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.

Working on OA S-88 applications

This is one of the many applications I made last week with the Object Automation software package (www.oa.com). It works very easy and the integration of the control together with the user interface is very tight because everything is object oriented.

Astronomy night

It was a very clear night. Unfortunately there was some light-pollution from a music festival (we could hear everything very good, some nice background music). Because of the wind, astrophotograpy was not possible. After 22.00u there 2 members of Aeroclub Bladel came along so I was not completely on my own. One member brought along his binoculars, the other one his 127mm refractor telescope (!) with 8mm TV Radian eyepiece. The three of us observed many objects, there were much ohhh' s and ahh' s. Here is the observing list, incl. used the used amplification factors: M31 Andromedanebula (incl. M110) best at on 31x, clear centre with M110 with direct-vision. M27 Dumbbell nebula on 127x, beautiful structure of the nebula well visible. M57 ring nebula on 200x, clear ring structure well visible. M103 on 127x, open cluster in Cassiopeia, not really particular. NGC869/884 Double cluster in Perseus: really nice on 31x. M33 galax, just visible on 31x (stood in fact still too low). M45 Pleiades open cluster nice on 31x. M81 and M82 galaxies most beautiful on 31x. Both galaxies well visible in the same field of vision. Then there was time for the Auriga clusters: M38, M36, M37 and M35 on 127x. Further we looked at Albireo (double star) at 200x) Beta1 Cygni was "red" and Beta2 Cygni was " Blue". Also a very nice object in the 127mm refractor. Jupiter viewed with 5mm the ortho (200x): 2 bands on Jupiter visible. Also viewed with 8mm Radian in my 200mm newt: what says a clear and sharp eyepiece! Furthermore we looked at the milky way with our eyes: I could distinguish M31 with the naked eye (for the 1st time). Also were there still large number of meteors visible in several parts of the sky. Around 3.00u also 2e the member had gone home. Then I still sat around, enjoying the beautiful night. There were some rabbits that looked like: "What are you doing here?" Also a small owl flew over my head. Then I packed up and went home because the day afterwards I had be in a pub again for a 15.00u gig. I was a little bit sleepy when we started, but after the first couple (hard) notes I was awake again........

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Gig at the Sensatiemarkt Esbeek

It was a nice performance last Saturday. We got many good reactions and the music was nice.

blogger problems

Due to a nasty error with one of the links on my blog I was not able to post a few things. Now I deleted the visitors timer and online weather forecasts and it starts to run again.....

Saturday night The One at Esbeekse Sensatiemarkt

Look at http://www.sensatiemarkt.nl/, click left on "zaterdagavond" (saturday night). They want us to start playing at 21.30u.