Patricks weblog

My current eyepiece lineup

2012-01-26T21:30:00.000+01:00

This is my current eyepiece lineup. Remember that eyepieces are equal important as your telescope. Especially if you have a "fast" F5 (or faster) scope like me. Most of the time people buy a nice telescope, and the eyepieces are of very low quality. I always say "a 1000 euro telescope with a 25 euro eyepiece will still give you 25 euro vision!" And that is really true.
From right to left:
Televue Panoptic 35mm
Televue Plossl 32mm
Televue Nagler Type 1 7mm
University optics ortho 5mm
Televue Nagler Type 1 4.8mm
This set will serve me well for the coming years. I hope to finish the Herschel 400 list with then (100 down, 300 to go).

Astronomy4Everyone event in the UK.

2012-01-22T15:01:00.000+01:00

In the UK a very nice event was held: Astronomy4everyone. It was a huge starparty accessible to the public. We supplied this event with live views from Jupiter and M42 from Halley observatory with our Takahashi E-300.

Here is the live view we put on the internet site livestream/astronomyforeveryone. It shows our Takahashi pointed at Jupiter.

This is a picture I took inside the small dome of Halley Observatory. It shows our Takahashi E-300 pointed at Jupiter @ F25 (focal length f=5500mm). The cam used was my SC3 modded SPC900 with ICX-424 mono CCD. The seeing was very poor because of the wind and clouds. But at least we could show something.

This is the small Toucam webcam used for show us on the event. It also captured our voices while we were working in the observatory.

Here is the imaging train for Jupiter with my SC3 SPC900 cam and 5x barlow (F25 F=5500mm)

And here is Mark Woodward of JTW astronomy that supplied the Messier deepsky live-view cam for this event. It is a very nice cam for live-viewing. It integrates 256 pictures before sending it to the screen. The views we had were like those of having a 500mm iso 300mm Takahashi!

The 7T1 Nagler got a baby sister!

2012-01-17T23:39:00.000+01:00

I was lucky on the German astroforum and got this 4.8mm type 1 Nagler for a nice price.

NGC2419 "Intergalactic Wanderer" with Takahashi E-300 of Halley

2012-01-17T17:41:00.002+01:00

Last months we worked hard on developing a prototype EL flatfield panel for the Takahashi. Using CCD's makes this kind of panel mandatory. Here are some pictures of the prototype:

Since we use an A3 EL panel (with shortest side 29.7cm) and the Takahashi's main mirror is 300mm, is is a few millimeters too small. We tried to compensate this by using diffusers made with transparant perspex plates.
Here's a pic of the Takahashi with my Artemis 4021 mono installed on its huge helical focuser:

The first thing I did was testing the prototype EL panel on the Takahashi: this gave good results: nice histogram with 15sec exposures, that seems well reproduceable. What was special is that I got a strange reflection of the secondary mirror/spidervane construction on it (I also saw it in the astrophoto's). See the test-flatfield 15sec exposure:

Okay, I aligned the Takahashi's CP-180 mount on Pollux using the FS2 control. After that I goto-ed to NGC2419 "The Intergalactic Wanderer".

NGC2419 (discovered on 31st December 1788 by William Herschel) is a very remote globular cluster,standing 300.000 lightyears from the center of the Milky Way.
Most globular clusters (like Omega Centauri and M31) lie within 65.000 of our galaxy center. See the drawing (source: Burnhams celestial handbooks) for an indication of the distance.

Most clusters are hovering close by, NGC2419 is way left. It is not called "The Intergalactic Wanderer" for nothing.
This object is very remote, but it is a magnitude 9 object, so it can be seen under clear dark skies using a telescope of 102mm aperture.

And here it is! The astrophoto is a combination of 5 20min exposures (no filters) shot with my Artemis 4021 mono in prime focus of the Takahashi E-300 300mmF3.8 Astrograph at Halley observatory. Check it carefully. It contains small faint galaxies of magnitude 18+!
I also included an extra enlarged version:

And a printout from the field of view (Cartes du Ciel) to show how many galaxies are on this picture:

The autoguiding was very stable. At first there were many people in the observatory, but after 2200hrs it became quiet, you see that in the datalogging, the average tracking error (rmsPE=0.34arcsecs) is well below the resolution of the camera (1.34 arcsec/pixel):

Finally, after 1 year of work, it can be concluded that the Takahashi of Halley is fully operational for CCD astrophotography work.

A fellow amateur astronomer Andre van der Hoeven analysed the exposure with Unimap. It discovered a larege amount of very faint galaxies on the astrophoto. Here is the Unimap result:

This is a fine result. What a joy to work with this beautiful astrophotography instrument!

IC2497 with Hanny's Voorwerp

2011-12-30T17:24:00.002+01:00

IC2497 is an extinguished Quasar standing at 730 million lightyears distance from us. 45000-75000 lightyears before that is a intergalactic cloud, called Hanny's Voorwerp. It is lit up by the extinguished quasar. This object was found by a Dutch teacher on the Galaxy Zoo. This is the widefield with just below the middle IC2497 and right-bottom of that Hanny's Voorwerp. Shot using an Artemis 4021 mono in prime focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector. It is a combination of 3 20min exposures.

This is an inverted crop. In the center you see IC2497 and the small vague cloudbelow it is Hanny's Voorwerp.

Walk around the "Galgenven" near Moergestel.

2011-12-24T19:28:00.000+01:00

Today we went for a walk to the "Galgenven" near Moergestel. This is a nice long path between the Rodondendrons......must be very nice when all the flowers are in these bushes...

A view on a lane with on both sides trees.

Tree sculpture near the Galgenven.

Tuftet ducks and Coots on the Galgenven.

One of the many Coots on the Galgenven.

Better CCD sensor cleaning

2011-11-29T23:29:00.000+01:00

I was not really happy after I cleaned the CCD of my astrocam with alcohol. There remained some kind of haze on the sensor. Therefore I got real swabs and cleaning fluid, specially for CCDs. That got rid of the annoying haze. Below are 2 flats. One before and one after the cleaning. The haze of visible in the bottom of the picture.

Nagler 7mm type 1 eyepiece

2011-11-26T23:31:00.000+01:00

This is my first "high end" eyepiece. A 7mm type 1 Televue Nagler. I was already looking for upgrades of my venerable 8mm Hyperion (which is a very good eyepiece) since I use 125x a lot for bright deepsky objects. I am looking forward to its first light.

Strange CCD linearity curve

2011-11-22T21:58:00.001+01:00

This is a linearity measurement of my Artemis4021 CCD. What is very strange is the jump halfway the graph....I am still very puzzled what that can be. I have it with Nebulosity2 and ArtemisCapture capturing software...
After consulting some fellow-astronomers on the internet I decided to put extra paper between the EL panel and the CCD sensor, thus increasing the exposure time drastically. What is very clear, is that I have to stay away from the 2.30sec exposure time, because from that point on, the sensor is almost linear. See the new curve I made with longer exposures:

This is more like it. I am very happy with it.

Walk in "De Utrecht" near Esbeek

2011-10-24T23:48:00.000+02:00

Next to the village where we live lies "De Utrecht", it is a vast area of woodlands. Here you see the trees in their early autumn colours. This picture was shot near to "Tulder".

These are real autumn colours....

And here's a very nice small lake....the water is like a beautiful giant mirror.

Walk on the "Landschotse heide" near Westelbeers

2011-10-24T23:44:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday we decided to have a walk on the "Landschotse heide" near Westelbeers. Here's a picture of a nice mushroom.

There were two white Herons flying from lake to lake.....here's the best one, shot with my "proven" bird lens: the Sigma 600mmF8 telephoto mirror lens (from hand)

And here's the "Keienhurkse ven". The water is very clear and blue, we didn't spot birds (except for the two white Herons...)

Abell 426 Perseus galaxy cluster with NGC1275 Seyfert galaxy

2011-10-24T21:59:00.001+02:00

This is a picture of the Perseus galaxy Cluster Abell 426. It is one of the most massive structures in our galaxy and is standing at about 250 million lightyears distance from us. In its center is the very active Seyfert galaxy NGC1275, it is the 2nd most powerful radiosource in our universe. This picture was shot using my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector with an Artemis 4021 moni in its prime focus. It is a combination of 7 20min exposures.

Here is a cropped and enhanced part of the picture above. The most bright galaxy is NGC1275.

This is an inverted version of the picture. Now you can see much more galaxies. The whole field of view is completely filled with them.

Here is an enlarged view on the center. If you look at NGC1275 you can see that it is not looking as a "standard" ellipsoid galaxy, it has flames coming out of it, pointing to the right and above.

CCD sensor cleaning of the Artemis4021

2011-10-20T20:45:00.000+02:00

Last weekes more and more dust particles are gathering on the CCD sensor of the Artemis. I cannot calibrate them out using flat-fields, so it is time for a cleaning action.

First I have to figure out how to take the Artemis apart. After 1 hour of careful work I am looking freely at the sensor. This picture shows the backside.

After cleaning the sensor with swabs and alcohol I built the camera together. Here I am shooting flat-fiels on my EL panel to verify if the action was helpful....

It was, here is the new one, most dust particles are gone now.

Walk near the "Hildernisse"

2011-10-20T20:39:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday we decided to have a walk near Bergen op Zoom. Under that village there is a small area called the "Brabantse wal", it is a special area where sand-grounds meat sea-clay. There's also a classic farm over there, called the "Hildernisse". I spotted this Robin hiding in the bushes near the farm.

M37 open cluster in Auriga

2011-10-17T23:06:00.000+02:00

This is the open cluster M37 in constellation Auriga. It is a testpicture, a combination of 9x5min exposures, shot at almost full moon. I figured out the correct MPCC coma-corrector to CCD distance and shot these frames to verify this. The collimation and focus were not perfect. What bothers me most are the irritating dust particles. I just cannot get rid of them, even with calibration flatfield frames shot with my EL panel. For testing purposes the camera has been turned but these pesky particles remain in the same position. They must be on the sensor, no doubt about it....

Maffei 1 Galaxy: obscured by the Milky Way

2011-10-05T00:46:00.000+02:00

Just slightly left of the middle of the picture is Maffei 1. Standing at 10 mln lightyears distance, it should be one of the brightest galaxies in the sky. It is obscured however by the Milky Way, which blocks 99% of its light. This is the reason that it took until 1968 before an Italian astronomer Paolo Maffei discovered it on one of his infrared astrophotographs. On the right is a small part of the "Heart and Soul nebula", but that is well within our Milky way. This picture was shot using my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector, it is a combination of 10 20min exposures

This picture is zoomed in on Maffei 1. I also inverted the picture to show more detail of its outer regions.

Kollase die-hard observing weekend in Germany

2011-10-05T00:41:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we went with a group of amateur-astronomers to the famous Kollase deepsky observing weekend. When you arrive at the hotel you only see this small sign.

After the 1st night the field is full with different kinds of telescopes. In the front is a Halpha-solar telescope, with this you can see prominences on the Sun.

Saturday is the ATM (Amateur-telescope-making) day.....after a die-hard observing night there's always a lot of stuff that needs repair....

We decided to stay 1 day longer. This was very smart, because that night was the one with the best seeing conditions. On this picture the telescopes (from left to right Meade 12" Lightbridge dobsonian, Skywatcher 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector in HEQ5pro mount, my telescope, and a GSO 200mmF6 Dobson. We observed many objects, the nicest ones were the Veil nebula west, galaxies Maffei 1 & NGC1023, and moon IO passing over Jupiter.

Modified mirror cell installed: results looking good!

2011-09-20T23:28:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I picked up the modified mirror cell at Astrosystems Holland. After installation in my Newtonian I quickly found out that collimation is very precise now. Moving the telescope in various directions does not alter the collimation anymore. Before the moon came up I watched the Andromeda galaxy, with M31, M32 and M110 (very easily) in my 33mm William Optics SWAN. After that I watched Jupiter and its great red spot in the 10mm Vixen LV Plossl. With the same oculair I watched many mountains on the moon. It has been a lot of work, but the result is very rewarding.

Mirror cell of primary mirror upgraded

2011-09-18T15:08:00.000+02:00

The primary mirror cell has been upgraded by Astrosystems Holland. The weakest point were the collimation screws and the lack of springs behind the mirror. This has been corrected by ASH. Also the backplate has been modified so that it can be fitted with a cooling fan. The cooling air is forced around the mirror.
Tomorrow I will pick it up, I am very curious how it looks in real.

Primary mirror cell upgrade

2011-09-15T21:13:00.000+02:00

Astrosystems Holland is designing a new mirror cell for the primary mirror of my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector. Calculations with the famous program "plop" show an error of 1.44e-5 rms using a simple 3 point support. The only thing that needs upgrading now is the adjustment and cooling opening.

Open day at model airfield Netersel

2011-09-04T22:38:00.000+02:00

Unbelievable nice airplane: a Witch flying her broomstick!

Cockpit of a Tiger Moth.

Beechcraft flying very low....

NGC281 "Pacman nebula"

2011-09-03T16:01:00.000+02:00

Last clear thursdaynight I shot this picture of NGC281 in Casiopeia, also known as the "Pac-man" nebula. This picture was shot with my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector fitted with an Artemis cooled CCD in its primary focus. This is a combination of 3 1200s exposures.
The nebula is lit up by a bright young multiple star in its center, HD5005. Over the nebula lies a dark lane of dust which gives the nebula its "Pac-man" appearance.

Takahashi EL panel

2011-09-03T13:13:00.002+02:00

Today I received the secondhand 300mm EL panel/foil that can be used for shooting flatfields with the Takahashi. Only thing is that we need to think of a good way of installing it on the nose of the Takahashi E-300.

Primary mirror cleaning

2011-08-31T20:06:00.000+02:00

After 4 years of intensive use my primary mirror of the 200mmF5 Newtonian is becoming very dirty. There was even a piece of hay stuck to it. I was not able to get all dust particles off, but it is a major improvement.

Here is the primary mirror before cleaning, you see the piece of hay stuck to it (I have no idea how it ever came there in the first place....)

Rinsing the mirror thoroughly for 10 minutes already does a lot of good work.

After that I let it rest in the sink for 1 hour under lukewarm water with 1 drop of cleaning agent. After that I used cotton to clean in from the outside in, under absolutely no pressure. After that a few minutes of rinsing. This is the final result. You still see some particle, but it is a major improvement.

Starparty Netersel, last Saturday 27-8-2011

2011-08-31T19:43:00.000+02:00

Last Saturdaynight the weather was very dubious, we still decided to go observing at Netersel, despite the clouds. Two other guys from the astroforum joined me on that night. Despite the clouds we were able to do some moderate observing. I was also able to explain many issues regarding telescopes etc. to the newcomers.
This is the list of objects observed, most observations were done with the 33mm William optics SWAN (giving 30x magnification) in my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector.
- The Andromeda nebula (M31), together with its M32 and M110 neighboring galaxies in 1 view.
- NGC869/884 Double cluster in Perseus
- The Triangulum galaxy M33, very big and very weak
- M71 globular cluster near Sagitta in the 8mm Hyperion (125x)
- M27 Dumbbell nebula (planetary nebula), very clearly visible
- M45 Pleiades, just fitting in the field of view.
- M57 Ring nebula with the 8mm Hyperion (125x), very clearly visible
- Comet C2009/P1 Garrad, visible as a small, slightly ellipsoid nebula.
- M37 Open cluster in Auriga with the 8mm Hyperion (125x)
And then the "object of the night":
- NGC6960 "Witches broom" in the Veil nebula around star 52 Cygni. This nebula is a supernova remnant. I was nevel able to clearly see this nebula. I needed the Baader Ultra high contrast, narrowband (UHC-S) filter to see the brightest filament on one side of 52 Cygni. On the other side I also saw hints of nebulae, this was only visible by looking periphery.

Reading the classic astronomy book "Mijn Sterrenwacht" from Piet Meesters

2011-08-27T17:24:00.000+02:00

Very nice to read in the classic book. It is written by one of the most famous Dutch amateur astronomers: "Piet Meesters".

It contains many nice sketches. These are from Mars, by Flammarion.

This is inside Mr. Meesters' amateur observatory at Halfweg. He also built many (very sought after) telescopes himself.

Old tractor day in Bergeyk

2011-08-14T21:27:00.000+02:00

The good old Farmall, many parts of this tractor went through my hands when I was working at my fathers' company when I was young.

Mud, beer and smoke from old tractors, my kind of party!

My dear old friend Frank Dieker passed away....

2011-08-09T00:28:00.002+02:00

My very dear old friend Frank Dieker passed away......
Last night I could not sleep about that. I thought of him the whole day...drove in the rain to Rotterdam on my motocycle thinking of Frank all the time.......could not work properly....I still remember the nice trips we had together on our motocycles, the many beers we drank, the music festivals we visited (especially Elastiek), built (Splinter) and played on ourselves (Richelwoede). Very dear friend of mine, rest in peace....I will never forget you, you have a very special place in my heart. I also remember how much you liked Neil Young. Heart of gold was one of your (and my) favorites. Every time I play that song from now one I will think of you, because that is what you really had: a heart of gold!

NGC6960 "Witches broom" supernova remnant.

2011-08-02T21:19:00.000+02:00

This is part of the Veil nebula, it is officially known as NGC6960 or more commonly "The Witches Broom". It is part of a large supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus. This is a combination of 5 1200sec. exposures shot with my 200mmF5 Newtonian fitted with a cooled CCD astrocamera.

This is again a large step forward than before. I used star-collimation techniques on the main-mirror and a more accurate corrector/CCD distance (which still needs improvement).

First flight of the Wright Flyer on Netersel model airfield

2011-07-17T18:15:00.000+02:00

These are the pictures of the first real flight of the Wrightflyer at the model-airfield near Netersel where we also do our observing with the telescopes. It is a beautiful airplane, everything is constructed by hand, except for the engine. This has been a project that took years, the (already very experienced) pilot had to train himself in flying this airplane doing small jumps. It took him about 1 year to master it, including many finetuning/modifications on this airplane. But he succeeded!

M27 with the Artemis 4021 CCD and Hutech LPS-P2 filter

2011-07-12T23:41:00.000+02:00

Last fridaynight I photographed M27 (The Dumbell Nebula). It is a planetary nebula, when a star the size of our Sun reaches the end of its life it blows away its outer shell, this is visible as a so called planetary nebula (because people first thought it was a planet instead of a star).
This picture was shot using my Artemis 4021 CCD, cooled to -15 degrees centigrade on my 200mmF5 Newtonian, riding a NEQ6 pro mount.
It is a combination of 7x 1200s

Here is a enlarged version of this beautiful nebula.

NGC6914 with LPS-P2 filter

2011-07-04T23:42:00.000+02:00

This is NGC6914 again, but now 2x1200s with the Hutech LPS-P2 filter.

NGC6914 with UHC-S filter

2011-07-01T21:48:00.000+02:00

After using adapters to move the coma corrector to 55mm from the CCD I tried NGC6914 again, this time with Baader UHC-S filter. The coma is substantially reducted, with finetuning I can even achieve a little bit more I think. I also experimented with a Neumann flatfield EL panel for shooting flatfield calibration frames. This also improved the picture a lot. After that I experimented stacking the pictures in Nebulosity. There it showed that there was a lot of moisture on the pictures, so I could only use the first two of 1200s I shot. I made a new badpixelmap in Nebulosity and stacked the first two of the session, this is the result. The UHC-S filter blocks a lot of light compared to the Lumicon Halpha pass. I think I will use the Halpha pass again next time.

NGC6914 in the Milky Way

2011-06-27T14:18:00.000+02:00

NGC6914, my first try at Halpha imaging. This region contains the most dense group of young stars in the milky way. It contains about 2600 OB type starts in a space of just 200 lightyears. The group is standing at about 5000 lightyears distance, but most light is obscured by dustclouds in the Milky way.
This image was made with my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector in combination with the Artemis 4021 cooled CCD (at -10 degr. C). It is a combination of 3 1200sec exposures through a Halpha filter.

1st night with the cooled CCD camera: M57

2011-06-17T22:09:00.000+02:00

This is the first real test with the cooled Artemis 4021 CCD camera. There is still a lot of coma visible but that is because of a too short distance between the coma corrector and the CCD pane.

Next weeks I will do more testing, the first results look very promising because this camera has an enourmous light gathering capability when compared to my eos400d. The signal/noise ratio is also stunning, there is almost no noise!

To Schauinsland with the cableway

2011-06-11T22:45:00.000+02:00

We went with the cableway to the top of Schauinsland. There (near the amateur observatory) I spotted this beautiful longhorn beetle.

When I was standing on top of the tower that is built on top of Schauinsland I saw the amateur observatory of the "Sternfreunde Breisgau" (The small white domes).

Before going down again I saw this sign in the mountain station with nice astrophoto's from the amateur observatory.

Walk to Priorsfelsen

2011-06-11T22:40:00.000+02:00

When we walked to "Priorsfelsen" we saw this falcon. I was not quick enough to grab my camera and was just able to take this shot when it was flying away. After I walked on top of the "felsen" another falcon flew away but that one was so quick I was not able to photograph it. I suspect there is a falcon nest around there.

Black Forest animals

2011-06-07T22:22:00.000+02:00

When we were walking around the "Kohlerkopf" we saw this nice "boserebia" butterfly.

After coming home this Thrush was singing in our backyard.

Eagles of the Black Forest

2011-06-06T10:31:00.001+02:00

These eagles are almost always swarming around the Eduardshoehe near the Gerstenhalm. Beautiful birds.

Nice walk around Sankt Ulrich

2011-06-06T10:00:00.000+02:00

Here is a view on Geiersnest from the south of Sankt Ulricht. Our guesthouse is located just below the top of the mountain.

After the first part of our walk we had a drink at the guesthouse Zum Roessle in Sankt Ulrich.

And here is the beautiful abbey Church of Sankt Ulrich.

Visit to Schauinsland Observatory of "Sternfreunde Breisgau"

2011-06-06T09:55:00.000+02:00

Nearby to my observing site "Gerstenhalm" is an amateur observatory run by the "Sternfreunde Breisgau". I was able to contact them via the internet and a visit to the observatory was arranged. The location is after the mountain peak, on the place indicated by the arrow (approx.)

On the site is also an old sun observatory that is mostly not used anymore because the astronomers use the equipment on the Canary Islands. Here are some domes, most of them are empty.

In one of the domes is this classic Zeiss Jena sun refractor for solar research. Beautiful instrument.

The amateur observatory is built inside a concrete circle that was orginally planned for a very big refractor. Because of the second world war this never came into existance. The "Sternfreunde" built their domes and warm room inside this concrete circle. There are 3 main instruments. In the middle is a C14.

This is the 15" F5 Astrooptik Keller Newton in its fork mount with FS2 control.

And here is the Bath 250mmF4.2 Astrograph (hyperbolical main mirror and corrector) in its fork mount with FS2 control. This instrument is with regard to its optical system comparable to the Takahashi Epsilon 300mm of Halley Observatory.

On the wall inside the warm room was a beautiful picture of the Horsehead nebula made with the Bath Astrograph. It was made using Gas treated Kodak TP2415 film. Beautiful picture.

Some pictures of some of our Black Forest walks

2011-05-31T10:19:00.001+02:00

This snail we captured in the woods west of the Gerstenhalm.

Here's a view of the Belchen through the Muenstertal.

This is a view from the Belchen in the direction of the Alps.

Here's our guesthouse "Gerstenhalmstueble" as seen from the Belchen.

This is a very nice Swallowtail I saw on the top of the Belchen.

And here's a "Bergpieper" with an insect in its beak.

Nice walk in the black forest part 2: First observing session

2011-05-26T22:15:00.000+02:00

On the "Gerstenhalm" mountain are many flowers, the butterflies love this. This one I photographed while it was sitting and eating nectar from this nice flower.

Buzzard vs. Crow: 0-1

German "Wachhund"

Observing many galaxies on the "Gerstenhalm" mountain.

1st day in the Black Forest: walking about

2011-05-25T10:04:00.000+02:00

On our walk from our guesthouse to Kaltwasser we saw this friendly photogenic goat.....

This is a view from the Hohbueh mountain in the direction France.

From our windows we have this nice view in the night.

Testing the VFR800 battery and voltage regulator

2011-05-18T00:13:00.000+02:00

Here I'm testing the battery and voltage regulator of my VFR800. Engine fully heated, headlight on, cooling fan kicks in at about 106 degr. C. Voltage drops below 12V indicating worn down battery......Unfortunately garage already sold all of the type I need....So tomorrow to Rotterdam again on the XJ600s...

Dutch astrophotography day: Me showing my UGC10822 photo

2011-05-15T23:35:00.000+02:00

Here I am showing my UGC10822 astrophoto on the Dutch astrophotography day in Mijdrecht, Netherlands.

German ATT fair: brand new MESU german equatorial mount!

2011-05-07T23:04:00.000+02:00

Today I visited the ATT astronomy fair in Germany. I went together with some guys from Halley observatory. We had a wonderful day and also saw the brand new MESU optics German equatorial mount. This is a serious option for my observatory, 100kg loading capacity, servocat goto system and built to last with industrial electromotors.

NGC3972 with bright supernova SN2011by

2011-05-04T20:24:00.000+02:00

This is galaxy NGC3972 with in it the bright supernova SN2011by.....it is still not at its peak. I photographed it with my 200mmF5 Newtonian, it is a combination of 5 30min exposures @ ISO800.

There is a very strange line over the picture. I think it is an interal reflection inside the telescope. NGC3972 is the galaxy in the center. Around it are many other galaxies that could easily be viewed visually from my backyard through this telescope. There are some guiding errors, because photgraphing in zenith is very difficult with my setup because of its adjustment.

Picture of the starparty last Saturday at Halley Observatory

2011-05-03T21:58:00.000+02:00

Here's a picture of me looking at the Megrez/NEQ6 setup that was used by another astronomer to photograph the famous Leo Triplet. In the back some guys are watching deepsky objects through a classic Vixen R150SS....I really likes the views through that nice small telescope.

High resolution version of Arp199, incl. zoomed in version.

2011-05-01T21:37:00.002+02:00

Here is a high resolution version of the Arp199 picture.

And here is a zoomed in part of Arp199.

Takahashi 1st relight: NGC5545/5544 Arp199 galaxies in Bootes

2011-05-01T15:48:00.002+02:00

Last saturday night I photographed the NGC5545/5544 Arp199 galaxies in Bootes. The two galaxies are interacting with each other. See them on the center on this picture, taken with the 300mmF3.8 Takahashi astrograph of Halley observatory Heesch with my Eos400d in its prime focus. It is a stack of 4 20min exposures at ISO800.

See below an overview chart of the other galaxies on this nice picture:

The Takahashi is sitting in the small globe on the backside of the observatory.....This picture I shot just before the sun set...

Afternoon on the "Reuselse Moeren"

2011-04-30T18:33:00.000+02:00

This afternoon we walked on the "Reuselse Moeren". We saw a roodborsttapuit (English?) and a nice hare.

UGC10822 Draco dwarf galaxy (neighbor to our milky way)

2011-04-26T20:04:00.002+02:00

Last weekend on 2 nights I photographed the UGC10822 Draco dwarf galaxy. It is a neighbour of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Standing on a distance of 263.000 light years. It has a magnitude of 9.9, but a very low surface brightness of only 17.2!!!
That makes it a very difficult object to photograph. This galaxy has intensively been studied and astronomers believe this galaxy contains large amounts of dark matter.
On the original 5h40min stack the galaxy was almost not visible. On this inverted picture you can see it. The picture also contains many faint galaxies, here are some:
UGC10854 m15.82 (bright left mid), 130 million lightyears distant.
PGC2577314 m16.38 (left top)
PGC2577420 m17.56 (left top)
PGC3136246 m16.20 (mid top), 720 million lightyears distant.
PGC2575568 m17.12 (mid top)
PGC2576050 m17.12 (mid top)
PGC4013667 m18.11 (mid top)
PGC2568758 m16.77 (mid top)
PGC3136201 m18.46 (!!!) (right top)

Used equipment: Skywatcher 200mmF5 Newtonian on NEQ6, fitted with Eos400d. Skywatcher 90mmF10 refractor used as guidescope, fitted with SC3 SPC900 with ICX-424 CCD.

Takahashi polar alignment successful!

2011-04-19T21:31:00.000+02:00

With the help of a very experienced amateur-astronomer we were able to align the Astrotechniek CP-180 mount. After that I checked alignment with EQalign. It showed that alignment was well within 0.5arcsec on both axes, we left it like this. The azimuth of the mount is max. adjusted on the ad-hoc modified plate extension. The mount also had to be tilted backwards (like before). This mount was certainly built for lower latitudes. I already expected this during the first trials, but now I'm sure.
After that I tested autoguiding with PHD, the 100% aggressiveness was readjusted to 20%.
With the stainless steel Bahtinov mask and live view on the Eos the Tak was very quickly focused.
60s. test-exposures (with Hutech-LPS-P2 filter with full moon) were made of Aldebaran. In the corners I still saw minor coma, can be miscollimation.
Current status: mount well aligned, focus ok, autoguiding ok.
Next steps:
- Bring laptop of Halley people in order so it also works with the mount and the autoguiding
- Careful collimation of the Takahashi
- Search for max. exposure time @ISO800 with LPS-P2 and Halpha filters during night without moon.
It was a good evening/night, now we are ready for some nice astrophotography with this setup......to be continued.

Last saturday 9-4-2011: Starparty in Netersel

2011-04-11T23:11:00.000+02:00

Last Saturdaynight we had a very nice starparty at our standard location on the model-airplane field near Netersel. We were with a large variety of telescopes: a Meade LX-90 200mm SCT, a small apochromatic refractor, a classic Vixen R-150S on EQ3-2 and 2 200mmF5 Skywatcher Newtonians (both on HEQ5pro mounts). When I arrived on the field there were some members busy with flying their model helicopters. They really wanted to see the moon, so I quickly installed the Newton in its mount so they could have a look. There were many oohs and ahhs, they said they first went home for dinner but promised to get back later that night.

After that many other visitors came, but despite of the moon we could still show them some nice objects. After showing M51 I tried the Whale galaxy on them. In the 8mm Hyperion (at 125x) it was very obviously visible to me (and other astronomers), however, the visitors still could not see them. After putting in my 33mm SWAN (30x) they could barely see it. This shows how much experience you get when you regularly observe objects. After that I made a comparison on the "Whale" between a 7mm WO UWAN and my proven (standard deepsky "weapon of choice") 8mm Hyperion. Unexpectedly, the Hyperion won on both transmission and contrast, I did not expected that.

Around 300am in the night the moon finally set and I was able to view some nice objects, here is the list:

Globular clusters in Ophiuchus: M10/12 very much resolved in the 8mm Hyperion (125x), M14 very faint, not resolved (8mm Hyperion)

Galaxies in Canes Venatici:

NGC4631 Whale galaxy in 33mm SWAN (30x), very nice needle visible, bright.

NGC4656 Hockey stick: also very nicely visible in the same eyepiece.

After that we went to the famous Hercules globular clusters:

M13: Resolves perfectly up to the outer boundaries in 8mm Hyperion (125x)

M92: Only outer regions resolve in the 8mm, bright center

After that we went to the summer triangle planetary nebulae, first Lyra:

M57 The ring nebula is visible, but details are not very shart in 8mm Hyperion (125x)

And after that Sagitta:

M27 The Dumbbell nebula shape is clearly visible in the 8mm Hyperion (125x)

I noticed that by 300am M51 was directly overheat in the zenith, so I gave it another final try:

M51: I was very amazed to see the outer ring structure in this nice galaxy. I never saw it this good.

2 weekends on the "Strabrechtse heide"

2011-04-02T22:45:00.001+02:00

Last 2 weekends we had nice walks on the "Strabrechtse heide", there are a lot of animals to be seen. Here's a Stonechat (Roodborsttapuit)

A roe-deer (sorry for the unsharpness...)

A Stonechat (Roodborsttapuit)

A green frog.

Canadian goose.

Cormorant landing.

Little grebe

And last but not least: a black woodpecker!

Nice walk on "'Het Merkske" near Castelre

2011-03-19T19:54:00.000+01:00

Today we went for a walk at "Het Merkse" near Castelre, here's a buzzard flying high in the sky..

"Dagpauwoog" butterfly

Woodpeckers.....

Spring is starting in Holland!

2011-03-15T01:15:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday we went for a walk at the "Merkse" near Castelre, in the vicinity of Hoogestraaten Belgium. At the end of the walk we came by a meadow full of lambs...

Celestron CGE repaired!

2011-03-09T00:28:00.000+01:00

After many months of struggeling, an Astroforum.nl member decided to repair his troublesome Celestron CGE mount together with me. I did some careful measurements on the electronics, the cooling of the motor driver IC has been improved. After careful testing this beautiful mount is working ok again! Now I have some time for the Takahashi setup of Halley again.

Here's the operation table, with 2 Fluke multimeters, laboratory power supply with current limiter and electrical drawings of the Celestron CGE mount.

Here we are testing the repaired mount, note the 1.5A current on the 12VDC power supply.

"Achterhoekweekend" of the Dutch www.astroforum.nl

2011-03-09T00:21:00.000+01:00

This weekend was the biggest astroparty in the Netherlands: The "Achterhoekweekend". It was a marvellous experience, we could observe 2 nights. The Saturdaynight was the best, highlights were NGC4356, a m13.3 galaxy (personal record) and the Whale galaxy NGC4631. I also observed this galaxy in Norberts 18" Dobsonian, what a feast!

Here we are, observing many faint galaxies in Virgo, Coma Berenices and Leo......

Here I'm checking which parts of the CGE control boards are still ok......because there was 12VDC on the 5VDC....Only the resistors are still ok.

This is the 18" Dobsonian where I observed the Whale galaxy in.

Here you see some of the telescopes used. The biggest one is the 18", besides that are a 250mm travel-dobsonian and a classic dobsonian.

There's always plenty of stuff that needs to be adjusted/collimated/repaired. Therefore I always take my tools with me.

This is me dressed up in full gear for observing. Those winter nights can be very cold and I'm prepared for that.

No spare parts for the CGE......

2011-03-01T23:33:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, the spare PCB boards for the CGE mount were not received......This evening I carefully studied CGE problems and the electronic design. What worried me is that the specification of the RA/DEC motors is 18ohm, while the driver IC on the control board can continuously drive a load of 600mA: 20ohm. When performing a long high-speed slew this IC can become overheated. It can be replaced by a heavier version that can deliver 1A continously. Maybe that is a better option.

CGEM repair

2011-02-24T20:51:00.000+01:00

Next week a fellow astronomer will come by to install new controlboards in his damaged CGEM. I am carefully studying plans now. I think there can be some short circuit inside the mount. I will check it very carefully, because if something goes wrong we blow the PIC controllers n the boards.

No Takahashi progress this week because of bad weather

2011-02-24T20:49:00.000+01:00

This week we planned on doing a new attempt on polar aligning the Takahashi. Because of the bad weather we were not able to do that. Next Saturday a rough altitude alignment will be made by people from the Halley observatory using an angle measurement device, they will also clean the Takahashi dome because it is very dirty. Hopefully next week we will get some clear nights so we do a new driftalignment procedure.

Another try at aligning the Takahashi mount

2011-02-20T22:19:00.000+01:00

The weather for tomorrownight looks fair so I planned everything for another (and hopefully final) go at aligning the Takahashi mount. We have an angle measurement device for roughly aligning the altitude. Last week I also had a go with EQalign at my own EQ6. With that exta experience we should be able to come good way in aligning the Astrotechniek mount. The only thing I am not looking forward to is turning the dome 90 degrees when switching between altitude and azimuth alignment.

Telescope removed from observatory

2011-02-20T18:15:00.000+01:00

My neighbour is tearing down the wall between our gardens because he is going to build a new gardenhouse. The foundation is very thick so it needs to be hacked away by a professional company. Just to be sure nothing happens to my optics I removed the telescope from the NEQ6 and stored it in the house.

Takahashi alignment problem found

2011-02-17T21:28:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I was testing the driftalignment method on my NEQ6 mount in my backyard observatory and found out that I swapped the calibration axis during the Halley calibration. Stupid beginners mistake I should not have made. This gives me good hope for the next alignment trial, I am sure we will succeed the next time.

Takahashi altitude alignment

2011-02-13T16:29:00.000+01:00

Today the altitude of het mount was measured with an angle measuring device. It showed that the mount is at 48 degrees now, so it must be moved back to where it was. This is very arkward because I must have passed the correct altitude alignment point.
We will first set the mount with the measuring device back to the desired setting for Heesch and use that as a starting point.

Takahashi E-300 on Astrotechniek CP-180 mount progress

2011-02-12T22:58:00.000+01:00

After consulting ASH Holland (the original builder of the setup) it became clear that we need to put a metal strip of a few cm. under the forward altitude adjustment bolts in order to reach correct polar alignment. We can also use some of their measurement tools to rougly align the mount on the longitude of the observatory location. That will give a more accurate starting point for aligning the Astrotechniek CP-180 mount. It is now set to max., 5 degrees offset to horizontal, but I think we need to reach 10 degrees offset to reach proper alignment.

1st light after rough altitude alignment of Takahashi on CP-180

2011-02-09T21:01:00.001+01:00

Yesterday evening we tried many things on the Takahashi/CP-180 setup of Halley observatory:

- Eos450d comes in focus with special adapter

- Azimuth alignment acceptable

- Altitude alignment difficult. EQalign needed 25 (!) iterations with CP-180 level to reach polar alignment. After letting the CP-180 lean backwards for approx. 5 degrees only 12 iterations (still too much) were needed.

- I tried a PHD calibration and that succeeded. After that we took a 30sec exposure @ iso1600. See the picture. The collimation is acceptable but the alignment is still not good enough. We need to modify the base of the mount mechanically I think.

"Burgundy style" dinner evening.....

2011-01-30T17:48:00.000+01:00

Yesterday evening, we had a very nice "Burgundy style" dinner with the guys and girls from work. It was organised by Arjan van Dijk evenementen. We had a very nice evening with good food, drinks and nice music. The only thing you got was a plate, knife and cup. For the rest you had to eat with your hands of course!

This is me!

This is the table during our dinner!

Photographed Astroid 160/Una

2011-01-29T15:52:00.002+01:00

Last wednesdayevening I tried to photograph NGC2903 (in the head of Leo). Unfortunately my goto was a bit off (set for Halley observatory in Heesch) so I ended up a bit right of the desired object. At first glance I thought this picture (a stack of 7 20min exposures @ ISO800 in the prime focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian, riding a NEQ6) contained only stars, but a careful look at it shows many small faint galaxies. Some are standing really close to each other. What was also visible is a moving object (right bottom). A fellow astronomer found the answer in Starry Night: it is the asteroid Una.

Here is a crop showing some faint galaxies....

Look in the right bottom, there is an object moving there....

My "voorwerp" picture featured in the Dutch astroblogs

2011-01-27T20:28:00.002+01:00

I am very proud that the dutch site astroblogs features my "voorwep" picture.
See:
http://www.astroblogs.nl/2011/01/27/hannys-voorwerp-niet-alleen-voor-professionals/

IC2497 with "Hanny's Voorwerp"

2011-01-11T00:40:00.001+01:00

"Hanny's Voorwerp" was already a long time on my todo list. Last Sundaynight Leo Minor was in reach of my scope.
For me this is a record, IC2497 is a former quasar at 730 million lightyears distance. Just before it went out it lit-up a gas cloud which is now called "Hanny's Voorwerp" because Hanny van Arkel (a Dutch teacher) discovered it at the galaxy zoo.

This picture is a combination of 8 20min exposures @ ISO800 of my Eos400d in the primary focus of the 200mmF5 Newtonian telecope.

See the distinct "green" color, that is the "Voorwerp".

IC405 Flaming star nebula with AE Aurigae

2010-12-13T22:38:00.001+01:00

Last night I photographed the IC405 Flaming star nebula. It was the 1st real test of the observatory after commissioning/finetuning of the new NEQ6 mount. IC405 is an emission/reflection nebula. The variable star AE Aurigae lits up this nebula that is standing approx. 1600 lightyears from us. It is thought that AE Aurigae originated from the Orion star cloud (source: Burnhams' celestial handbook).
This picture was taken with my 200mmF5 Newtonian with Eos400d in prime focus on the NEQ6 mount. It is a combination of 7x20min@ISO800 autoguided totalling 2hrs20min of exposure.
I'm quite happy with the result. I conclude that the observatory is fully operational now. Next step: narrowband Halpha photography and a more sensitive CCD camera.

Here's a more detailed view of the nebula. The blue parts are dust particles and the red parts are gaseous filaments. I am impressed by the guiding accuracy of this NEQ6. Very fine and sharp details. That was what we were looking for when we upgraded from the HEQ5pro to the NEQ6 mount. For more information, see the detailed topic on http://www.astroforum.nl/threads/128938-IC405-Flaming-star-nebula-met-AE-Aurigae

Yess, I received my golden Messier certificate

2010-12-11T22:48:00.001+01:00

For successfully observing and logging all 110 Messier deepsky objects on www.deepskylog.be I received my golden certificate and a nice t-shirt. 2 years of hard work paid off.

Backyard observatory in the snow

2010-11-29T22:25:00.000+01:00

Is is snowing for the first time in Holland and also in my backyard. Here's the backyard observatory in the snow for the 1st time. I was also able to solve the EQ6 power supply problems by reconnecting the 12V power cables in a better. Last Saturdaynight I driftaligned the EQ6 (with -5 degr. and the EQ6 power supply problems). Next clear night I will make a test astrophoto to see if the driftalignment procedure pays off. The good thing is that I built up some experience for the upcoming Halley Takahashi driftalignment.

More pictures of the Takahashi E-300/Jones-Bird combination

2010-11-23T22:20:00.000+01:00

Here's a nice picture of the astrograph we are working on. It is a combination of a superb Takahashi Epsilon 300mm astrograph in combination with a 300mm Jones-Bird Newtonian mounted on a Astrotechniek CP-180 mount with FS2 control system. First we will get the communication going, restore goto capability (from laptop via Cartes du Ciel/ASCOM/LX200 protocol) and then we will test the autoguiding interface. After that we will refine polar alignment and do some serious astrophotography with this superb setup!

Recommissioning Takahashi Epsilon 300mm for astrophotography

2010-11-21T23:38:00.000+01:00

A project has been started to re-commission the Takahashi Epsilon 300mm Newton for astrophotography (with the 300mm Jones-bird Newton as guidescope) for the Halley Observatory This setup is installed on a superb Astrotechniek CP-180 mount that first has to be correctly polar aligned with drift-alignment. The mount is fitted with an FS2 goto system including a ST4 autoguiding option. Everything I need.

Here's another picture of the setup in the small observatory (the C14 on CGEM-pro is in the bigger observatory, primarily used for presentations to the public)

Here's an example of the CP-180 mount. We have to figure out how to adjust the azimuth with this mount.

Here are some specifications on the superb Takahashi Epsilon-300 astrograph:

Opening: 300mm F3.8

Focal length: 1140mm

Central obstruction: 0.36

The focal length does not scare me, I am using 1000mm now on my EQ6pro. What is very challenging to me is the collimation of a F3.8 system with the barlowed laser method.

First light with the 2nd hand NEQ6 mount: Algol, the Demon Star

2010-11-08T22:51:00.000+01:00

This is the first testshot I made with the 2nd hand NEQ6 I bought a few weeks ago. It is a single frame shot of 30sec exposure at ISO800 with the Eos400d in primary focus of the 200mm Newtonian telescope. The guiding is very tight. I need to focus on collimation because that is clearly visible on this picure. The MPCC could not compensate all.

The datalogging of the autoguiding shows a much smoother running on the RA axis (the undershoot is when I touched the cam between exposures). Next step is focus on driftalignment and reducing coma.

New mounts on astro fair at Sonnenborgh observatory

2010-10-31T22:28:00.000+01:00

New Skywatcher EQ7 mount prototype.

The Mesu mount: also very nice. Can hold 2x65kg!

Starparty at the Halley observatory

2010-10-10T17:49:00.001+02:00

Last saturdaynight we had a nice starparty at the Halley observatory in Heesch. Here I'm standing (left) next to my 200mmF5 Newtonian. It is pointed at comet 103P/Hartley.

Comet 103P/Hartley

2010-09-13T23:36:00.000+02:00

Comet 103P/Hartley is still very faint. I could not see it visible, so I decided to try it photographically. This is a combination of 4 20min exposures at ISO800. The green-blueish color that is very common to Comets is clearly visible. Next months it will become more bright.

NGC7331 and Stephans quintet: realm of galaxies

2010-09-06T22:02:00.001+02:00

Last night I photographed NGC7331 and the Stephans quintet, a group of galaxies approx 300 mln lightyears distant. This is a combination of 5 20min exposures @ ISO800 with an eos400d in the primary focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian.

I also added 5 extra exposures of NGC7331 from the previous night, this is a total of 10 20min exposures........

This is an enlarged part of the Stephans quintet itself.

IC10 and NGC7662 with the webcam

2010-09-03T21:46:00.000+02:00

This is IC10 captured with the modded SPC900 in primary focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian. It is a combination of 12 180sec exposures.

And here's the Blue Snowball NGC7662, also captured with the webcam.

NGC7635 Bubble nebula with the modified webcam

2010-09-01T09:18:00.000+02:00

This is NGC 7635, better known as the Bubble nebula. I wanted to try my modified webcam again on deepsky objects. This is a combination of 10 90sec exposures with my SC3 modded SPC900 (fitted with ICX-424 B/W CCD) in the primary focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian. Autoguiding was done with a separate 90mmF10 fitted with a standard TouCam webcam.

A day at Burgers Zoo

2010-08-18T01:34:00.002+02:00

Yesterday we went to Burgers' Zoo near Arnhem. It was a little bit raining, but the beautiful zoo compensated this fully, see: http://picasaweb.google.com/patrickduis2/ADayAtBurgersZoo#

Perseus on the 18th of August 2010 (without Perseids)

2010-08-16T20:57:00.000+02:00

This is a picture of Perseus I made last thursdayevening. It doesn't show any Perseids but M31 and the double cluster NGC869/884 is visible. It is a combination of 13 30sec exposures at ISO1600 combined in 1 picture with a total exposure time of 6min30sec.

Open cluster M39 in Cygnus

2010-08-08T12:27:00.000+02:00

Last week I photographed the beautiful M39 cluster in Cygnus. This is a combination of 2 20min exposures at ISO800 with a Eos400d in the primary focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian. This loose cluster is standing 800 lightyears distance from us.

Presentation at the Halley observatory

2010-08-08T11:40:00.000+02:00

Here me and my astrobuddy Morelinux (I'm standing in the front) are giving our presentations in the beautiful Halley observatory in Heesch (near Den Bosch). After that we viewed M27, M57 and Jupiter with the C14 telescope in the dome. It was a nice evening in a nice observatory.

Presentation about Deepsky from the backyard next friday 30th July 2010

2010-07-28T01:02:00.000+02:00

Next friday (30th July 2010) I will give a presentation at the Halley Observatory in Heesch (Netherlands) about deepsky observing and astrophotography from my backyard. At the end of the presentation I will also discuss my new backyard roll-off observatory. For the concept of my presentation, see: Deepsky from my backyard .

NGC6826 Blinking planetary and UGC11465 galaxy

2010-06-28T14:13:00.001+02:00

Here's the blinking planetary (the green dot in the middle), it is a planetary nebula you only see when looking with averted vision, otherwise you see the star in front of it. This is a testexposure to see how long I could autoguide with a half moon. This is a combination of 7 20min exposures @ ISO800, corrected with 4 dark and 4 bias frames.

After studying the picture more closely I found a very small galaxy, UGC11465. It is a very small galaxy with a magnitude of 12.7. Nice that it was also on this astrophoto.

After stuying the picture more closely it became clear that I managed to capture the outer layers of the Blinking nebula, you have to look very closely to see it, it is the halo around the bright center.

I also found PGC 2384842, a very small galaxy of magnitude 16.94, this is a new deep-record for me.

NGC6960 Veil nebula

2010-06-28T02:27:00.000+02:00

This is the Veil nebula, also known as NGC6960. It is a supernova remnant. The full moon was shining but I thought: let's give it a try. It looks good, next time I will try to improve this result.

Balloon launched in our backyard.

2010-06-22T19:57:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening a balloon was launched on the meadow behind our living block.

1st light observatory

2010-06-18T21:30:00.000+02:00

This is the 1st picture I took from my new observatory. It is an exposure of 1hr15min of M27. There were many high clouds, and the wind was blowing quite hard. Apart from the initial autoguiding problems I was able to make 5 subs of 15min @ ISO800 resulting in this picture. See the crop with more details below.

Observing the sun

2010-06-05T21:50:00.000+02:00

This afternoon I observed the sun from my backyard observatory, here are some pictures.

Backyard observatory first light

2010-06-01T01:30:00.002+02:00

This evening my backyard observatory got it's first light, observed M57, NGC6811, M56, M27, M71, M13 and M92. The good thing about the observatory is that you can open it in 5min and close it also in 5min....

Building the observatory

2010-05-25T23:23:00.007+02:00

Today I installed the 230Vac power, put a nice artificial grass carpet in the observatory, treated the sides of the cut osb panels so they don't rot and installed 2 new 30x30cm concrete slabs under the rails.

And finally, I put the pedestal level and installed my heq5pro mount on it. And after that the scope of course!

Here's a view on the scope from the door of the observatory. The roll-off roof is open.

Backyard observatory installed

2010-05-25T00:49:00.005+02:00

There are still many small things that must be done, but the main structure of my backyard observatory incl. the pedestal, has been installed by Nick Evans of www.alexandersobservatories.com.
Here Nick is putting the floor on the concrete slabs.

Here I'm cutting the construction plates. It was going nicely until the circular saw started jamming. That's because you have an electrician doing an carptenters' job.....:-).

Here's the finished observatory. I really like it, together with the sturdy 8" pedestal. Tomorrow I have to finish many small things with the cabling to the pedestal, power supply, wood finishing and stuff like that, but the basic structure is there.
Thanks for this really nice backyard observatory Nick!

Looking for a new job

2010-05-12T21:37:00.001+02:00

I am currently looking for a new job as project engineer in industrial automation. See my linkedIn profile on:
http://nl.linkedin.com/in/patrickduis
I have 15 years of worldwide experience.

The One live on stage

2010-05-02T19:30:00.004+02:00

Here the One is performing live on the revival of "Elastiek Muziek 2010".

This is me.....

This is The One!