Old images 1988 - 2008

The following four images made by Hans Georg:

Sudelfeld, January 1988

Ben and Johanna with 10-inch

Haley with 13-inch "Bismarck"

To the right Hans-Georg's 10-inch "Ferdinand"

Sudelfeld, February 1989: Jürgen K. and Ben

Haley and Juergen with 10-inch tube

Sudelfeld, November 1991: Barny and Wastl with Barny's 10-inch

Sudelfeld, June 27/28, 1992 (image: Ralph)

Sudelfeld 1992: Ralph with his 16-inch

Sudelfeld 1997: Friedhelm with his 16-inch

Plose (site alt. 2400 m), July 1993: Julius, Ben and Rainer

With Geisslerspitzen

To insert the 10-inch mirror ...

... a screwdriver is needed

Sudelfeld 1993: Perseid observing ...
f.l Manfred, Dieter, Ritschi, Jürgen H., Ben, Johannes,
Jochen and Wastl, below Erich and Martin

... with more than 1000 meteors
among them several with mag -4
f.l Erich, Wastl, Jürgen H. and Ben

Sudelfeld, May 1994: 10-inch Coulter and 14-inch "Odie"

Boris

Martin

Axel

Reunion 1995

For two and a half weeks we were on this French island in the Indian ocean. We had nine fine observing nights, between June 21 and Juli 4 -
at least three among them with superb conditions. We were lucky with the weather, since the populated coast was mostly covered under thick
passat clouds. Christian, Manfred and I were back on Reunion in 2012; I have an own report for that, also with many images of hiking trips.

Friedhelm with his 13-inch at observing site ...

... "Le Maido" (alt. 2205 m)

Here are some translated excerpts from Friedhelm's original diary:

"M83 is very good in the zenith, these spiral arms! ... The standard objects in Sagittarius are way better than at home - what do I say: we have actually
not seen them yet ... many open and globular clusters ... Ben compares 47 Tuc to a thistle, Omega Cen to a sunflower. Omega is so gigantic, it pales
everything else ... the air is enormously dry, whatever you touch sparks. The Milky Way is colored, in its less luminous parts with a brown or reddish hue,
in the center a pale green/yellow. The color contrast is enormous. Eta Carinae has incredible structures, UHC and OIII produce completely other images.
The coalsack ! Centaurus A with photographic structures ... The Milky Way center casts shadows, I recognized that when turning the page of the Uranometria
- in the darkness! ... M8 and M20 are exceptionally good. The colors ! The Trifid shows red in its reflection part, and blue in its emission part - just reverse
as on the photos ... We saw the Vela supernova remnant. After some tries we first saw one filament, then we go from string to string and see an irregular
arc with intermingled cirrus-like filaments".... The Antennae in NGC 4038/39 extremely well to see. ... NGC 1365 already good, although low ...
The SMC has some emission nebulae which respond good to OIII."

The last night: "... The sky is getting better and better, the best night by transparency, and after some calming of the seeing it's getting the best night of all:
The Milky Way is so plastically contoured as I've never seen it before, the dark nebulae appear to be three-dimensional. The Messier objects 22, 17, 24, 16,
8, 6 and 7 are so brilliant without optical aid. ... The Zodiacal light rises extremely bright in the East, everything is extreme now, that's the mega-night. Ben
is observing in the LMC for at least half an hour, lost in observing, then it's my turn, an abundance of objects in this Mini Milky Way, simply crazy, the
Tarantula nebula alone is worth an hour's observing. ... this is an incredibly intensive night with frost since 5:00 a.m. At 5:30 the Orion nebula has risen,
before that the Pleiades in a blazing Zodiacal light. ... We pack the frozen mats, pack the 'Little Prince' [ i.e. the 13"] for the last time ... in the dawn Venus
sparkles above the opposite mountain ridge. From the Mafate valley below crowing cocks and waterfalls - farewell."

Ben ...

... with sunset

Sudelfeld, lunar eclipse Sept 1996 (Images: Ralph Muth)

f.l. Ben, Julius, Johannes, Rainer

Comet Hale-Bopp 1997

The following three images from two joint trips were made by Ralph Muth:

Hale-Bopp near Pfahldorf ...

Ralph Muth >

... on Sunday, March 23, 1997...

... and near Machtlfing, Friday, April 4, 1997

Sudelfeld, Midsummer festival 1997: Ascent ...

f.l. Andreas, Hans-Georg, Boris, Wastl

At the fire

Sudelfeld, Perseids 1997: Wastl with family

Total solar eclipse in Hungary, August 11, 1999

With Boris, Friedhelm, Johannes, Ralph, Wastl and me. Due to the weather forecasts we decided to go to Hungary, and we were
successful in the end. The group who went to Saarland in the West had no luck with the weather, and those who stayed in southern
Bavaria were partly lucky, partly not - here sometimes only a few kilometers were decisive: During totality it rained at the eclipse
show in Munich's Olympic area, while it changed in the city center during the two minutes, and the people delivering (and visiting)
the show at our club (VSW) in eastern Munich were lucky: Here it cleared up five minutes before totality.

We traveled with three cars to Hungary, and it was not so easy to escape the clouds there either. The last two hours we often stopped
to reassess the situation, and perhaps to decide anew about the site. First we stopped at a site north of Lake Balaton, but eventually we
stayed on a farm track near Deg in the flat Hungarian Puszta southeast of the lake. Ten minutes before totality the event was threatened
by a single sizable cloud, which led us to some last-minute maneuvers with the car. But we were lucky: For the first third of the more
than two minutes of totality the sun was dimmed a bit, but for the remaining time conditions were perfect. Superb impressions of the
corona and protuberances in my binoculars, but it was all over very soon ! I remember doing a complete turn and thereby observing a
circumferential colored "twilight horizon", and seeing a few stars. And a flock of birds was flying around. A really great experience !

Here is a link to Wastl's report (in German)

Now a few images out of my VHS video film made with a simple camera:

Start of the eclipse

f.l Wastl, Ben and Ralph

f.l. Ralph, Johannes and Boris

Friedhelm telephones with Frank

The totality comes closer:

Ten minutes before a threat by the ...

... "washboard" cloud ...

... one minute before another car maneuver ...

... but seconds before out onto the field

We got it: Back to the car

The mood ...

... was euphoric, and a family ...

... from Saxony was observing close by

Bavarian Telescope Meeting (BTM) Sept 2002:
f.l. Haley, Manfred, Frank, Ralph, Ben, Gabi and Axel

Hans-Georg
with 16-inch "Nepomuk"

Patrick and Stathis grinding mirrors

Wolf Hartmann's 32-inch and the 20-inch bino

La Palma, May 2004

With Carola, Martin, Friedhelm, Manfred and me. Nice hikings on various ridges of the volcanic landscape, and altogether we observed five times.
Initially the weather was changeable, but eventually we had two excellent nights on Roque de Los Muchachos (2426 m) with Martin's 10-inch, Friedhelm's
4,5 inch, Manfred's 20x100 and my 6-inch. Many objects, and among the far southern objects we could see Eta Carinae, NGC 3532, NGC 3293 near the
horizon. Together with three stars of the Southern Cross and Alpha Centauri, as well as comet Neat with a nice tail, about mag 3 back then.
I have no own images from this trip, here are five of Martin's images: