Gig at Buitenlust in Oirschot

Here we are playing in a small pub called "Buitenlust" in Oirschot.











From left to right: Rens-Eric-Lieveken-Patrick (and, not on the picture, Patrick....)

Night out with the small refractor

I came home late at 22.00hrs, but it was still clear, so: I quickly went outside with my 90mmF10 grab-n-go refractor. Here's the observation list:
Temp: 0.8gr.C. Seeing: average-fair
M42: beautiful deepsky object. At 112x sides of the "sword" become visible after looking periphery.
M1, FINALLY, I was searching for this object for a long time. At 28x it was visible as a weak fuzzy dot (with 32mm Televue Plossl). The strange thing is that looking periphery doesn't show more details. When I look with the 21mm Hyperion (at 42x) I cannot see a thing....
M67 Big open cluster. It just fits the field of vision of my 32mm.
M45 Pleiadels. It remains a true joy to observe this bright open star-cluster. At 28x it does not fit my field of vision completely.
Melotte 25 Hyades. I still find this open cluster a little bit arward.
And, last but not least:
NGC1647: A truly beautiful open star cluster. By looking periphery more and more background stars appear. It just fits my field of vision at 28x.
My 32mm Televue plossl is becoming a real -workhorse- for my 90mmF10 refractor. I am still amazed on how many deepsky objects I can see with this small 90mm refractor (that is really my astrophotography guidescope) with 32mm Televue plossl :D.
It has its charm, normally I am busy with an enormous amount of cables, laptop, interfaces, aligning, goto, focusing, flat-dark-biasframes etc. Just grabbing your 90mmF10 on EQ2 mount and start observing also has its charm. It doesn't have to be all high-tech to enjoy this beautiful hobby!

Hij blijft geniaal!

Snow in our backgarden

There was a lot of snow today. This picture I took outside in the dark. It shows a reddish glow in the sky, very typical.
I took the picture with my eos400d on a tripod, 30sec at ISO400.

Sinterklaas at KSE

Sinterklaas paid KSE a visit and made all children very very happy! The middle -piet- is me......






Here I'm between 2 of my colleagues......

Night out with the small refractor

Now and then I also like to go out with my small 90cm refractor. Especially on nights with clouds and danger of rain (in this case snow!). When it starts I am inside with the telescope in a few seconds. I am always amazed how many beautiful things that I can see with this small telescope. Here is the report of last night:
Outside temperature: 1.5C with 90cmF10
M45 Pleiades (7 sisters): very beautiful in the 32mm Televue plossl (at 28x all stars in vision)
M57: Ring nebula in Lyra. fairly visible with the 8mm Hyperion (at 112x)
M36: Open star cluster in Auriga. Nicely visible with the 8mm (at 112x)
Melotte 25: Hyades open cluster in Taurus Hyaden. Nice with 32mm (at 28x)
@2057hrs a bright meteor showed up. It went from Casseiopeia into Hercules with a long white line behind it which glowed for 1sec. At the end, just before it went out, it showed a small sidewinder.
Then the clouds came and I had to go inside. At 2300hrs it was bright again, the session continued:
M42: Orion nebula, nice at 8mm (112x). Central trapezoid star cluster well visible.
M81 & M82 Galaxies in Ursa Major. Both visible with the 21mm Hyperion (at 42x). Separately also beatiful with the 8mm (at 112x). M81 shows with a central bright dot and a faint nebula around it. The cigar-like shape of M82 is also clearly visible.
All-in-all a nice night out with the small refactor!

First light with the astrowebcam

Moon: 2x barlow used and IR pass filter on webcam. 2000 frames @ 10fps stacked.







M42 Orion nebula. 70x20sec stacked. UV/IR block filter on webcam used.







This is the same picture 60 of 90 20sec frames handpicked and stacked with Deepskystacker. Postprocessed with Photoshop.