The new Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)
C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) Introduction A new Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) has suddenly become visible to the unaided eye, overshooting its brightness predictions. It is the first one visible to the naked eye in this millennium and expected to remain so in July. NEOWISE was discovered in late March and brightened as it reached its closest...
Seven Sisters and Seven Duckling / Pleiades meet Venus 2020
Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, a star cluster named for Pleiades after Greek mythology. Those seven sisters are companions of Artemis, the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. Although the planet Venus has a conjunction with the Pleiades star cluster every year, the best Venus-Pleiades conjunctions only come in early April...
Atik Horizon Camera (OSC) – First light
This is a first light report of a few nights out with my new Atik Horizon Camera (OSC) compared with an Atik 383L+ and Infinity. To sum it up, the camera performed well even under terrible light conditions. Most significant, the Atik Horizon allows Live Stacking with the Infinity Software, one method to do Electronically...
Hunting for Comet ‘C2018 Y1/Iwamoto’
There was a lucky break in the storm of about 45 minutes to see Comet ‘C2018 Y1/Iwamoto’ after midnight 19/02!11. Just enough time for a snapshot during a heavy winter storm nore ore less out of a roof skylight photgraphed in an area with heavy light polution. Conviniently the iceball just raced by my field...
Hunting for Comet 46P/Wirtanen
Hunting for Comet 46P/Wirtanen. No complaint against the restaurant which served me a hot soup during a warm-up break. It was minus 9 degree celsius plus significant wind chill. Nothing against the washed out church either, stingy enough to switch light off after 10pm. Moon oberstayed its welcome. Here two pictures of the Sudelfeld: ...
Syria 2018: An interesting story still in my mind.
Damascus – beautiful city. Lived their almost a full summer long time ago. Bombing Damacus. Makes me sick. In 1971 I travelled with two friends extensively in the Middle East, in particular Lebanon and Syria. I was very worried about Syria 2011 when suddenly the events escalated. The turned out exactly as I predicted. And now this...
First Light 130-mm-f/7-Apo-Triplett-Refraktor im TMB80 Vergleich
Bei den gefallenen Preisen von grösseren APO’s erlaubte ich mir meiner Sammlung einen 130-mm-f/7-Apo-Triplett-Refraktor mit Objektiv FPL53 von Ohara (Japan) hinzuzufügen. Ich bin fotografisch wie auch visuell unterwegs, sicherlich nicht auf Profiniveau. Durch die 130mm Öffnung geht aber auch visuell einiges mehr. Sicherlich kann ich das Lichtsammelvermögen meines UK Orion 8″ f/6 Newton oder Bresser...
MTO 500/8 minimalist photography
I recently got a battered Russian MTO-500 f/8 lens, a classic sample (or knockoff) of Soviet-era engineering and workmanship. It is a 500 mm telephoto mirror lens based on the design of a known Soviet engineer Maksutov. “MTO” stands here for “Maksutov’s Tele Objective”. Min looks like the the original, early MTO-500 design, with the...
Triduum Sacrum – Zerstörung christlicher Symbole
Mit dem Gründonnerstags-Amt heute Abend beginnt das Triduum Sacrum – für Katholiken der Höhepunkt der Kirchenjahres. Die frühen Osterbräuche gehen auf vorchristliche rituelle Bräuche rund um den Ostara-Kult zurück. Das Christentum hat sie aufgegriffen und neu interpretiert – wie bei allen anderen Kirchenfesten auch: Weihnachten = Wintersonnenwende, am 25. Dezember hat die Sonne ihren Tiefpunkt...
Markante Konstellationen in der jeweiligen Jahreszeit
Diese kleinen Himmelstouren beschreiben, wie man ausgehend vom Großen Wagen oder Kassiopeia die wichtigsten Sternbilder der jeweiligen Jahreszeit findet. Die Karten sind mit Stellarium erstellt und Orientierungslinien eingefügt. Den Großen Wagen und die Kassiopeia kann man als ersten Wegweiser am Nachthimmel bezeichnen. Sie sind beide zirkumpolar, also jede Nacht sichtbar und stehen sich am Himmel...
Lent 2018 – Message of Pope Emeritus BENEDICT XVI
Strange Lent 2018. The Vatican had to admit to Associated Press this week, that the Holy See has manipulated a photograph of a letter from Benedict XVI, in which the Pope Emeritus apparently praised Pope Francis’s collected writings. It had blurred the two final lines of the first page where Benedict explains that he hasn’t...