NGC6914 in the Milky Way

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

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

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

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

 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

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

Nice walk around Sankt Ulrich

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"

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.