My current eyepiece lineup

This is my current eyepiece lineup. Remember that eyepieces are equal important as your telescope. Especially if you have a "fast" F5 (or faster) scope like me. Most of the time people buy a nice telescope, and the eyepieces are of very low quality. I always say "a 1000 euro telescope with a 25 euro eyepiece will still give you 25 euro vision!" And that is really true.
From right to left:
Televue Panoptic 35mm
Televue Plossl 32mm
Televue Nagler Type 1 7mm
University optics ortho 5mm
Televue Nagler Type 1 4.8mm
This set will serve me well for the coming years. I hope to finish the Herschel 400 list with then (100 down, 300 to go).

Astronomy4Everyone event in the UK.

In the UK a very nice event was held: Astronomy4everyone. It was a huge starparty accessible to the public. We supplied this event with live views from Jupiter and M42 from Halley observatory with our Takahashi E-300.

Here is the live view we put on the internet site livestream/astronomyforeveryone. It shows our Takahashi pointed at Jupiter.

This is a picture I took inside the small dome of Halley Observatory. It shows our Takahashi E-300 pointed at Jupiter @ F25 (focal length f=5500mm). The cam used was my SC3 modded SPC900 with ICX-424 mono CCD. The seeing was very poor because of the wind and clouds. But at least we could show something.

This is the small Toucam webcam used for show us on the event. It also captured our voices while we were working in the observatory.

Here is the imaging train for Jupiter with my SC3 SPC900 cam and 5x barlow (F25 F=5500mm)

And here is Mark Woodward of JTW astronomy that supplied the Messier deepsky live-view cam for this event. It is a very nice cam for live-viewing. It integrates 256 pictures before sending it to the screen. The views we had were like those of having a 500mm iso 300mm Takahashi!

The 7T1 Nagler got a baby sister!

I was lucky on the German astroforum and got this 4.8mm type 1 Nagler for a nice price.

NGC2419 "Intergalactic Wanderer" with Takahashi E-300 of Halley

Last months we worked hard on developing a prototype EL flatfield panel for the Takahashi. Using CCD's makes this kind of panel mandatory. Here are some pictures of the prototype:

Since we use an A3 EL panel (with shortest side 29.7cm) and the Takahashi's main mirror is 300mm, is is a few millimeters too small. We tried to compensate this by using diffusers made with transparant perspex plates.
Here's a pic of the Takahashi with my Artemis 4021 mono installed on its huge helical focuser:

The first thing I did was testing the prototype EL panel on the Takahashi: this gave good results: nice histogram with 15sec exposures, that seems well reproduceable. What was special is that I got a strange reflection of the secondary mirror/spidervane construction on it (I also saw it in the astrophoto's). See the test-flatfield 15sec exposure:

Okay, I aligned the Takahashi's CP-180 mount on Pollux using the FS2 control. After that I goto-ed to NGC2419 "The Intergalactic Wanderer".

NGC2419 (discovered on 31st December 1788 by William Herschel) is a very remote globular cluster,standing 300.000 lightyears from the center of the Milky Way.
Most globular clusters (like Omega Centauri and M31) lie within 65.000 of our galaxy center. See the drawing (source: Burnhams celestial handbooks) for an indication of the distance.

Most clusters are hovering close by, NGC2419 is way left. It is not called "The Intergalactic Wanderer" for nothing.
This object is very remote, but it is a magnitude 9 object, so it can be seen under clear dark skies using a telescope of 102mm aperture.

And here it is! The astrophoto is a combination of 5 20min exposures (no filters) shot with my Artemis 4021 mono in prime focus of the Takahashi E-300 300mmF3.8 Astrograph at Halley observatory. Check it carefully. It contains small faint galaxies of magnitude 18+!
I also included an extra enlarged version:

And a printout from the field of view (Cartes du Ciel) to show how many galaxies are on this picture:

The autoguiding was very stable. At first there were many people in the observatory, but after 2200hrs it became quiet, you see that in the datalogging, the average tracking error (rmsPE=0.34arcsecs) is well below the resolution of the camera (1.34 arcsec/pixel):

Finally, after 1 year of work, it can be concluded that the Takahashi of Halley is fully operational for CCD astrophotography work.

A fellow amateur astronomer Andre van der Hoeven analysed the exposure with Unimap. It discovered a larege amount of very faint galaxies on the astrophoto. Here is the Unimap result:

This is a fine result. What a joy to work with this beautiful astrophotography instrument!

IC2497 with Hanny's Voorwerp

 IC2497 is an extinguished Quasar standing at 730 million lightyears distance from us. 45000-75000 lightyears before that is a intergalactic cloud, called Hanny's Voorwerp. It is lit up by the extinguished quasar. This object was found by a Dutch teacher on the Galaxy Zoo. This is the widefield with just below the middle IC2497 and right-bottom of that Hanny's Voorwerp. Shot using an Artemis 4021 mono in prime focus of my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector. It is a combination of 3 20min exposures.

This is an inverted crop. In the center you see IC2497 and the small vague cloudbelow it is Hanny's Voorwerp.

Walk around the "Galgenven" near Moergestel.

 Today we went for a walk to the "Galgenven" near Moergestel. This is a nice long path between the Rodondendrons......must be very nice when all the flowers are in these bushes...

 A view on a lane with on both sides trees.

 Tree sculpture near the Galgenven.

 Tuftet ducks and Coots on the Galgenven.

One of the many Coots on the Galgenven.

Better CCD sensor cleaning

I was not really happy after I cleaned the CCD of my astrocam with alcohol. There remained some kind of haze on the sensor. Therefore I got real swabs and cleaning fluid, specially for CCDs. That got rid of the annoying haze. Below are 2 flats. One before and one after the cleaning. The haze of visible in the bottom of the picture.

Nagler 7mm type 1 eyepiece

This is my first "high end" eyepiece. A 7mm type 1 Televue Nagler. I was already looking for upgrades of my venerable 8mm Hyperion (which is a very good eyepiece) since I use 125x a lot for bright deepsky objects. I am looking forward to its first light.

Strange CCD linearity curve

This is a linearity measurement of my Artemis4021 CCD. What is very strange is the jump halfway the graph....I am still very puzzled what that can be. I have it with Nebulosity2 and ArtemisCapture capturing software...
After consulting some fellow-astronomers on the internet I decided to put extra paper between the EL panel and the CCD sensor, thus increasing the exposure time drastically. What is very clear, is that I have to stay away from the 2.30sec exposure time, because from that point on, the sensor is almost linear. See the new curve I made with longer exposures:

This is more like it. I am very happy with it.

Walk in "De Utrecht" near Esbeek

 Next to the village where we live lies "De Utrecht", it is a vast area of woodlands. Here you see the trees in their early autumn colours. This picture was shot near to "Tulder".

 These are real autumn colours....

And here's a very nice small lake....the water is like a beautiful giant mirror.

Walk on the "Landschotse heide" near Westelbeers

 Last Saturday we decided to have a walk on the "Landschotse heide" near Westelbeers. Here's a picture of a nice mushroom.

 There were two white Herons flying from lake to lake.....here's the best one, shot with my "proven" bird lens: the Sigma 600mmF8 telephoto mirror lens (from hand)

And here's the "Keienhurkse ven". The water is very clear and blue, we didn't spot birds (except for the two white Herons...)

Abell 426 Perseus galaxy cluster with NGC1275 Seyfert galaxy

This is a picture of the Perseus galaxy Cluster Abell 426. It is one of the most massive structures in our galaxy and is standing at about 250 million lightyears distance from us. In its center is the very active Seyfert galaxy NGC1275, it is the 2nd most powerful radiosource in our universe. This picture was shot using my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector with an Artemis 4021 moni in its prime focus. It is a combination of 7 20min exposures.

Here is a cropped and enhanced part of the picture above. The most bright galaxy is NGC1275.

 This is an inverted version of the picture. Now you can see much more galaxies. The whole field of view is completely filled with them.

 Here is an enlarged view on the center. If you look at NGC1275 you can see that it is not looking as a "standard" ellipsoid galaxy, it has flames coming out of it, pointing to the right and above.

CCD sensor cleaning of the Artemis4021

Last weekes more and more dust particles are gathering on the CCD sensor of the Artemis. I cannot calibrate them out using flat-fields, so it is time for a cleaning action.

First I have to figure out how to take the Artemis apart. After 1 hour of careful work I am looking freely at the sensor. This picture shows the backside.

After cleaning the sensor with swabs and alcohol I built the camera together. Here I am shooting flat-fiels on my EL panel to verify if the action was helpful....

It was, here is the new one, most dust particles are gone now.

Walk near the "Hildernisse"

Last Saturday we decided to have a walk near Bergen op Zoom. Under that village there is a small area called the "Brabantse wal", it is a special area where sand-grounds meat sea-clay. There's also a classic farm over there, called the "Hildernisse". I spotted this Robin hiding in the bushes near the farm.

M37 open cluster in Auriga

This is the open cluster M37 in constellation Auriga. It is a testpicture, a combination of 9x5min exposures, shot at almost full moon. I figured out the correct MPCC coma-corrector to CCD distance and shot these frames to verify this. The collimation and focus were not perfect. What bothers me most are the irritating dust particles. I just cannot get rid of them, even with calibration flatfield frames shot with my EL panel. For testing purposes the camera has been turned but these pesky particles remain in the same position. They must be on the sensor, no doubt about it....

Maffei 1 Galaxy: obscured by the Milky Way

Just slightly left of the middle of the picture is Maffei 1. Standing at 10 mln lightyears distance, it should be one of the brightest galaxies in the sky. It is obscured however by the Milky Way, which blocks 99% of its light. This is the reason that it took until 1968 before an Italian astronomer Paolo Maffei discovered it on one of his infrared astrophotographs. On the right is a small part of the "Heart and Soul nebula", but that is well within our Milky way. This picture was shot using my 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector, it is a combination of 10 20min exposures

This picture is zoomed in on Maffei 1. I also inverted the picture to show more detail of its outer regions.

Kollase die-hard observing weekend in Germany

 Last weekend we went with a group of amateur-astronomers to the famous Kollase deepsky observing weekend. When you arrive at the hotel you only see this small sign.

 After the 1st night the field is full with different kinds of telescopes. In the front is a Halpha-solar telescope, with this you can see prominences on the Sun.

 Saturday is the ATM (Amateur-telescope-making) day.....after a die-hard observing night there's always a  lot of stuff that needs repair....

We decided to stay 1 day longer. This was very smart, because that night was the one with the best seeing conditions. On this picture the telescopes (from left to right Meade 12" Lightbridge dobsonian, Skywatcher 200mmF5 Newtonian reflector in HEQ5pro mount, my telescope, and a GSO 200mmF6 Dobson. We observed many objects, the nicest ones were the Veil nebula west, galaxies Maffei 1 & NGC1023, and moon IO passing over Jupiter.