Willis' Astronomical Observations: Taiwan Hehuan Mountain Star Hunting Trip

Savio and I arrived Hehuan Mountain (合歡山) yesterday. We must express our heartfelt thank to Henry that he helped us to do the transportation and accommodation. In addition, he lent us two HEQ5Pros to us. This is crucial important to us, as the weight we need to ship to Taiwan is much lower. One more point I would like to mention is that we found a Taxi driver to drive us around this week. Originally I want to hire a car and drive by myself, which is always the way I do when I go aboard. However, Savio’s suggest is right! The road in the mountain area is very rugged and difficult to ask for help when needed. So, found a tour guide Taxi driver can save money & convenient. Our base is around the Chingjing Farm (清境農場). Since there are much visitor recently, we stated in 觀星園 http://starry.nantou.com.tw/. The altitude of觀星園is about 2000m. The view of 觀星園is good and leisure. The Birdseye view of 觀星園is great. As the altitude is quite high, we are above the top of low altitude clouds. However, there are still high level clouds above me. Anyway, it should be much better than sea level. Hopefully I can shot some nice photos this trip. It was a long day! Both Savio & I slept for only 2 to 3 hours before we went to Taiwan. So we took a bit more rest before we went to 小風口 and it’s altitude is about 2800m. We don’t have thermometer, but I guess the temperature is below 10 degree. Both Savio and I wore down. As the weather yesterday in the daytime was foggy & haze. We don’t expect too much last night. It turned out that we have occasionally clear skies after 2:00am. It was on and off anyway! Time is limited! When Savio was taking a rest in the Taxi, I took a few Milky Way shot. At about 3:00am, the clear sky suddenly came out & we started to work! Poor me! The sky became bright at about 4:00am and we were running out of time. I am too inexperience & sucked finally!
The photographic detail of the Milky Way is following: Modified Canon 40D Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 @ 11mm f4 ISO1600 30s