⋅ astronomy ⋅ general ⋅

my astro equipment

• vixen vc200l cassegrain 200/1800 f/9 plus reducer f/6.4   
• losmandy g-11 german mount
  • original tripod, original polarfinder, gemini goto (level 4)
• eyepieces: (not used!)    photo
  
  • meade super ploessl 4000 26 mm
  • siebert wa 12.5 mm
  • siebert wa 7 mm
  • vixen lv 4 mm
  • televue powermate 2x 2" barlow
  • meade prism diagonal 1.25"
• other accessories:    photo
  • binocular swarovski habicht 10x40    photo
  • guidescopes celestron 80/900 and vixen 60/700
  • baader solarfilterfilm, visual and photographic
  • t-ring for canon eos
  • (tool-) box for storing and transporting the accessories
  • powerstations einhell egs180 and egs12
• books:
  • uranometria 2000.0 (old version '91?)
  • skyatlas 2000.0 by wil tirion. 26 charts 52x39cm, folded. detail scaned with 100 dpi.
  • atlas für himmelsbeobachter by erich karkoschka
  • abenteuer astronomie by david h. levy
  • bildatlas des weltraums by antonin rükl
  • der sternenhimmel - ein astronomischer wegweiser by robert burnham, alan dyer, robert a. garfinkle, martin george, jeff kanipe, david h. levy, john o'byrne
  • ahnerts astronomisches jahrbuch 2002 to 2007 by thorsten neckel and oliver montenbruck (with photos from pw)

previously used equipment:

• bresser champ refractor fh 80/400 f/5    photo report
• intes mk-67 mak.-cas. 150/1800 f/12    photo report
• william optics megrez refractor fh 80/480 f/6    photo report
• jso ls-12 wright-newton 125/475 f/3.8    photo report
• takahashi epsilon 160 newton astrograph 160/530 f/3.3    photo report
• mto 500/5,6 mirror lens
• televue np101 apo 101/540 f/5.4 with reducer 0.8x    photo report
• takahashi fsq apo 105/530 f/5.0    photo report
• orion photo newton 150/600 f/4
• asa n8 8" f/2.75 (and f/4) astrograph    photo
• pentax 75 75/500 f/6.7
• apm / lzos apo 115/800 photo-apo 115/805 f/7
• ts apo 115/800 115/800 f/7, with flattner for 36mm-format
• vixen gp mount with aluminium tripod, ra-motor, polarfinder    photo report
• sky-watcher eq-6 german mount    photo report
• ote 150 german mount with ts deluxe wood tripod    photo report
• losmandy g-11 german mount with boxdoerfer dynostar, escap motors and some other special parts    photo
• asa ddm60 german mount (www.astrosysteme.at)
• vixen gp-dx german mount with boxdoerfer mts-3sdi (alias sinus ii) and tripod berlebach uni-18    report
• ccd sbig st-4 autoguider
• webcam logitech quickcam vc parallel
• ccd starlight xpress mx916 (752x580, 8.7x6.5 mm = 11 my)
  • with star2000 autoguiding module, fast-parallel-port module, flip-mirror, software astroart 2.0, etc.
  • homemade filterholder    photo
• ccd starlight xpress sxv-h9 (1392x1040, 8.9x6.7 mm = 6.5 my)
  • astronomik lrgb-filters, astronomik h-alpha filter, neumann filterholder, software astroart 2.0
• ccd sbig stl-11000m (b/w-camera 4008x2672 pixel, 36x24 mm = 9 my)
  • baader filter lrgb and h-alpha, add. ext. guidecam, neumann adapter for canon ef lenses
• ccd alccd 6c alias qhy8 (colorcamera 3032x2016 pixels, 17.6x25.1 mm = 7.8 my)
  • alccd 5 alias qhy5 guidecam and planetary camera (b/w 1280x1024 pixels, 6.6x5.3 mm = 5.2 my)
  • neumann ccd-adapter for canon ef lenses, misc. filters, etc.
• eyepieces: antares erfle 40 mm 2", celestron plössl 40 mm (with selfmade distancering), baader eudiascopic 35 mm, meade super ploessl 4000 15 mm, baader eudiascopic 10 mm, vixen lv 7 mm, baader/celestron micro guide 12.5 mm (guiding and meassuring eyepiece).
• minolta srt101 35 mm slr-camera with lenses 35/2.8, 55/1.7, 135/2.8 and t-ring

most parts of the equipment were bought used.

i live directly south of vienna/austria, therefore it is not easy to watch the sky. it takes me a 40 min. drive out of the city for a reasonable dark sky. mostly i drive to hohe wand at neunkirchen or to the brentenriegel at sieggraben or to the wechsel at grimmenstein.

i also use my computer for astronomy. some programs i wrote by myself but mostly i use the freeware "stellarium".

astronomical software i wrote by myself can be found at software.
practical tips for the hobby astronomy can be found at astro tips.
astrophotos i made by myself can be found at the astro photogallery.
a list of all published photos, pictures and articles can be found at publicationes.


- ⋄ -

links

below you can find some links to interesting astro-webpages (some in german).

current events:
near earth asteroid rendezvous space probe "near" explored eros
esa - soho space probe "soho" explores the sun
nasa - project galileo space probe "galileo" explores jupiter and its moons
nasa - mars missions some space probes on mars
nasa - cassini mission space probe "cassini" on the way to saturn

national (austrian) institutions:
inst. f. astronomy at the university of vienna
inst. f. astronomy at the university of innsbruck
linzer astronomische gemeinschaft
planetarium und uraniasternwarte wien
astronomisches büro, wien
österreichische gesellschaft für astronomie und astrophysik
burgenländische amateurastronomen
wiener arbeitsgemeinschaft für astronomie
amateurastronomie.at

international institutions:
astronomie.de (german)
astronet collection of links (german)
astrogarten everything about (amateur-) astronomy (german)
astrophotografie.de (michael kunze, german)
astronomical pictures from cri bordeaux
deep-sky corner description of astron. objects
european space agency (esa)
heavens-above, (heavens-above for vienna/austria) data and visibility of satellites and the solar system
hubble space telescope
nasa (jet propulsion laboratory, kennedy space center, astronomical data center, solar system dynamics)
wolfgang strickling tips for beginners, links (german)
planetscapes views of the solar system by calvin j. hamilton
the nine planets by bill arnett
telescopes.de collection of links (german)
vds vereinigung d. sternfreunde e.v. (german)

manufacturers:
apogee ccd
astro-physics
celestron
meade usa, meade germany
sbig ccd
starlight xpress ccd
televue
vixen

dealers austria:
astrostudio (gerald rhemann, vienna)
optik binder (vienna)
astro optik beck (st. pölten)
miller optik (innsbruck)
dealers germany:
baader planetarium
apm (markus ludes)
bresser
intercon spacetec (martin birkmaier)
teleskop service (wolfgang ransburg)
vehrenberg
astromarkt.de used equipment

magazines:
sterne und weltraum (germany)
star observer (austria, germany)
interstellarum (germany)
sky & telescope (usa)
astronomy (usa)
astronomy now (uk)

weather:
zentralanstalt für meteorologie und geodynamik (austria)
orf weather (austria)
wetterleuchten also with weather for astronomers (germany)
wetterzentrale (germany)
spaceweather.com (usa)
sat24.com

⋄

about gallery

my recent photos can be found at facebook
my "best of" at youtube: normal photography, infrared photography, astronomy photography
in the gallery of this website you can find a small selection of my astrophotographic "masterpieces". select a category on the menu of the page. click on the small pictures of the gallery to see a larger photo! the photos are sorted chronological from top (new) to bottom (old).

as i got my astronomical equipment (see above) in june 2000, my interests in astronomical photography increased also. but even before that i shot some astrophotos with normal photoequiment and a tripod. everyone who has ever tried to take astronomical photos knows, that it is not so easy. even my first results can be found here.

all rights on the pictures for publishing are at the author and the use of the pictures without permission is strongly forbidden.


here a list of all my photos (8 mb html file in german).
a online database is under progress.
a list of all published photos, pictures and articles can be found at publicationes.

⋄