
to join them yet lazy I also was to return to the room to get my
camera. The moon glided higher between the coconut trees. Ok, photo
urge.. I got my camera and tripod out.
Moonlit Silhouettes by
Dave Ang
Briefing
on tomorrow's snorkel-trip. Absorbed in my own moonlit world, I barely
heeded a single word. Group up, I think they said. Ok, I'm with
whichever group that has the extra room: Group C.. the committee
group. (The start of a long day of fun.)
9pm..
Stargazing that night (and the night after) was at the jetty which
had totally unobstructed viewing on the east-south-west horizons.
Behind us, hills rose to a 20-degree view obstruction. Mars,
Sagittarius and Scorpius were sinking towards the southwest. Patchy
clouds came and went throughout the night. Telescopes ready, off
a-hunting we go.
C 5, C 6, C 8, and a couple of binoculars. Here are
the starlogs for both nights of observation:
| Mars |
| At 100x, it was
little more than a dull orange disc. I wasn't sure if the dust
storm had passed. Details are barely hinted at tonight. |
| Scorpius
- 30x |
| M4
globular cluster:
Faintly glowing, possibly dimmed out by the moon but it's
there. The C 8 has a better light grasp on it. |
| M6 Butterfly cluster: As lovely as ever. Though I seem
to be visualizing a dragonfly outline. A faintly yellowish
star in the group that could only be BM Scorpii. |
| M7
open cluster: Naked-eye visible. A deformed butterfly
pattern then, for I seem to forever have some difficulty
distinguishing this from M6. The cluster is more open with 5
more dominant stars in a cross-like pattern. |
| In the vicinity
of h4889, Mu1
&
Mu2 Scorpii, a wide double easily separated in the 6x
finder. |
| Travelling down
south towards Zeta1 & Zeta2
Scorpii, a small open cluster NGC
6242. Can't really see
where the orange colour is purported to be. Scattered stars
throughout the eyepiece. A loose grouping, possibly Collinder
316. A nice open cluster NGC 6231,
near three beautiful Zeta gems of
pale blue, orange and white. |
| Sagittarius
- 30x |
| M8
Lagoon nebula: A wispy nebula in the 6x finder. At 40x, the
cluster of stars showed within. At higher magnification,
nebula detail faltered. |
| The visible
milky way was washed out though sweeping along binocularly,
the star fields were rich. |
| Cygnus
- 30x |
| Omicron1,
Omicron2 - Contrasting double-double: Near 30
Cygni a pair of light blue, yellow-orange set. At 50x,
they looked more like white stars tinged with blue and
yellow.. Atmosphere appears fiercely twinkly. Did not manage
to split the double's double. |
| M29
open cluster: A nice asterism of about 8 bright stars. From
Gamma Cygni (Sadr) in the direction of Beta Cygni (Albireo).
Another rich patch of stars along this line. |
| NGC
6888 was a small group of scattered stars, no
nebulosity seen. |
| Albireo
Beta Cygni: One more blue-gold pair. Much more saturated
colours than the earlier pairs. |
| Lyra
- 30x |
| And what's the
night with a donut from M57 -
Ring nebula: The C 8 resolves it most elegantly with a circle
of smoke at 100x. Maybe I should imagine a dead star in its
center, but I couldn't see one. |
| Taurus
- 30x |
| M45
- Pleiades open cluster: Still an all-time favourite and a
crowd-pleaser. These is one stellar group that can never go
out of fashion. |
| Orion
- 30x |
| M42
- Orion nebula: A pretty one that's just as popular. The
trapezium of stars were clearly visible.. (oh, wait, I cannot
remember if I saw this in Tioman as well but we sure saw it at
Pasir Ris..) |
| Saturn
- 30x - 100x |
| with rings.. :) |
The full moon waning,
an accompaniment to the night. Crystal
waters sparkling under the moonlight.. I could see the pebbles right
at the bottom. Moon-gazing
was inevitable. The group tried this way and that to get a glimpse
of an almost blinding orb. They finally projected the image onto a
piece of paper and has a good time clicking film to that.
The first night we
packed up at 3am, knowing that we'd have to be up again at 8am to
catch a boat out to sea. I wondered what was for breakfast..
"Big breakfast, MacDonald-style.." someone replied. Yeah,
rite..
Multi-exposure
Star trails by Dave Ang
