Astrophotography – Taking a deep look into the Virgo cluster

The Virgo Cluster is a large cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo. It is approximately 65 million light years away from the earth. The brightest member is galaxy Messier 49 (M49) – a giant elliptical galaxy. To me it is amazing to see what can be done with this kind of amateur equipment! There is also a full resolution image available.

Date2013/04/17
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectVirgo Cluster
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, DMK31AU03.AS via OAG
Telescope8" GSO Newtonian
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminance9x 600s, bin: 1x1
Red8x 150s, bin: 2x2
Green8x 150s, bin: 2x2
Blue8x 150s, bin: 2x2
Dark4x
Flat-
Total exposure~2h30m

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 20, 2022 at 22:10 pm

Astrophotography – Imaging the galaxies M65 & M66

Tonight I imaged three galaxies at a time! The spiral galaxy M65, the “Hamburger Galaxy” NGC3628 and another spiral galaxy M66. All those objects are located in the constellation Leo. The picture is also available in full resolution here. For stacking I used DeepSkyStacker 3.3.2 with Kappa-Sigma Clipping.

Date2013/04/01
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectSpiral Galaxy M65 & 66 and Hamburger Galaxy NGC3628
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, DMK31AU03.AS via OAG
Telescope8" GSO Newtonian
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminance6x 300s, bin: 1x1
Red5x 100s, bin: 2x2
Green5x 100s, bin: 2x2
Blue5x, 100s, bin: 2x2
Dark5x
Flat-
Total exposure~55min.

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 20, 2022 at 22:16 pm

La Palma – Visiting the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC)

One thing you should not miss when you are on La Palma is a visit of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) on top of the island at about 2400m above the sea. It is completely free and the tour just takes about one hour of your time (+ driving up and down el Roque). Currently (03/2013) the GTC is the biggest reflecting telescope worldwide. This is certainly especially interesting for people who have an affinity to technology and/or astronomy but it may also be interesting for everyone else to see this giant instrument of modern science on La Palma.

In order to visit the GTC telescope on La Palma, one has to register on the following website. According to the website there is only a limited number of places for each visit. So in case you are not flexible you should register early enough before you plan to visit the GTC.

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Astrophotography – A little summer in the sky – Imaging the Sunflower Galaxy (M63)

The image is also available in full resolution.

Date2013/03/04
LocationBöblingen / Germany
ObjectSunflower Galaxy (M63)
CameraAtik383L+
Guidingyes, DMK31AU03.AS via OAG
Telescope8" GSO Newtonian
Barlow lensnone
MountEQ6Syntrek
Cooling-15°C
Luminanceunknown, bin: 1x1
Redunknown, bin: 2x2
Greenunknown, bin: 2x2
Blueunknown, bin: 2x2
Darkunknown
Flat-
Total exposureunknown

Clear skies!

Last updated: June 21, 2022 at 20:42 pm