Tag: dark place

Astrophotography Oberstdorf – Imaging the Witch’s Broom Nebula

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This article is about Astrophotography in Oberstdorf. Last year I put all my equipment into the car and drove to Lake Garda. Unfortunately, in contrast to the forecast I had lots of clouds and no chance to take a good astro-picture. Last weekend I decided to give it another try and took all my equipment to Oberstdorf – a small village at the foot of the German Alps. Beside hiking I think this place is well suited for astrophotography.

I found a good place not far from the center of Oberstdorf, with free view to Polaris and almost no traffic:

GPS coordinates: 47°24’17.5″N 10°17’28.9″E

Important update: The described location can only be reached by car when driving into a “no entry” road. Of course you do this on your own risk.

(Oh, and btw. a good Italian restaurant is also not too far: Ai Quattro Canti…)

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Day and Night on La Palma – The highlights from my last La Palma holiday

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On my last La Palma holiday I did lots of experiments with my X-T1 camera. This time I was especially looking into time-lapsing. The result is “Day and Night on La Palma” – a 5 minute video about this beautiful island. To me, La Palma is the perfect place for doing this kind of videos. In this short video I want to show the highlights of my last holiday. Lots of stars, clouds and sunsets… 🙂 In order to make this video I visited many different places of the island. Some of them were Roque de Los Muchachos, Mirador del Jable, Mirador del Time and Pico Birigoyo. The music title “Worlds” has been composed by Jacob Tyler. I found it on www.soundcloud.com. I hope you enjoy the video 🙂

For those who are interested in technical details:

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Visiting the Tacande Observatory on La Palma

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Tacande Observatory, La Palma, Spain

Last night I visited the Tacande Observatory on La Palma (link) to do some observations and to exchange about some technical topics. It’s owner is Joan Genebriera who built this observatory back in 2005 – right beside his house 🙂 He worked at the KVA Telescope on La Palma for several years before he retired. His observatory is located close to El Paso at a height of about 765m.

The observatory holds three telescopes on one custom made mount:

  • Cassegrain Relay 400mm f/6.5 = 18′ x 12′ (arcminutes)
  • R120S 120mm f/6.6 = 1.28° x 0.96° (arcdegrees)
  • R80 80mm f/6.0 = 2.65° x 1.76° (arcdegrees)
Inside the Tacande Observatory - the telescopes, La Palma, Spain

Even though I was in Spain communicating in English was no problem. After I got an introduction to the equipment we decided to image the Sombrero galaxy since it was in a quite good position.

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Visiting Mirador del Jable on La Palma

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Mirador del Jable - Looking down to El Paso and Los Llanos

This afternoon I visited Mirador del Jable (28°37’02.6″N 17°50’54.9″W) – a place from where one has a very nice view down on El Paso and Los Llanos. It is also a good starting point for a hiking tour to Pico Birigoyo.

Furthermore Mirador del Jable is quite good suited for astronomical observations and astrophotography. Beside the fact that Polaris is visible it usually takes less time to get there than driving all the way up to Roque de Los Muchachos and it does not get so cold. Of course the conditions on Roque de Los Muchachos are usually better – so it depends on what one plans to do and on what one is willing to invest 🙂 Two things I like about this place is that it usually is no problem to get a parking place and that the stones and the ground are warmed up by the sun. Some of the heat is stored and released slowly in the evening.

My conclusion: Even if you are no interested in astronomy and the stars it is worth to go up here – just to watch the sunset over the sea 🙂

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 17, 2022 at 21:03 pm

Star-gazing at Casa Victoria on La Palma

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Casa Victoria La Palma

The second part of my La Palma holiday I spent at Casa Victoria (28°41’31.3″N 17°57’20.0″W). It is also a kind of cottage but a bit more modern than Casa La Chirlaca. However, compared to Casa La Chirlaca it has a little less canary atmosphere and the garden is not so nice in comparison. The house is a few hundred meters lower than Casa La Chirlaca and so it is a few degrees warmer. Especially when having breakfast outside in the morning this was very pleasant. Unfortunately Casa Victoria has no internet connection. The view on the sea is great and Polaris is visible from the garden. The owner only spoke Spanish but for just handing over the keys it was not a big problem.

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 17, 2022 at 21:04 pm