GEMS - a celestial downpour Dec 15 2015

Mersing Dec 11 - 13 2015

Mersing Astro Trip ( ... updating in progress)

   STARS - ARTIFICAL SATELLITES - METEORS 

   It had been a long while since I last visited Mersing. In those hayday i remembered Allan Teo remarked the  'white band of light' that never seems to be moving away from an airstrip in Mersing in the 2000s. He thought it was a stationary clouds.  For this trip I brought along the new Canon G5X.  Wanted to use the f1.8 8.8mm lens for wide field star field. Two other cameras are ready if the sky cried out Geminids. 

 On the first night we had a good start - Dec 11 Friday the sky was moderately clear and starry starry night just a few steps from the chalet.  [ cannot compete with Rinjani Mountain top air clarity and deep magnitude sky]

  IT will be a waste just to do star trails using the build in mode Instead individual time exposure with 25-30 S at 8.8 mm and widest aperture f1.8 were made.  I let the camera picks the ISO. (800). Fixed tripod and with 2 sec delay after i pressed the button. [ wireless intervalometer is available for this type of operation ]

Orion clearing the lines of young trees in front of our  sea- facing #23 - 30 chalets

Here Pleiades and inverted 'V' Tarus on the left.  Deepskystacker x3 LF x0 DF

Two streaks from  artificial satellites from a stack of two images Oval shaped Andromeda Galaxy M31 is noticeable from the upper top left.  More short artificial satellite streaks below too. ( DSS, x3 LF)

There is a hint of milkyway registered on above two pictures.  A faint band was detectable visually.  

  DAY activities 

In and around the chalets.  First off to the beach... sandfly or no sandfly... umbrella to shield against the sun...and or rain. 

Goat  in nearby field

We set off exploring the sea shore towards the Mawar Island. The satellite map reveals an interesting body of water with a thin strip of sandy beach in between.

Saw this from Srikandi Resort and decided to explore the region.

 Sea shells debris deposited by the receding waves 

Beach flowers

Two bays with mangrove on both sides.

These are from the mangrove with Javelin-like seed pod and star-shaped flower

Visual Island hopping with Coolpix P900

Intriguing 'hang in the air ' look on the extreme left of the orange-red cliff face. Do you get it how it was formed ? .

Breathing roots of mangrove during tide out 

The  man and the dog 

Low tide and i counted 120 steps walking to the water edge

Sea almond and gardener doing the leaves burning creating this scene

Line of foams from the ocean

Remus mentioned about blue bird and it must be the white throat king fisher. Another one is spotted nearby

The rocks leading the view to a rainbow in the distant. Sat 4-6 pm. 
 Very  low tide as the sea water receded nearly 120 steps to the water edges. 

With umbrella on hand and wiping off raindrops on the lens this is a small portion of the rainbow. Later an end-to-end rainbow was seen.

Shore birds P900

P900 2000mm view of Pulau Mawar

Visual Island hopping - looming in the distance is Tioman.

Tioman Island close up showing the Gunung Kajang peaks (~1038 m) of volcanic origin. Interested to do trekking on this mountain? 

Catching Bats on camera

Bats - Fire at them as  they fly by

Equipment :  

EOS60D 17-40mm EF F4 lens 

Speedlite 580EXII flash

Setting : ISO 800, Speed 1/2500, F8, Prefocus the lens [ so there is no time lag as the camera do not need to find focus ]

Rationale : Need to freeze them in - flight and illuminated them with flash.  

Find a spot where they will fly by you. It was a sight to behold as the flash reflected back from their pupils like head lamp of a night flying devil

Hand holding the camera works and given a slightly larger FOV you can catch them without looking through the LCD or anything. Practise makes perfect. Shoot from the hip

Earlier attempts with a Note 4 mobile with flash on a bat stopping momentary on a branch produce  a blurring fuzzy object as the mobile came try to focus and then released the flash.  I tried the Nikon P900 with a better result but the kill rate was low. Then i said what the heck lets use SLR with dedicated flash MINUS the tripod. Prefocus works but there are incidents you see the fellow came right at you and too late to refocus...

SO far these are the frontal illuminated ones....

EOS 60 D

WIder zoom out than the image above

Another one 

Yet Another one 

Miri - from my Note 4

    MIRI 

Back to Miri - Blue Tears

  

Add caption

Google Map showing the sea beach track we took to the Horse Head. Palm oil plantation can be seen in and around these areas.

Exactly 6 years later i headed back to Miri. This time I was attracted by the reports of sightings of blue tears seen in this unheard of beach of Tusan.  

Domes of a mosque viewed from my room Mega Hotel

Ships and speedboats pry the Miri River.  Shot from hotel window.

Situated near the new Miri  river by-pass to the ocean

Kg. Dagang lining the Miri River.

Tusan Beach  -  40 km away from Miri  on the coastal road situated the Tusan ( Trusan ) Cliff. The geology resembles Tg Lubang ( cliff with a hole) in Miri. Notably absence here is the tubular - rusty looking fossils commonly found in the later. 

The path going down to the beach to see the blue tears

A horse drinking water

Looking up at the neck of the horse underneath

View from the other side

The stone 'finger'

Algae on the stone finger base

Pretty sand stone 

Layer spanning the chamber

Horse neck looked from underneath of the 'arch'

This is the beach we want to come at night to see the Blue Tears if the tide dont get to us first

Foot meeting sand

Lumix GH4

The tiny shrimps let off light for a duration of around 100 sec. Looks like they like to ride the wave.  Using ISO 3200 4-5 seconds exposure f 2.8 lens

Imaging taking tripod shots in pitch darkness when the wave is lapping at your feet.  Impossible task to steady the tripods.

FireFly appear from no where making a trail in above image. ( total darkness) 

Torch partially illuminated the sloping passage to the parking slot

Tg Lubang Beach

Now this looks like a submerged face or horse with a big eye

A fragile looking exposed end.

Oops Break off !

Some structure is solid. Wont barge this one!

Fossil of yesteryears!

Lone bird foraging in the salty sea shore

Leave it for the p900 2000mm zoom ( see below)

One of the two jetty showing damaged / missing boards

Picking up trash in Tg Lubang Beach