fallenangels2ndlife - ESSAYS – PHOTOGRAPHY – TRAVEL – FAMILY

Walküre at Opera for All 2026: A Review of Tobias Kratzer’s Production

by fallenangel on Oct 3, 2026 • No Comments

Tobias Kratzer’s Die Walküre at Opera for All 2026 combined pleasant musical performances with visually pleasant theatre. Yet despite its imagery, the production never performed a coherent interpretation of Wagner’s classic tragedy. Rather than focussing Wotan’s dilemma, it dispersed attention across competing symbolic systems. Introduction Opera-for-All-2026-Valkyrie (Die Walküre) This is...

Astro-Photos

The new Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

by fallenangel on Jul 8, 2020 • No Comments

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...

Astro-Photos

Seven Sisters and Seven Duckling / Pleiades meet Venus 2020

by fallenangel on Apr 15, 2020 • No Comments

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...

Astro-Photos

C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) broken.

by m6munich on Apr 11, 2020 • No Comments

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...

Astro-Photos

Atik Horizon Camera (OSC) – First light

by fallenangel on Aug 23, 2019 • No Comments

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,...

Astro-Photos / Science / Visual

Hunting for Comet 46P/Wirtanen

by fallenangel on Dec 16, 2018 • No Comments

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...

Astro-Photos / Science

First Light 130-mm-f/7-Apo-Triplett-Refraktor im TMB80 Vergleich

by fallenangel on Apr 11, 2018 • No Comments

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...

AstroHandsOn / Science / Uncategorized

Markante Konstellationen in der jeweiligen Jahreszeit

by fallenangel on Mar 19, 2018 • No Comments

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...

Fine Art / Literature & Art / Movies

The Ice Storm 1973 and the Erlkoenig today

by fallenangel on Mar 16, 2018 • No Comments

Recently I saw a fantastic theater play “The Erlkoenig”, which was a German adaptation of the movie “The Ice Storm” by the Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee. In the movie 1973, suburban Connecticut, middle class families experimenting with casual sex, drink and drugs find their lives out of control. Both scripts...

Recent Events

recent-events-2018

by fallenangel on Feb 2, 2018 • No Comments

“Bescheidne Wahrheit sprech ich dir. // Wenn sich der Mensch, die kleine Narrenwelt, // Gewöhnlich für ein Ganzes hält.” — Vers 1346 ff. / Mephistopheles

AstroHandsOn / Science

24/7d Radio-Meteorscattering mit Hilfe des Graves Radars

by fallenangel on Dec 6, 2017 • No Comments

Die hier beschriebene passive Radio-Meteorscatter Station dient zur kontinuierlichen, wetterunabhängigen Meteor Beobachtung. Viele Mitglieder “unserer” Amateur-Sternwarte pilgern am Perseiden und Geminiden Meteorstrom-Maximum zum Schnuppenspechtelplatz “Höhe 1142” in den Alpen. Aber neben dem gemeinschaftlichen ästhetischen Erlebnis der visuellen Meteorbeobachtung , nur möglich bei günstigen Wetter- und Mondbedingungen, betreibe ich und eine...

Astro-Photos / AstroHandsOn / Science

ISS Sun Transit erwischt

by fallenangel on Jul 23, 2017 • No Comments

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...

Astro-Photos / AstroHandsOn / Science

Lucky imaging of planet, moon and sun with Imaging Source DMK

by fallenangel on Apr 12, 2017 • No Comments

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...

Astro-Photos / Science

Electronically Assisted Astronomy with Atik Infinity

by fallenangel on Mar 1, 2017 • No Comments

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...

Travel / Visual

Stonehenge – England

by fallenangel on Dec 28, 2016 • Comments Closed

Revisiting Stonehenge after 20 years.The remarkable feat of engineering—some of the stones came from dozens of miles away—and acts like a huge astronomical calendar, aligned with the summer and winter equinox and still keeping track of the moon after more than 5,000 years.

AstroHandsOn / Science

32. ITT 2016 : Drei Beobachtungsnächte auf der Emberger Alm

by fallenangel on Dec 28, 2016 • Comments Closed

Dienstag den 29. September, bis Freitag, den 30. September, 2016 Ich konnte schon am Dienstag kommen, und die meisten Wetterseiten prognostizierten gleich für die erste Nacht die besten Chancen auf klaren Himmel – mit zunehmend schlechter werdenden Aussichten für die Nächte danach; Aus unserem VSW-Spechtelumfeld kamen Ben und Manfred später...

Astro-Photos / AstroHandsOn / Science

Planetary imaging with an EOS 60Da and BackyardEOS

by fallenangel on Jun 17, 2016 • Comments Closed

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. ...

Astro-Photos / Science

Merkurtransit 2016

by fallenangel on May 10, 2016 • Comments Closed

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,...

Astro-Photos / Science

Extreme Neumondsichel Mai 2016

by fallenangel on May 8, 2016 • Comments Closed

Neumondsichel Mai 2016 Wegen des schönen Wetters war es am Samstag Abend möglich noch schnell die schmale Mondsichel (im Fernrohr) zu erhaschen. Nach dem Neumond vom 06.Mai 2016 um 21:30 war für den 7.Mai Abends mit dem Erscheinen der Mondsichel zu rechnen. Die Bedingungen waren aber nicht besonders gut. Die...

Astro-Photos / Science

Astrophotography With a Nexus 5 Cell Phone

by fallenangel on Feb 21, 2016 • Comments Closed

Nowadays many love their cell phone with its built-in camera feature.So my local observatory wants not only offer visitors to view through our telescope, but give assistance to mobile astronomy? What do they do? I wanted to check out Astrophotography With a Nexus 5 Cell Phone. To make a long...

Astro-Photos

Suburbian Messier hunting with an Atik Infinity ccd in a white zone

by fallenangel on Feb 14, 2016 • Comments Closed

Some more suburbian Messier hunting with an Atik Infinity ccd astronomy camera on a 80/600 TMB Triplet Fluorite Apo. I have fought a bit with my secondary mount – an old HEQ5 – which is always ready in my office, and the suburban light pollution. The drift within an hour...

Recent Events

recent-events-2016

by fallenangel on Feb 2, 2016 • No Comments

After 2015, the year 2016 may break Europe, through unsustainable politics. The year of the Fire Monkey … 2016, … Ambitious and adventurous, but irritable.

Astro-Photos / Science

Komet C/2013 US10 (Catalina)

by fallenangel on Jan 14, 2016 • Comments Closed

Seit November 2015 wurde der Komet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) wieder diskutiert. In den nächsten zwei Monate entfernt sich der Komet sich zwar weiter von der Sonne, kommt aber der Erde näher, bis er am 17. Januar in 0,73 Astronomischen Einheiten vorbei zieht. Die Helligkeit blieb bis in den Januar hinein...

Recent Events

recent-events-2015

by fallenangel on Dec 31, 2015 • Comments Closed

This year was strangely calm. Most for the with lost of ups and down. Lots of travel, but again this year just Europe.

AstroHandsOn / Science

Geminiden

by fallenangel on Dec 16, 2015 • Comments Closed

Aktuell kreuzen die Geminiden die Bahn der Erde und es regnet Sternschnuppen. Das Maximum der Geminiden wurde am Montag, 14. Dezember 2015, gegen 19 Uhr MEZ erwartet. Um das Himmelsspektakel nicht verpassen fuhren wir schon Sonntag 13. auf den 14. Nachmittags in die Alpen. Der Mond ging an diesem Abend...

Astro-Photos / Science

First light of the Atik Infinity: M42 in a white zone with 80/600 TMB Apo

by fallenangel on Dec 10, 2015 • Comments Closed

I recently bought an Atik Infinity for video astronomy, boasting both the speed and sensitivity required for this new technique. Atik infinity is a fine camera with a 2/3 ” chip and the infinity software is a real paradigm shift. First light last night with an 80/600 TMB Apo: M42...

Astro-Photos

Supermoon Lunar Eclipse 2015 in Bavaria: Full 'Blood Moon' Coverage

by fallenangel on Oct 6, 2015 • Comments Closed

The supermoon total lunar eclipse, which occurred on Sept. 27, featured a full moon that looks significantly larger and brighter than usual. It will be the first supermoon eclipse since 1982, and the last until 2033. The moon passed through Earth’s shadow on Sunday, Sept. 27, in a dazzling total...

Astro-Photos / AstroHandsOn

Perseiden-Beobachtung 2015 am Sudelfeld

by fallenangel on Aug 21, 2015 • Comments Closed

327 Schnuppen in der Nacht Mittwoch/Donnerstag, 12./13. August 2015: Diesmal lag das Maximum der Perseiden einerseits sehr günstig – kurz vor Neumond.Zum traditionellen VSW-Stelldichein am Sudelfeld wured diesmal nicht auf der Walleralm, sondern auf einem tiefer gelegenen, aber nicht minder “klassischen” Platz geladen. Einige Stimmungbilder vom Mittwoch auf Donnerstag am...

Astro-Photos / Science

June 30 and July 1 – close Venus-Jupiter conjunction

by fallenangel on Jun 30, 2015 • Comments Closed

For the last few weeks, countless numbers of the world’s 7 billion people watched the western evening sky as the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, edged closer and closer to the Venus-Jupiter conjunction. Last night, June 30th, the Venus-Jupiter conjunction reached its least separation: 0.3° apart (at the time...

Astro-Photos / AstroHandsOn / Science

Partial Solar Eclipse 2015

by fallenangel on Mar 5, 2015 • Comments Closed

Europe’s biggest solar eclipse since 1999 occurred this month – and 67 per cent of sunlight could be blocked out over Munich. A total eclipse of the sun will occur in Northern Norway and Faroe Islands with two minutes and two seconds of totality. Besides going to be the biggest...

Fine Art / Visual

The magic of outstanding pictures – quality methodology and communication theory

by fallenangel on Jan 4, 2015 • Comments Closed

As a photographer, your eye is your lens. This essay gives a basic understanding, why excellent pictures (paintings or photographs) succeed. After you start exploring the world with this mindset, you’ll find that you automatically begin to see things differently. I got the idea from an excellent book of the...

Astro-Photos

M42 Quick Snapshot

by fallenangel on Dec 25, 2014 • Comments Closed

Orion Nebula (Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) with 1,350 light years is the closest region of a massive star formation. M42 is undoubtedly one of the most popular deep sky targets. Whether you image through a telescope or a camera lens, it can even be captured even under city...

WriterDiary

All Saints Day 2014 – Mortality in Infrared

by fallenangel on Nov 7, 2014 • Comments Closed

Often overshadowed by the preceding Halloween, All Saints Day on November 1, celebrates all of the faithful who are in Heaven. The parish gathers on the cemetery, having dressed up the graves of their late relatives before. A short procession sprinkles holy water to bless for every grave while on...

Recent Events

recent-events-2014

by fallenangel on Oct 6, 2014 • Comments Closed

This year we traveled for three weeks in Languedoc-Roussillon, where we followed the footsteps of the Templars and the heretic Cathars. In Languedoc-Roussillon Cathar castles and Templar remains, Abbeys and Châteaus are inspired by powerful myths , major mysteries, complex religious history, symbols of psychological relevance and – also significant...

Visual

IR photography with a Canon 60 DA – Munich in infrared

by fallenangel on Sep 19, 2014 • Comments Closed

A few days ago, I began experimenting with infrared, or IR, photography (mostly city landscapes). Besides normal photography, I am astro-photographer with a Canon 60Da camera. All I needed was an Hoya ND72 infrared filter. To sum it up, for me the 60Da covers infrared light quite nicely, despite contradictory...

AstroHandsOn / Science

PixInsight Notes

by fallenangel on May 4, 2014 • Comments Closed

PixInsight runs as native 64-bit application on my Linux (SUSE 13.1) and Microsoft Windows 7 dual boot system. PixInsight is a strongly multithreaded environment able to exploit all processors and processor cores available on all platforms and hardware architectures. It is therefore utilizing resources very well. First stop: Workshop Interstellarum...

Meditation

Lent – and a letter to my Old Enemy.

by fallenangel on Apr 17, 2014 • Comments Closed

The Monastery Last weekend I checked in for three-day time-out at my local monastery to prepare lent. Our group discussed with the monk the seven sins and the catholic image of the devil in the sixth century under Pope Pope Gregory I, called “The Great”. Because of the general breakdown...

Astro-Photos

M82 Supernova 03-08-2014 Munich

by fallenangel on Mar 16, 2014 • Comments Closed

Credit Photogruppe. Gemeinsam am 16Zoll SC aufgenommen, jeweils 5s Belichtungszeit bei ISO 1600. Camera: Umgebaute Canon 1000D Optik: 16Zoll SC und einfacher Reducer

Recent Events

recent-events-2013

by fallenangel on Dec 19, 2013 • Comments Closed

This year was full of transitions. Most for the better like the semi-retirement, some sad (I lost my good old BMW) and some with lost of ups and down like running a quarter of Munich for the new party in Germany the AfD. Lots of travel, but this year just...

2ndLife / RetirementDiary

Starting my Second Life

by fallenangel on Dec 14, 2013 • Comments Closed

Four years ago my company offered me a generous gradual retirement proposal: Work two years full-time and five years part-time. So I worked the last 2.5 years full-time for 50% salary (actually almost the same net due to some benefits and high tax rate in my country). Now this active...

2ndLife / WriterDiary

My bike ride to the office 2 days 2 different lenses

by fallenangel on Oct 26, 2013 • Comments Closed

I bike to my office every day, if the weater allows it. This means pretty much, apprimately 16 km/10 miles across the city one-way. In fall that means starting and finishing the ride at dawn. Since parts of the ride is quite nice with this light, I made pictures on...

2ndLife

Round Trip: Orient Express – Trans Asian – Silk Road – Trans-Siberian Railway

by fallenangel on Apr 24, 2013 • No Comments

I plan a round trip, using long distance train from Munich to Istanbul – per Train Iran, pick up silk route cities of Bukhara and Samarkand travelling Central Asian republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China using the Silk Road Trains. The route will cross sandy deserts, snow-capped mountains and the...

2ndLife / RetirementDiary

Too many Changes

by fallenangel on Mar 20, 2013 • No Comments

Change was always good to me. Even if it did not seem for the better it always proved later to be good. But today was a real bad day, I had to give away my BMW 520 for a few green bills. I am truly sad. “Business is change, and...

2ndLife

PayAttention to detail

by fallenangel on Mar 2, 2013 • No Comments

The park is much quieter in the winter. There were hardly any people other than us. Two—a young woman and an older man, spotted at different times—were getting in their daily run, impressing us with their dedication. No one was out walking a dog. Walking in the park in the...

Catholic / Papst Benedikt

Gottes Segen für Papst Benedikt XVI und einen gesunden Lebensabend zum Ende des Pontifikates.

by fallenangel on Feb 28, 2013 • No Comments

Ein herzliches Grüss Gott und einen gesunden Lebensabend zum Ende des Pontifikates. Mit Ihrem Abschied geht eine besondere “päpstliche Nähe” der Menschen in Bayern zu Ende. Als bewegende Momente des Pontifikats bleibt mir der großen Gottesdienste in Riem mit in Erinnerung. Hier habe ich gesehen, dass Kirche “nicht ein kleines Häufchen ist, sondern dass viele Menschen...

Leisure / Travel

Neuschwanstein walk

by fallenangel on Aug 21, 2012 • No Comments

Last Sunday we headed west of Munich for the Alps – that is, the more moderate mountains of the Allgaeu. I picked an easy mountain hike – The Great Tegelberg Circle – for the family, including our Labrador, who climbs like a mountain goat. The route offers lots of views,...

Travel / Visual / WriterDiary

Glai Hamas – Mountain Biking in the Baverian Alps

by fallenangel on Aug 20, 2012 • No Comments

By fallen Angel “Glai Hamas” – “we are almost there”, said the fellow biker while Mountain Biking in the Bavarian Alps when he passed me with a soft Munich dialect. The remark was meant and taken as encouragement, while I struggled up the mountain on a very hot summer day...

Archetypes / Music

Rainy Götterdämmerung in Munich.

by fallenangel on Jul 19, 2012 • No Comments

This is a very personal take on the opera cycle by Richard Wagner’s “Ring” from a Jungian perspective, how the themes of the Ring, though universal, specifically apply to our lives today. Kent Nagano The Munich Opera Festival draws for over 130 years opera fans to Munich, and as one...

Recent Events

recent-events-1972

by fallenangel on Feb 16, 1972 • No Comments

1972_train_totheheran_beforeAnkera

Latest entries

Astro-Photos / Science

Hunting for Comet ‘C2018 Y1/Iwamoto’

by fallenangel on Feb 12, 2019 • No Comments

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...

Recent Events / RetirementDiary / Visual

Winter Time in 360 degree view

by fallenangel on Nov 27, 2018 • No Comments

Fastenzeit / Meditation / Spiritual

Lenten “promise” 2017

by fallenangel on Mar 1, 2017 • No Comments

I’ll share my view on this related to my Lenten “promise” this year again. Lenten promises should take us “out of our comfort zone” to help us to truly do the penance we should do and to grow closer to God. Besides no meat, no alcohol, no cheese, no sweets, which is easy, cutting down...

Astro-Photos

RSPEC Processed interstellar 3I/ATLAS SLOOH CAT4 Spectrum 12/09

by fallenangel on Oct 3, 2026 • No Comments

🌐 View Original Live Data on Slooh 📋 Observation Report Wavelength (bot L) and Flux calibration (top L) with HD 98618 (G5V solar analog) and zero base normalization (top R). CN Violet Band (3880 Å): STRONGLY DETECTED. Sharp, deep absorption-like feature at ~3880 Å is actually the telluric O₂ band. The CN emission is located...

Science

MTO 500/8 minimalist photography

by fallenangel on Mar 30, 2018 • Comments Closed

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...

Catholic / Papst Benedikt

Lent 2018 – Message of Pope Emeritus BENEDICT XVI

by fallenangel on Mar 18, 2018 • No Comments

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...

Catholic / Gospel / Johannes / Spiritual

The Gospel of John and Christmas

by fallenangel on Dec 23, 2017 • No Comments

Last weekend I checked in for a three-day time-out at my local monastery to prepare for Christmas and speak about the Gospel of John and Christmas. Well, the countdown to Christmas is on and for many, the Advent season is one of the most beautiful in the year. But! Have we ever realized, that this...

Recent Events

recent-events-2017

by fallenangel on Jan 17, 2017 • No Comments

recent-events-2017

Visual

Munich Fall Infraphotography

by fallenangel on Dec 29, 2016 • Comments Closed

Astro-Photos / AstroHandsOn / Science

Remote Observatory from a warm room

by fallenangel on Mar 14, 2016 • Comments Closed

I am in the early trial stage of a small obsy, a Remote Observatory over USB on top of an nearby garage. I have a mount on an existing platform with power, which I want to control from my office room about 15m from the my little town house – using a powered hub and...

Recent Events

recent-events-2015 Travel Haunted and magic Languedoc-Roussillon

by fallenangel on Dec 10, 2015 • Comments Closed

This year we travelled through the haunted and magic Languedoc-Roussillon, where I followed the footsteps of the Esclarmonde de Foix and the heretic Cathars. In Languedoc-Roussillon Cathar castles, Templar Abbeys and Châteaus inspire powerful myths, major mysteries, complex religious history, symbols of psychological relevance and – also significant pseudo-history. There are lots of stories about...

C.G.Jung / East / Philosophy / Spiritual

Calm down the Ego

by fallenangel on Nov 19, 2015 • Comments Closed

Recently I saw a video from Allan Watts. Interestingly enough this meditation tutorial used different Mantras, or magic words for practical purpose. So he used appropriate words from the Hindu context, from the Christian context and from the Sufi context. He talked also about the necessity to stop the internal chattering, to calm down the...