M1 Crab Nebula

Yesterday evening I tried to capture the M1 Crab Nebula, it is the remnant of a supernova explosion that happened in 1054. I tried to photograph this nebula already many times, without success. Last year I couln't find it. A few weeks ago I tried with the webcam but I also couldn't find it. Yesterday evening I tried again, but just before I was able to start exposures the locking screw of my Crayford focuser broke off. The risk of going on with my eos400d clashing on the ground was too big. I had to repair my focuser (tap new M4 tread+install new scrw) and try again. This night everything went fine. This is a combination of 14x10min (autoguided) exposures at ISO800. Totalling 2hr20min. I used 4 darks and 4 bias frames to correct the picture. Here's is also a crop from the widefield above:

Orion Nebula on a cold night out with the telescope

Last night we and a couple of amateur astronomers were out on the flying field near Netersel again. After some hours of observing my battery failed and I had to stop. Morelinux suggested to try to photograph M42/M43 (the Orion nebula) my eos400d on his Meade LX90 SCT. Since this is a pure visual instrument I got many guiding problems (also because of the long focal point). I made 40 exposures of 15sec but only 12 were good enough for stacking. This is the result of a stack with Deepskystacker of 12x15sec at ISO800 with a Meade LX90 200m SCT @ F/10 (F=2000mm). 10 Dark frames and 10 bias frames were used to compensate the noise. Postprocessing was done with CS2 incl. the GradientXTerminator tool. We logged and saw many objects this night, and also got some visitors from the modelflying club (many oohs and ahhs). At the end of the night (3.00hrs) it was freezing about -3.5C and we decided to stop.
Here's a picture of us in the freezing cold.

Dickens festival in Wintelre

This weekend was the Dickens festival in Wintelre, here are some impressions....

Chitchat....





Gravedigger.....







A distinguised couple....

It was a little bit quiet on the weblog, that is because we were builing our first model airplane. Today it had its maiden flight......
Here we are preparing it for the 2nd flight.









And here it is going for a takeoff.

The (mrs.) Simonsen limit

Things sometimes can get out of hand: see http://simostronomy.blogspot.com/2008/11/simonsen-t-m-diagram.html

M42 Revisited

This night was clear again. The 2/3 moon created some problems but I had to try the Orion nebula again after learning many things. The problem with the previous session was that the long exposure (LX) didn't really work (I thought it did....) This picture is much better: 25x30sec @ 25% gain with 18x30sec darks.

Astro-webcam problems probably solved

When I used the modified SPC900 webcam (fitted with ICX-424 B/W chip) I did not know that the long exposure (>1/25sec) control worked ok. After some testing I saw no difference in using/not using the long exposure control (which is mandatory for good deepsky pictures.......). The problem was were the correct settings for the long-exposure (LX) control in WxAstrocapture. After setting the LE (long exposure) control to the correct comport and setting its settings to default I got much better long exposure pictures.......I am very anxiously waiting for the next clear night out with the webcam....

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.

I cannot wait

I scored a very nice astrocam on the internet. It is a modified Philips SPC900 CCD webcam, with large Sony ICx424 black/white sensor. Long exposure modification, cooling, and low noise amp. control. This will be the next step in astrophotography, since this modified cam will be my first -real- astrocam.

Archery

Saturdayevening the personell club of my work organized an archery evening: Marion liked it a lot (me too.

Astronaut screws up nice golfgame

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/263011/dffeb9c2/astronaut_verkloot_golfspelletje.html

Carpenter

Walk around "In den Bockenreyder"

The company where I work organised a walk in the woods. We always like walking, especially in the Autumn. It is the most photogenic period of the year in my opinion. See the nice sunrays coming through the trees....









And the funghi are coming again.











Another nice one.











The lake.







Canadian geese on the lake.







More funghi.....











And some nice autumn leaves......

M33 Spiral Galaxy

I finally was able to catch the M33 galaxy (very faint). This is 9x10min autoguided at iso800. I made use of my new Astronomik CLS filter: it really works!!!

Do I really have to

Beyond words!

Open day at the Aero club aka astro field.

Today, the Aero Club Bladel had its annual "open day". There were many airplanes on the static.






This big airplane started the show.







Followed by a very nice Hurricane replica.







Here it goes.







Very difficult: 2 hurricanes flying in close formation!











Here another plane with a smoke trail.







And even a 2 engined Concorde.








A very acrobatic airplane.







And a 2 engined A-10 tank killer.







An acrobatic airplane.







And here's the Hurricane again, ready for takeoff.







Upside down!







And in level flight again!

Walk to "De Roovertseheide"

Today we saw this squirrel in the woods. Look carefully!

Perseus double cluster

It was a bright night, but a full moon interfered with taking nice pictures. But I still stared with the NGC869/884 double open cluster in Perseus, together with the new collimation procedure and MPCC coma corrector. Not a bad result.

Walk around "In den Bockenreyder"

This afternoon we walked around the woods that are part of "De Utrecht", next to the famous inn: In den Bockenreyder.
Autumn is starting, we saw these big ones next to an oak tree.










The leaves are still green, but not for long......











Nice butterfly! We saw many of these.







Marion spotted this juvenile roe Deer. It was searching and calling for its mother.






And after that we had a break at the famous inn! It was very crowded.

The One live in Diessen

Here we are giggin in "Cafe 't Trefpunt" in Diessen. It was a nice gig...The owner of the bar also sang a song together with us and already wants to book us for a followup gig.