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!
Here is a crop showing some faint galaxies....
Look in the right bottom, there is an object moving there....
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
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.
Here's a nice picture of the astrograph we are working on. It is a combination of a superb Takahashi Epsilon 300mm astrograph in combination with a 300mm Jones-Bird Newtonian mounted on a Astrotechniek CP-180 mount with FS2 control system. First we will get the communication going, restore goto capability (from laptop via Cartes du Ciel/ASCOM/LX200 protocol) and then we will test the autoguiding interface. After that we will refine polar alignment and do some serious astrophotography with this superb setup!
A project has been started to re-commission the Takahashi Epsilon 300mm Newton for astrophotography (with the 300mm Jones-bird Newton as guidescope) for the Halley Observatory This setup is installed on a superb Astrotechniek CP-180 mount that first has to be correctly polar aligned with drift-alignment. The mount is fitted with an FS2 goto system including a ST4 autoguiding option. Everything I need.
Here's another picture of the setup in the small observatory (the C14 on CGEM-pro is in the bigger observatory, primarily used for presentations to the public)
Here's an example of the CP-180 mount. We have to figure out how to adjust the azimuth with this mount.
This is the first testshot I made with the 2nd hand NEQ6 I bought a few weeks ago. It is a single frame shot of 30sec exposure at ISO800 with the Eos400d in primary focus of the 200mm Newtonian telescope. The guiding is very tight. I need to focus on collimation because that is clearly visible on this picure. The MPCC could not compensate all.
The datalogging of the autoguiding shows a much smoother running on the RA axis (the undershoot is when I touched the cam between exposures). Next step is focus on driftalignment and reducing coma.
New Skywatcher EQ7 mount prototype.
The Mesu mount: also very nice. Can hold 2x65kg!
Last saturdaynight we had a nice starparty at the Halley observatory in Heesch. Here I'm standing (left) next to my 200mmF5 Newtonian. It is pointed at comet 103P/Hartley.
Last night I photographed NGC7331 and the Stephans quintet, a group of galaxies approx 300 mln lightyears distant. This is a combination of 5 20min exposures @ ISO800 with an eos400d in the primary focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian.
I also added 5 extra exposures of NGC7331 from the previous night, this is a total of 10 20min exposures........
This is an enlarged part of the Stephans quintet itself.
This is IC10 captured with the modded SPC900 in primary focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian. It is a combination of 12 180sec exposures.
And here's the Blue Snowball NGC7662, also captured with the webcam.
This is NGC 7635, better known as the Bubble nebula. I wanted to try my modified webcam again on deepsky objects. This is a combination of 10 90sec exposures with my SC3 modded SPC900 (fitted with ICX-424 B/W CCD) in the primary focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian. Autoguiding was done with a separate 90mmF10 fitted with a standard TouCam webcam.
