Nice walk on "'Het Merkske" near Castelre

Today we went for a walk at "Het Merkse" near Castelre, here's a buzzard flying high in the sky..

"Dagpauwoog" butterfly

Woodpeckers.....

Spring is starting in Holland!

Last Saturday we went for a walk at the "Merkse" near Castelre, in the vicinity of Hoogestraaten Belgium. At the end of the walk we came by a meadow full of lambs...

Celestron CGE repaired!

After many months of struggeling, an Astroforum.nl member decided to repair his troublesome Celestron CGE mount together with me. I did some careful measurements on the electronics, the cooling of the motor driver IC has been improved. After careful testing this beautiful mount is working ok again! Now I have some time for the Takahashi setup of Halley again.

Here's the operation table, with 2 Fluke multimeters, laboratory power supply with current limiter and electrical drawings of the Celestron CGE mount.

Here we are testing the repaired mount, note the 1.5A current on the 12VDC power supply.

"Achterhoekweekend" of the Dutch www.astroforum.nl

This weekend was the biggest astroparty in the Netherlands: The "Achterhoekweekend". It was a marvellous experience, we could observe 2 nights. The Saturdaynight was the best, highlights were NGC4356, a m13.3 galaxy (personal record) and the Whale galaxy NGC4631. I also observed this galaxy in Norberts 18" Dobsonian, what a feast!

Here we are, observing many faint galaxies in Virgo, Coma Berenices and Leo......

Here I'm checking which parts of the CGE control boards are still ok......because there was 12VDC on the 5VDC....Only the resistors are still ok.

This is the 18" Dobsonian where I observed the Whale galaxy in.

Here you see some of the telescopes used. The biggest one is the 18", besides that are a 250mm travel-dobsonian and a classic dobsonian.

There's always plenty of stuff that needs to be adjusted/collimated/repaired. Therefore I always take my tools with me.

This is me dressed up in full gear for observing. Those winter nights can be very cold and I'm prepared for that.

No spare parts for the CGE......

Unfortunately, the spare PCB boards for the CGE mount were not received......This evening I carefully studied CGE problems and the electronic design. What worried me is that the specification of the RA/DEC motors is 18ohm, while the driver IC on the control board can continuously drive a load of 600mA: 20ohm. When performing a long high-speed slew this IC can become overheated. It can be replaced by a heavier version that can deliver 1A continously. Maybe that is a better option.

CGEM repair

Next week a fellow astronomer will come by to install new controlboards in his damaged CGEM. I am carefully studying plans now. I think there can be some short circuit inside the mount. I will check it very carefully, because if something goes wrong we blow the PIC controllers n the boards.

No Takahashi progress this week because of bad weather

This week we planned on doing a new attempt on polar aligning the Takahashi. Because of the bad weather we were not able to do that. Next Saturday a rough altitude alignment will be made by people from the Halley observatory using an angle measurement device, they will also clean the Takahashi dome because it is very dirty. Hopefully next week we will get some clear nights so we do a new driftalignment procedure.

Another try at aligning the Takahashi mount

The weather for tomorrownight looks fair so I planned everything for another (and hopefully final) go at aligning the Takahashi mount. We have an angle measurement device for roughly aligning the altitude. Last week I also had a go with EQalign at my own EQ6. With that exta experience we should be able to come good way in aligning the Astrotechniek mount. The only thing I am not looking forward to is turning the dome 90 degrees when switching between altitude and azimuth alignment.

Telescope removed from observatory

My neighbour is tearing down the wall between our gardens because he is going to build a new gardenhouse. The foundation is very thick so it needs to be hacked away by a professional company. Just to be sure nothing happens to my optics I removed the telescope from the NEQ6 and stored it in the house.

Takahashi alignment problem found

Yesterday I was testing the driftalignment method on my NEQ6 mount in my backyard observatory and found out that I swapped the calibration axis during the Halley calibration. Stupid beginners mistake I should not have made. This gives me good hope for the next alignment trial, I am sure we will succeed the next time.

Takahashi altitude alignment

Today the altitude of het mount was measured with an angle measuring device. It showed that the mount is at 48 degrees now, so it must be moved back to where it was. This is very arkward because I must have passed the correct altitude alignment point.
We will first set the mount with the measuring device back to the desired setting for Heesch and use that as a starting point.

Takahashi E-300 on Astrotechniek CP-180 mount progress

After consulting ASH Holland (the original builder of the setup) it became clear that we need to put a metal strip of a few cm. under the forward altitude adjustment bolts in order to reach correct polar alignment. We can also use some of their measurement tools to rougly align the mount on the longitude of the observatory location. That will give a more accurate starting point for aligning the Astrotechniek CP-180 mount. It is now set to max., 5 degrees offset to horizontal, but I think we need to reach 10 degrees offset to reach proper alignment.

1st light after rough altitude alignment of Takahashi on CP-180

Yesterday evening we tried many things on the Takahashi/CP-180 setup of Halley observatory:

- Eos450d comes in focus with special adapter

- Azimuth alignment acceptable

- Altitude alignment difficult. EQalign needed 25 (!) iterations with CP-180 level to reach polar alignment. After letting the CP-180 lean backwards for approx. 5 degrees only 12 iterations (still too much) were needed. 

- I tried a PHD calibration and that succeeded. After that we took a 30sec exposure @ iso1600. See the picture. The collimation is acceptable but the alignment is still not good enough. We need to modify the base of the mount mechanically I think.

"Burgundy style" dinner evening.....

Yesterday evening, we had a very nice "Burgundy style" dinner with the guys and girls from work. It was organised by Arjan van Dijk evenementen. We had a very nice evening with good food, drinks and nice music. The only thing you got was a plate, knife and cup. For the rest you had to eat with your hands of course!

This is me!

This is the table during our dinner!

Photographed Astroid 160/Una

Last wednesdayevening I tried to photograph NGC2903 (in the head of Leo). Unfortunately my goto was a bit off (set for Halley observatory in Heesch) so I ended up a bit right of the desired object. At first glance I thought this picture (a stack of 7 20min exposures @ ISO800 in the prime focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian, riding a NEQ6) contained only stars, but a careful look at it shows many small faint galaxies. Some are standing really close to each other. What was also visible is a moving object (right bottom). A fellow astronomer found the answer in Starry Night: it is the asteroid Una.

Here is a crop showing some faint galaxies....

Look in the right bottom, there is an object moving there....

My "voorwerp" picture featured in the Dutch astroblogs

I am very proud that the dutch site astroblogs features my "voorwep" picture.
See:
http://www.astroblogs.nl/2011/01/27/hannys-voorwerp-niet-alleen-voor-professionals/

IC2497 with "Hanny's Voorwerp"

"Hanny's Voorwerp" was already a long time on my todo list. Last Sundaynight Leo Minor was in reach of my scope.
For me this is a record, IC2497 is a former quasar at 730 million lightyears distance. Just before it went out it lit-up a gas cloud which is now called "Hanny's Voorwerp" because Hanny van Arkel (a Dutch teacher) discovered it at the galaxy zoo.

This picture is a combination of 8 20min exposures @ ISO800 of my Eos400d in the primary focus of the 200mmF5 Newtonian telecope.

See the distinct "green" color, that is the "Voorwerp".

IC405 Flaming star nebula with AE Aurigae

Last night I photographed the IC405 Flaming star nebula. It was the 1st real test of the observatory after commissioning/finetuning of the new NEQ6 mount. IC405 is an emission/reflection nebula. The variable star AE Aurigae lits up this nebula that is standing approx. 1600 lightyears from us. It is thought that AE Aurigae originated from the Orion star cloud (source: Burnhams' celestial handbook).
This picture was taken with my 200mmF5 Newtonian with Eos400d in prime focus on the NEQ6 mount. It is a combination of 7x20min@ISO800 autoguided totalling 2hrs20min of exposure.
I'm quite happy with the result. I conclude that the observatory is fully operational now. Next step: narrowband Halpha photography and a more sensitive CCD camera.

Here's a more detailed view of the nebula. The blue parts are dust particles and the red parts are gaseous filaments. I am impressed by the guiding accuracy of this NEQ6. Very fine and sharp details. That was what we were looking for when we upgraded from the HEQ5pro to the NEQ6 mount. For more information, see the detailed topic on http://www.astroforum.nl/threads/128938-IC405-Flaming-star-nebula-met-AE-Aurigae

Yess, I received my golden Messier certificate

For successfully observing and logging all 110 Messier deepsky objects on www.deepskylog.be I received my golden certificate and a nice t-shirt. 2 years of hard work paid off.

Backyard observatory in the snow

Is is snowing for the first time in Holland and also in my backyard. Here's the backyard observatory in the snow for the 1st time. I was also able to solve the EQ6 power supply problems by reconnecting the 12V power cables in a better. Last Saturdaynight I driftaligned the EQ6 (with -5 degr. and the EQ6 power supply problems). Next clear night I will make a test astrophoto to see if the driftalignment procedure pays off. The good thing is that I built up some experience for the upcoming Halley Takahashi driftalignment.