Some pictures of some of our Black Forest walks

 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

 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

 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

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

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

German ATT fair: brand new MESU german equatorial mount!

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

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

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.

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

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...