Presentation about Deepsky from the backyard next friday 30th July 2010

Next friday (30th July 2010) I will give a presentation at the Halley Observatory in Heesch (Netherlands) about deepsky observing and astrophotography from my backyard. At the end of the presentation I will also discuss my new backyard roll-off observatory. For the concept of my presentation, see: Deepsky from my backyard .

NGC6826 Blinking planetary and UGC11465 galaxy

Here's the blinking planetary (the green dot in the middle), it is a planetary nebula you only see when looking with averted vision, otherwise you see the star in front of it. This is a testexposure to see how long I could autoguide with a half moon. This is a combination of 7 20min exposures @ ISO800, corrected with 4 dark and 4 bias frames.

After studying the picture more closely I found a very small galaxy, UGC11465. It is a very small galaxy with a magnitude of 12.7. Nice that it was also on this astrophoto.

After stuying the picture more closely it became clear that I managed to capture the outer layers of the Blinking nebula, you have to look very closely to see it, it is the halo around the bright center.

I also found PGC 2384842, a very small galaxy of magnitude 16.94, this is a new deep-record for me.

NGC6960 Veil nebula

This is the Veil nebula, also known as NGC6960. It is a supernova remnant. The full moon was shining but I thought: let's give it a try. It looks good, next time I will try to improve this result.

Balloon launched in our backyard.

Yesterday evening a balloon was launched on the meadow behind our living block.

1st light observatory

This is the 1st picture I took from my new observatory. It is an exposure of 1hr15min of M27. There were many high clouds, and the wind was blowing quite hard. Apart from the initial autoguiding problems I was able to make 5 subs of 15min @ ISO800 resulting in this picture. See the crop with more details below.

Observing the sun

This afternoon I observed the sun from my backyard observatory, here are some pictures.

 

Backyard observatory first light

This evening my backyard observatory got it's first light, observed M57, NGC6811, M56, M27, M71, M13 and M92. The good thing about the observatory is that you can open it in 5min and close it also in 5min....

Building the observatory

Today I installed the 230Vac power, put a nice artificial grass carpet in the observatory, treated the sides of the cut osb panels so they don't rot and installed 2 new 30x30cm concrete slabs under the rails.

And finally, I put the pedestal level and installed my heq5pro mount on it. And after that the scope of course!


Here's a view on the scope from the door of the observatory. The roll-off roof is open.

Backyard observatory installed

There are still many small things that must be done, but the main structure of my backyard observatory incl. the pedestal, has been installed by Nick Evans of www.alexandersobservatories.com.
Here Nick is putting the floor on the concrete slabs.





Here I'm cutting the construction plates. It was going nicely until the circular saw started jamming. That's because you have an electrician doing an carptenters' job.....:-).





Here's the finished observatory. I really like it, together with the sturdy 8" pedestal. Tomorrow I have to finish many small things with the cabling to the pedestal, power supply, wood finishing and stuff like that, but the basic structure is there.
Thanks for this really nice backyard observatory Nick!

Looking for a new job

I am currently looking for a new job as project engineer in industrial automation. See my linkedIn profile on:
http://nl.linkedin.com/in/patrickduis
I have 15 years of worldwide experience.

The One live on stage

Here the One is performing live on the revival of "Elastiek Muziek 2010".







This is me.....











This is The One!

Astrophotography day 2010

3 color (3 CCD) self built astrocam












Johannes Schedler's presentation. Beautiful astronomy picture. See his website: http://panther-observatory.com/

Building a backyard observatory

Last weekend I poured the concrete basement for the pedestal. It as a total of 15 25kg bags of concrete. This is the result.

Cows in the meadow for the 1st time!

After standing in the barn for all these wintermonths, the cows are very happy when they come out for the first time. Here we went to our local cheesefarm: www.ruurhoeve.nl.

Starparty!

Saturdaynight 17th of April 2010 was exceptionally clear. No airplanes because of the erupting volcano in Iceland. Here we are with a large bunch of enthousiasts from www.astroforum.nl. I am standing left in the back with my 200mm Newton.
I saw may galaxies in the Markarians' chain and also Comet McNaught.

Markarians' chain

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.

NGC4216

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.

Dropping easter eggs 2010

Here's a picture of the Easter egg-dropping at the small airfield next to Netersel.

Building a backyard observatory

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.

Last monday and tuesdayevening I prepared the template for the treads that will be put into the ground (surrounded by concrete). This evening I also drilled 12 20mm holes in the 50x50cm concrete slab that will come on top of this concrete block. It will provide a nice and flat surface for the pedestal.





This is the 8" pedestal. It can hold a C14 if necessary. It will be made by Nick Evans.

IO testing in Germany

This is a photo one of my co-workers stealthily took from me while I was IO testing a control panel......