Even though we are heading for a possibly deep and long solar minimum, a huge sunspot is visible on the sun right now.
Author Archives: philipp
Saturn and Jupiter, 2017-06-11
Jupiter gets lower and lower each night, while Saturn is nearing Opposition.
Saturn, Astro-Physics 127mm f/8 refractor, Televue 3x Barlow, QHY5L-IIc, 60% of 2259 frames.
Processed with Autostakkert (Stacking) , Registax (Wavelet Sharpening), Fitswork (de-noise and iterative Gauss sharpenging) and Photoshop (Color and Gamma adjustment).
Jupiter 6.6.2017
Due to a cold front that just had passed earlier today, the air was quite unstable. Therefore today’s shots turned out quite unsharp.
Astro-Physics 127mm f/8, 2x Vixen Barlow, QHY5L-IIc camera. Read More
First signs of summer: Milky Way
Last night at 1:15 A.M. I decided, that I cannot let this beautifully clear night pass without some astrophotography. I drove up to Farnach, which is only 7.5km away, but provides some nice dark skies above the brightly lit Rhine Valley.
I set up the Vixen Polarie and took pictures using 20mm, 85mm and 300mm lenses.
The summer milky way and the multitude of nebula and clusters hidden in it, never cease to impress me. When I went to bed some hours later, dawn was already breaking. Read More
Jupiter 2017-05-26
Only minutes before I started my first video, apparently an asteroid slammed into Jupiter, as far as I can see, no trace of damage can be seen on my pictures.
Comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson)
Comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson), 10x30s, ISO 3200, F4, 300mm, Nikon D750, Vixen Polarie.
These days Comet Johnson is very conveniently placed in the evening sky for northern observers.
The image above is a crop of the one below. Read More
Jupiter 2017-05-22
Today the Great Red Spot was prominently visible:
Supernova 2017eaw
Supernova 2017eaw, discovered by Patrick Wiggins is located in the so-called fireworks galaxy. The supernova is the tenth supernova in this specific galaxy to be recorded during the last 100 years.
This is the third supernova discovered by Patrick Wiggins, overall he searched 1051 nights and took about 500000 images of galaxies for his finds.
7x60s at f/4 using ISO 1600. Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm 1:4E PF ED, Nikon D750, ISO 1600, SkyWatcher StarAdventurer, crop
Jupiter 2017-05-09
Software used: Autostakkert 3.0, Registax, Fitswork. This version is a bit softer, shows much less artifacts but still more detail I think.
I also updated the animation with reprocessed frames Read More
Moon and Jupiter, again
Yesterday evening I was able to use the stable seeing shortly after sunset for some images of the moon:
