My 200mmF5 Newton telescope

This is my current astrophotographic setup. A 200mmF5 Newton on HEQ5pro mount (guiding/goto with Shoesting EQdir/Cartes du Ciel). I use a Canon Eos400d in prime focus as imager. For autoguiding I use a 90mmF10 refractor fitted with modified Philips SPC900 webcam fitted with a Sony ICX-424 B/W CCD sensor, autoguiding is done with PHD guiding in combination with a GPUSB interface driving the ST-4 autoguiding port on the HEQ5pro. Because I mainly photograph from my backyard I have to use a light pollution filter. For this I use an Astronomik clip-in CLS-CCD. For compensation of the coma in the Newton I use a Baader MPCC Multi purpose coma corrector. The exposures on the Eos400d camera are triggered with a DSUSB interface driven by DSLRShutter software. To prevent dew the 200mmF5 is fitted with a dew heater.

Autumn walk on Strijbeekse heide near Chaam

On saturday we made a nice walk on the Strijbeekse heide. It is one of the biggest forests in Brabant. Here you already see the autumn leaves coming on the trees..










And it is time for the mushrooms......here you see a few on a tree.












And here is a very nice one. I had to lie on the ground when photographing this one. Was not easy because there was almost no light.....

NGC147 Dwarf galaxy

This is NGC147, a very faint dwarf galaxy in the constellation Andromeda. This is a combination of 10min exposures @ ISO800. Totalling 4hrs total exposure time.
I took this picture with my 200mmF5 Newtonian telescope with an Eos400d in prime focus. I used a 90mmF10 refractor with a modified webcam as guidescope.

NGC869 and NGC869 Perseus Double cluster

Yesterdaynight was clear so I decided to photograph an old friend that I watch very often with my 10x50 binocular. NGC869 and NGC884: The Perseus Double cluster. The total exposuretime was 3hr10min, consisting of 13x10min autoguided ISO800 and 6x10min autoguided ISO1600. After the session the water dripped from the guidescope. The main scope was also starting to fog (despite the heaters) because of the moisture in the air.

NGC891 Galaxy

Here is NGC891, a galaxy in the constellation Andromeda 30 million lightyears away. The conditions were very difficult because there was a lot of moisture in the air and on top of that fog. I still decided to go on and took this pictures. It is a combination of 26x10min@ISO800 autoguided. Totalling 4hr20min exposure.

Wright flyer model aircraft

Experimental model airplanes Interexp 2009

This weekend was the InterExp 2009. It is an international fly-in of experimental model aircraft in Nederweert, The Netherlands.

Here you see a flying barrel





And here's the Wright flyer. It is the experimental airplane of the chairman of aeroclub Bladel. This aircraft was the first to see the skies. It is very difficult to build and trim. This afternoon a large hop was made....unfortunately followed by a small crash (some wooden parts were broken). It won the spectators' prize of being the most popular aircraft!


Here's a pulsejet airplane. The reason it was on this airshow was because it had a regulation on the flow of fuel to the pulsejet engine.





And here is a very special airplane, made of 3 wings.....The text on its wing reads: "What goes up, must come down". The 1st flight of this airplane had some difficulties and it landed in the mais. The 2nd flight (depicted here) was much better and it also made a nice landing.





And finally, "Patrouille de France", a combination of 4 model airplanes flying as one. The last airplane has a smoke pod.