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...
C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) broken.
Comet Atlas had been forecast to become “really, really stunning” within weeks, as it got closer to Earth. Now, however, the object appears to have broken up and will not make for such a beautiful – let alone easy visible – sight. C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), or Comet ATLAS, is a comet with a near-parabolic orbit,...
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: ...
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...
ISS Sun Transit erwischt
Ich hab die ISS als dunkle Schatten vor Sonne erwischt! Zusammen mit einem Freund haben wir alles aufgebaut, und es blieb sogar noch etwas Zeit. Er hat mit einer externen Funkuhr den Takt gegeben(die sich wenige Stunden vorher ganz neu synchronisieren musste und mit zwei anderen verglichen wurde), um sehr genau den richtigen Zeitpunkt zu erwischen....
Lucky imaging of planet, moon and sun with Imaging Source DMK
To try Lucky imaging of planet, moon and sun I traded up from a “ToUCam” to a used very low end CCD camera from Imaging Source, almost for the price of a simple webcam. I was aware, that the DMK22 is hardly used in in astro imaging, but I wanted to play around a little bit...
Electronically Assisted Astronomy with Atik Infinity
Electronically Assisted Astronomy with Atik Infinity (EAA) means to me real-time (or nearly real-time) viewing of astronomical objects (usually deep sky) with an aid of electronic devices. Typically the term applies to DSLR or CCD live stacking, sometimes also loosely to live-view or video with cameras and DSLRs or HDR Video with DSLRs using Magic...
Planetary imaging with an EOS 60Da and BackyardEOS
The first chance to observe 2016 Mars opposition was the beginning of June, motivating me to use my EOS 60Da for planetary imaging with BackyardEOS. Starting in May, Mars headed towards opposition on May 22nd towards a cycle of favorable oppositions, with Mars near perihelion, while Earth is near aphelion. But there was gruesome weather...
Merkurtransit 2016
Bilder mit einer D60a und Sonnenfilter vom Merkurtransit. Vor 13 Jahren hatte der letzte in Europa sichtbare Durchgang des Planeten Merkur vor der Sonnenscheibe stattgefunden mit ähnlich gutem Wetter. Noch während das 8-stündige Ereignis seinen Lauf nahm, wurden bereits beeindruckende Bilder in sozialen Netzwerken verbreitet und liefen etliche streaming Webcasts, von denen viele allerdings zusammenbrachen....