On Friday in our corner
f.l. Friedhelm, Thomas and Ben; r. Thomas' 12-inch
On Friday in our corner
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f.l. Friedhelm, Thomas and Ben; r. Thomas' 12-inch
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First night: Thomas at my 10-inch
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Our corner by night
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Second night: Friedhelm taking photos with his 105 mm refractor ...
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... and Tobbe at his 20-inch
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A visit to my old friend Raffael - his 30-inch as usual attracted lots of photon-hungry visitors, who yearned for some astronomical
goodies. They were - among other objects - served a great Jupiter with a detailed GRS and a spectacular globular M5.
At the 30-inch: Raffael Benner targeting Jupiter ...
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... and Michel with awe at the eyepiece
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At Kai's 33-inch, in the first night, we observed both current "Deep Sky objects of the month" from the "Astrotreff" forum: On
the one hand Reiner Vogel's group of three thin edge-on galaxies - NGC 4216 & friends - but they were affected by the Frankfurt
light dome in the Southwest. On the other hand "Hajuem" 's galaxy NGC 3310, which was better placed high up the Northwest:
Clearly showing the spiral arm in the East, pointing straight North, a detail which is seen on the left on Uwe Glahn's
drawing.
And also the gap between this arm and the center; with 700x the galaxy appeared mottled, but I could not define specific details.
Superb was once again the "Cigar" galaxy M82 with its chaotic details, moreover we observed the Virgo cluster center, as well
as the 300 million light years distant Coma galaxy cluster. Fine details in the "Owl nebula" M97, and especially in the Veil- and
Crescent nebula with an OIII-Filter - grandiose !
At the 33-inch: With owner Kai (center) in the group ...
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... and Joerg at the eyepiece
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In the second night we observed several equally terrific galaxies with Joerg's 25-inch: Among them a grand spiral seen in
M51, many knots in NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 ("Fish and hook"), the thin dust-band needle NGC 4565, the "black eye"
very evident in M64, the edge-on NGC 4244 - thin enough to be called "superthin" - and M99 with spiral structure. And
we saw many faint patches in the 500 million light years distant Hercules galaxy cluster - I've become quite familiar with
this object over the years. And Hickson 68 (with the galaxy pair NGC 5353/5354) and Hickson 44 (NGC 3190 & friends).
And the central star of the "Ring nebula" M57 clearly flashed up time and again with averted vision.
At the 25-inch: Joerg Peters at this telescope, ...
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... and Martin Brueckner on the ladder, with the lights of Frankfurt
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The central lane of the ITV site ...
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... and the area where Kai, Joerg and Martin had set up their camps
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... to the helmet with integrated binoculars ...
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... and to these witty binoculars.
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At the site of "Sternenwelt Vogelsberg" in Stumpertenrod
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Walter at home with his 20-inch
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On the Gebaberg summit: Ben and Martin
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A great "panorama window" to the South and Southwest
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Martin was curious to observe with my 10-inch and so we changed telescopes for a while: At his 18-inch I was mostly active
roughly in the M106-area, and targeted the objects using only my memory instead of maps. So I did not look up fainter objects,
detailed starhopping would have needed an amount of energy I lacked after the two preceding observing nights. And moreover
we were exposed to a continuous, and at times stronger wind on this hill. There were also two other observers with 18" and 20"
instruments, they had set up behind a former military barrack. There we observed e.g. a nice spiral struture in M61, the edge-on
galaxy NGC 5746 with dust band , the Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 and the bright emission nebula M17 with superb details.
That's a promising observing site, really dark given it's location in the middle of Germany, and really worthwhile going there.
With potentially good seeing due to its summit location, but for that reason of course also more exposed to the wind.
Here Martin is at his 18-inch, and there at ...
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... my 10-inch - at right his self-built lightweight 7"
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