Tag: newtonian

Astrophotography Oberstdorf – Imaging the Witch’s Broom Nebula

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small.DSCF4851-2

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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Imaging the black claw of Vulpecula – vdB126

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vdB126 reflexion nebula - 2015/07/06

vdB 126 is a reflection nebula in constellation Vulpecula. To me it looks like a black claw with at least 4 fingers.

I like the many stars in this region! In this clear night I was able to get 8 good IR frames before the moon rose. For stacking I used DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 with Kappa-Sigma Clipping. The picture is also available in full resolution here. Finally, I decided to put it into my My Top Astro-Pics gallery.

Date2015/07/08
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectvdB126 (Reflection nebula)
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG
Telescope8
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminance8x, 600s, bin: 1x1
Red7x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Green7x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue7x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark10x
Flat10x
Total exposure~2h12min.

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 16, 2022 at 23:33 pm

Astrohotography of Sh2-88 without H-alpha filter from Böblingen / Germany

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Sh2-88 Nebula

The evening of 24th June 2015 was a warm and nice summer evening. All the clouds vanished and the forecast predicted a clear night 🙂 Since I didn’t image a nebula for quite some time I decided to image one this night. Recently I came across Sh2-88 which is an HII emission nebula in constellation Vulpecula. So this should have been the target for tonight!

I saw some great pictures of Sh2-88 before which have been taken using an H-alpha filter. Since I am not yet having an H-alpha filter I just decided to give it a try without H-alpha. Of course the nebula structures don’t come out as good as when using a such a filter. But I am still satisfied for a picture with just 5 IR frames. The seeing with my f/5 GSO Newton (F=1000mm) was around 2.1″ – so quite good for this region.

Date2015/06/24
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectSh2-88 (Emission nebula)
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG
Telescope8" GSO Newtonian
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminance5x, 600s, bin: 1x1
Red5x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Green5x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue5x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark3x
Flat10x
Total exposure~1h27min.

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 17, 2022 at 6:58 am

Imaging galaxies M81 and M82 from Böblingen / Germany

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Bode's galaxy (M81) and Cigar galaxy (M82) - 2015/05/18

Messier 81 (M81) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million Lj. away from earth. Messier 82 (M82) – also known as Cigar Galaxy – is a starburst galaxy which is interestingly also about 12 million ly. away from us. Both objects are located in constellation Ursa Major.

For this picture 11 light frames (600s exposure time each) were averaged. This is twice as much as the typical frame count I usually have. Therefore, there is almost no visible noise in the the final picture.

The full size image can be found here.

Clear skies!

Date2015/02/18
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectBode's Galaxy (M81) & Cigar Galaxy (M82)
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, QHY5-II Mono via OAG
Telescope8" GSO Newtonian
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminance11x, 600s, bin: 1x1
Red9x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Green9x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue9x, 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark10x
Flat10x
Total exposure~2h57min.
Last updated: June 17, 2022 at 14:14 pm

Plane crosses sun seen through telescope!

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Sun crosses plane - 2015/03/11

After a long winter, today the sun came out and a little bit of spring seemed to arrive. I did not let this chance pass and dug out my telescope to do some sun observations. At this point I want to put a reminder:

warning

Never look into the sun without an appropriate solar filter!

Beside some visual observations I also had the plan to record some videos with my Fujifilm X-T1 camera (+adapter) to give others an impression of how the sun looks like through an 8″ Newton telescope with a solar filter. Since I am living close to an entry lane I had the luck to capture a plane flying right through my field of view! Luckily the camera was set to recording at this moment 🙂

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