NGC281 "Pacman nebula"

Last clear thursdaynight I shot this picture of NGC281 in Casiopeia, also known as the "Pac-man" nebula. This picture was shot with my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector fitted with an Artemis cooled CCD in its primary focus. This is a combination of 3 1200s exposures.
The nebula is lit up by a bright young multiple star in its center, HD5005. Over the nebula lies a dark lane of dust which gives the nebula its "Pac-man" appearance.

Takahashi EL panel

Today I received the secondhand 300mm EL panel/foil that can be used for shooting flatfields with the Takahashi. Only thing is that we need to think of a good way of installing it on the nose of the Takahashi E-300.

Primary mirror cleaning

After 4 years of intensive use my primary mirror of the 200mmF5 Newtonian is becoming very dirty. There was even a piece of hay stuck to it. I was not able to get all dust particles off, but it is a major improvement.

 Here is the primary mirror before cleaning, you see the piece of hay stuck to it (I have no idea how it ever came there in the first place....)

 Rinsing the mirror thoroughly for 10 minutes already does a lot of good work.

After that I let it rest in the sink for 1 hour under lukewarm water with 1 drop of cleaning agent. After that I used cotton to clean in from the outside in, under absolutely no pressure. After that a few minutes of rinsing. This is the final result. You still see some particle, but it is a major improvement.

Starparty Netersel, last Saturday 27-8-2011

Last Saturdaynight the weather was very dubious, we still decided to go observing at Netersel, despite the clouds. Two other guys from the astroforum joined me on that night. Despite the clouds we were able to do some moderate observing. I was also able to explain many issues regarding telescopes etc. to the newcomers.
This is the list of objects observed, most observations were done with the 33mm William optics SWAN (giving 30x magnification) in my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector.
- The Andromeda nebula (M31), together with its M32 and M110 neighboring galaxies in 1 view.
- NGC869/884 Double cluster in Perseus
- The Triangulum galaxy M33, very big and very weak
- M71 globular cluster near Sagitta in the 8mm Hyperion (125x)
- M27 Dumbbell nebula (planetary nebula), very clearly visible
- M45 Pleiades, just fitting in the field of view.
- M57 Ring nebula with the 8mm Hyperion (125x), very clearly visible
- Comet C2009/P1 Garrad, visible as a small, slightly ellipsoid nebula.
- M37 Open cluster in Auriga with the 8mm Hyperion (125x)
And then the "object of the night":
- NGC6960 "Witches broom" in the Veil nebula around star 52 Cygni. This nebula is a supernova remnant. I was nevel able to clearly see this nebula. I needed the Baader Ultra high contrast, narrowband (UHC-S) filter to see the brightest filament on one side of 52 Cygni. On the other side I also saw hints of nebulae, this was only visible by looking periphery.

Reading the classic astronomy book "Mijn Sterrenwacht" from Piet Meesters

 Very nice to read in the classic book. It is written by one of the most famous Dutch amateur astronomers: "Piet Meesters".

 It contains many nice sketches. These are from Mars, by Flammarion.

This is inside Mr. Meesters' amateur observatory at Halfweg. He also built many (very sought after) telescopes himself.

Old tractor day in Bergeyk

The good old Farmall, many parts of this tractor went through my hands when I was working at my fathers' company when I was young.

Mud, beer and smoke from old tractors, my kind of party!

My dear old friend Frank Dieker passed away....

My very dear old friend Frank Dieker passed away...... 
Last night I could not sleep about that. I thought of him the whole day...drove in the rain to Rotterdam on my motocycle thinking of Frank all the time.......could not work properly....I still remember the nice trips we had together on our motocycles, the many beers we drank, the music festivals we visited (especially Elastiek), built (Splinter) and played on ourselves (Richelwoede). Very dear friend of mine, rest in peace....I will never forget you, you have a very special place in my heart. I also remember how much you liked Neil Young. Heart of gold was one of your (and my) favorites. Every time I play that song from now one I will think of you, because that is what you really had: a heart of gold!

NGC6960 "Witches broom" supernova remnant.

This is part of the Veil nebula, it is officially known as NGC6960 or more commonly "The Witches Broom". It is part of a large supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus. This is a combination of 5 1200sec. exposures shot with my 200mmF5 Newtonian fitted with a cooled CCD astrocamera.

This is again a large step forward than before. I used star-collimation techniques on the main-mirror and a more accurate corrector/CCD distance (which still needs improvement).

First flight of the Wright Flyer on Netersel model airfield

These are the pictures of the first real flight of the Wrightflyer at the model-airfield near Netersel where we also do our observing with the telescopes. It is a beautiful airplane, everything is constructed by hand, except for the engine. This has been a project that took years, the (already very experienced) pilot had to train himself in flying this airplane doing small jumps. It took him about 1 year to master it, including many finetuning/modifications on this airplane. But he succeeded!

M27 with the Artemis 4021 CCD and Hutech LPS-P2 filter

 Last fridaynight I photographed M27 (The Dumbell Nebula). It is a planetary nebula, when a star the size of our Sun reaches the end of its life it blows away its outer shell, this is visible as a so called planetary nebula (because people first thought it was a planet instead of a star).
This picture was shot using my Artemis 4021 CCD, cooled to -15 degrees centigrade on my 200mmF5 Newtonian, riding a NEQ6 pro mount.
It is a combination of 7x 1200s

Here is a enlarged version of this beautiful nebula.

NGC6914 with LPS-P2 filter

This is NGC6914 again, but now 2x1200s with the Hutech LPS-P2 filter.

NGC6914 with UHC-S filter

After using adapters to move the coma corrector to 55mm from the CCD I tried NGC6914 again, this time with Baader UHC-S filter. The coma is substantially reducted, with finetuning I can even achieve a little bit more I think. I also experimented with a Neumann flatfield EL panel for shooting flatfield calibration frames. This also improved the picture a lot. After that I experimented stacking the pictures in Nebulosity. There it showed that there was a lot of moisture on the pictures, so I could only use the first two of 1200s I shot. I made a new badpixelmap in Nebulosity and stacked the first two of the session, this is the result. The UHC-S filter blocks a lot of light compared to the Lumicon Halpha pass. I think I will use the Halpha pass again next time.

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.