Last November 1, I went with Vincent Lao to Caliraya at around 6:00pm to have a stargazing session there amid a bad weather outlook .When we reach Caliraya at around 9:00pm, lady luck seems to run out on us as we were greeted with hard rain ! Since we were already there, we both decided to wait for a while and hope the rain will stop. At around 10:30pm, the eastern sky started to break up and we were able to see Orion rising majestically. Unfortunately, mild shower was still present that time and was still trying to ruin our session :( With the hard rain comes a very muddy observing site , I initially plan to quit the session because the telescope tripod will surely sink into the mud but seeing Vincent still enjoying binocular viewing of the beautiful sky, we decided to stick around more and after searching for a lesser muddy area , we setup our scopes at around 11:30pm after the rain finally comes to a stop.
I brought along a TV-101 refractor on Vixen GP-DX mount while Vincent brought his new Orion Starblast 4.5" reflector on EQ-1 mount. With a compromise area, the view of the sky was not perfect as some parts of the sky from South to Southwest were block by tall trees. The original observing area that we regularly setup before were under the water. For me, I was a bit disappointed on the weather because the unexpected early heavy rain doused cold water on my original imaging plans for the night :( So i opted instead to image old favorites such as Orion Nebula, Pleiades star cluster, and California Nebula. Vincent , on the other hand, image M35, Double Cluster, constellation Orion,and Beehive cluster.
I was also able to observe several Orionids meteor shower and lots of sporadics as well. The night was not that perfect though as there were 2 mild rains that pour on us in the morning :(
We were able to observe till around 4:30am before the sky started to brighten already. Before we started to dismantle our scopes, we had a group picture taken before packing up our equipment. As we were dismantling our scopes, they were able to observe beautiful crepuscular rays as the Sun was starting to rise .
Despite the disappointing sky and muddy conditions in the early evening, both of us were happy and satisfied. It has really been a long time since we had a successful observing session and we were really grateful for taking our chances .
Below are the images that I took at Caliraya using my TV-101 refractor at prime focus with Canon 300D on Vixen GP-D mount. EFL= 864mm f/5.4.
24mins at ISO 1600
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M45 Pleiades Star Cluster in Taurus20 mins at ISO 1600
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NGC1499 California Nebula in Perseus21 mins at ISO 1600
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