Open star cluster night from the backyard

This evening I came home under clear skies! Sat24/Astroforecast however predicted non-optimal atmospheric conditions: around 22.00hrs the seeing quality would drastically decrease. So I put the 200mm Newton outside to let her cool down. After installing, balancing and aligning the telescope I started the observation session:
First I had to look at Venus (for the 1st time ever) with my 5mm UO Ortho in the 90mmF10: nice view! It was not good for my nightvision, but what the heck: I never saw Venus before in a telescope. So things started out ok. After that the deepsky session started under fair/bad seeing conditions):
M42 on 47x (with the 21mm Hyperion) was a joy, the trapezium was clearly visible. M42 did not show sharp details which indicated seeing conditions were bad.
M43 on 47x was only visible periphery (and I'm sure I've seen M43 many times directly from my backyard!).
NGC2232: a simple open cluster at 47x. It looks like it has 2 arms with a central bright start in the centre. No background stars visible, also not with periphery looking.
NGC2250: a small open cluster, best visible at 31x (with 2" Astro-tech Titan). I can barely see it. It looks like it is not a star-cluster at all. No background stars visible. This observation is doubtful (it is also a magn. 8.9 object).
NGC2286: a lot of faint stars of almost the same magnitude are visible at 31x. By looking periphery more and more background stars become visible.
Do 25: nice open cluster. Many stars of different magnitudes visible at 31x.
NGC2301: nice open cluster at 47x. It looks like a flattened V. Many small groups of stars are also visible.
And after that some Messiers:
M50: Open star cluster with diverted groups of stars. Best visible at 47x.
M48: Open star cluster with regularly placed stars of almost the same magnitude. Best visible at 47x.
M67: Small open star cluster, just on the edge of direct vision on 47x.
M44: Beautiful big open star cluster, just fits my field of view at 31x.
M44: Beautiful open star cluster. Just fits my field of vision at 31x. Foregroundstars have all almost the same magnitude and are equally divided throughout the star cluster. By looking periphery background stars become visible.
M35: Beautiful open cluster with many stars. Just fits my field of vision at 47x. By looking periphery more and more background stars become visible.
And some other objects:
CR89: nice open star cluster, just fits my field of vision at 31x. Foregroundstars are all almost the same magnitude.
NGC2169: Very small open cluster. Best visible at 47x. Looks like some sort of "paralellogram".
NGC1746: Big open star cluster with faint stars of almost the same magnitude. Best vision at 31x.
Then more and more fog came......I decided to put my telescope indoors again and after that everything fogged up.
But at the end: a nice open star cluster night!

Death Star Canteen

Walk in "de Reuselse Moeren"

This is a view from the birdwatching hut on one of the lakes.








Here's a nice view on the "Reuselse hei".







And here's a birch tree that has been heavily damaged by (we think) a bird looking for insects......

M1 Crab Nebula

I am very delighted that Skywatcher included my M1 Crab Nebula picture on their website: see http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/gallery_view.php?id=297

Soupflying 2009

Last weekend we had the so-called "soup-flying" with aeroclub Bladel. It was rather cold, therefore we had the hot soup. The airplanes were fitted with skis for this special occasion!






Here the Piper is landing on its skies.







And here it is safely on the snow again.

New years concert Sirena Brassband

NGC2683 Ufo Galaxy

In the center is NGC2683, called the Ufo Galaxy. It is a magn. 10.6 object I photographed last night. It is at a distance of 16.000k ly from us. This is a stack of 22x10min ISO800 autoguided (totalling 3hr40min). It was a very challenging object to photograph. At the end of the session my telescope was totally covered with ice.



This is a cropped version after extensive postprocessing.....









And with a lot of work I could also extract a very gaint background galaxy. I'm still investigating which one it is and what it's magnitude is.

M1 Crab Nebula

Yesterday evening I tried to capture the M1 Crab Nebula, it is the remnant of a supernova explosion that happened in 1054. I tried to photograph this nebula already many times, without success. Last year I couln't find it. A few weeks ago I tried with the webcam but I also couldn't find it. Yesterday evening I tried again, but just before I was able to start exposures the locking screw of my Crayford focuser broke off. The risk of going on with my eos400d clashing on the ground was too big. I had to repair my focuser (tap new M4 tread+install new scrw) and try again. This night everything went fine. This is a combination of 14x10min (autoguided) exposures at ISO800. Totalling 2hr20min. I used 4 darks and 4 bias frames to correct the picture. Here's is also a crop from the widefield above:

Orion Nebula on a cold night out with the telescope

Last night we and a couple of amateur astronomers were out on the flying field near Netersel again. After some hours of observing my battery failed and I had to stop. Morelinux suggested to try to photograph M42/M43 (the Orion nebula) my eos400d on his Meade LX90 SCT. Since this is a pure visual instrument I got many guiding problems (also because of the long focal point). I made 40 exposures of 15sec but only 12 were good enough for stacking. This is the result of a stack with Deepskystacker of 12x15sec at ISO800 with a Meade LX90 200m SCT @ F/10 (F=2000mm). 10 Dark frames and 10 bias frames were used to compensate the noise. Postprocessing was done with CS2 incl. the GradientXTerminator tool. We logged and saw many objects this night, and also got some visitors from the modelflying club (many oohs and ahhs). At the end of the night (3.00hrs) it was freezing about -3.5C and we decided to stop.
Here's a picture of us in the freezing cold.

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!