A few days later I photographed the so-called Markarians' chain in Virgo. It is a chain of bright galaxies.
One galaxy, NGC4402, appeared very special to me. After searching on the internet I found that this galaxy had a close encounter with another bigger galaxy.
Last month I was very busy with building the observatory. I also got some clear nights for photography. Here's the beautiful galaxy NGC4216 in the constellation Virgo. It is a combination of 10min exposures resulting in a total exposure time of 1hr30min.
A few weeks ago I decided to build a backyard observatory with a roll-off roof. I got a tip from a member of the Dutch www.astroforum.nl that Nick Evans from www.alexandersobservatories.com already built many of those observatories, and also a few in the Netherlands. After discussing ideas and dimensions the plans became more and more clear. Nick also provides very nice pedestals, so I decided to also order this from him. The only thing I need to prepare is the concrete block with threads for mounting the pedestal on and the base for 
putting the observatory on. Easier said than done for an electrician like me. So first I started with making an accurate drawing, to get things more clear.
This is the 8" pedestal. It can hold a C14 if necessary. It will be made by Nick Evans.
This is a photo one of my co-workers stealthily took from me while I was IO testing a control panel......
This is currently my telescope. It is a 200mmF5 Newtonian on a HEQ5pro Equatorial mount. It is fitted with dew heaters, a 90mmF10 guidescope, guidecam and my trusted eos400d camera. Recently I added a motor to my focuser.
Last weeks our KSE team commissioned a large project in Germany. The old S5 control system was replaced by a modern ObjectAutomation control system. Furthermore all in- and output signal stations were replaced by new ones. Here I'm testing the new IO in one of the many control cabinets.
And here I'm testing the IO on the blender. This blender is the heart of the factory, it blends vitamins/minerals and many other ingredients into a mixture that is use for feed.
During 2 weeks of assisting the operators with the new control system I drove home. On that saturdaymorning there was a lot of snow. Is was very lucky because in the other direction were many stranded trucks.....
Last night the the first clear night in weeks, so I surely wanted to make use of that. I phothographed a bright galaxy in Leo: NGC2903. It is 25 million lightyears distance from us. This is a composition of 16x10min@ISO800, resulting into a 2hr40min exposure.
Here's a picture I took in the evening of 27th of January. Mars was almost in opposition. This was my first L-R-G-B experiment. All channels were separately webcammed with my modificied SPC900 b/w webcam with ICX-424 CCD in prime focus of my 200mm F5 Newton. A 2x barlow has been used. The frames were captured with WxAstroCapture, aligned and stacked with Registax5 and postprocessed in Photoshop CS2.
Last sunday was the yearly "Soepvliegen". We then fly in the cold. In order to heat us up after the flying we eat soup.
Here the piper is in the air, notice the ski's.
Here's an Extra in the snow on ski's.
And upside down......
Here's the airfield completely covered in snow.
The Dutch atmosphere is generally speaking very moist. This causes telescope mirrors to fog up. To prevent this I have dew heaters on my telescope. The ones I have are a little bit too heavy so they must be regulated. For that I am building my own 3 channel dew heater controller and 1 channel fan speed controller. Here the 1st dew heater channel is ready.........
Here a Robin is looking for food in our garden.
And here's another bird looking for food...
Our wintergarden......even more snow than last week....
And here a wideview picture.....
Last saturday we had a meeting of the Dutch group of deepsky observers, many nice presentations were held (see the link: http://www.astroforum.nl/deepskydag-2009-aftertalk-topic-t23035.html) and we met a lot of people we normally only meet at www.astroforum.nl. Here are some impressions
The winner of the international constest of the smallest 200mm dobsonian in the world: Bert Boghelman.
n of Jan van Gastel on observing in the French Mountains.......
Workshop on deepsky object sketching.................
Last friday our singer and guitarist performed acoustic in the tavern "Paulus" in Hilvarenbeek, it was a very nice and intimate performance.
Every few years our brassband has to attend a music contest. Here's the full lineup in "De Schalm" in Veldhoven.
Bass-brass section.....
Violin soloist.
On Saturday we went for a walk on one of our most favorite routes. The "white" route that goes around the north part of the Kampina near Boxtel. Most of the time of year you see many birds over there. This time we were very lucky to spot a couple of white Herons. This type of Heron is very rare in Holland.
And another one airborne. This was a very difficult shot because I had my Sigma 500mm F10 mirrorlens attached......
And here's another one in the air.
And fishing again.....
Today I visited the astronomy day 2009 in Goirle. It was a nice day where many (both amateur and professional) astronomers gave presentations on what they were currently doing with various astronomy projects.
And an improvement to SCT's to prevent stray light effectively by using special baffles and diaphragms.
Amateur radio astronomer on detecting the sun at various wavelenghts.
Professional astronomer on roentgen novae.
An update on the current solar activity.
Last Saturdaynight we had a full house gig at "De Verandering" in Hilvarenbeek.
