News Equipment Observatory Astrophotography Projects About me

These pages are dedicated to my main hobby: amateur astronomy.

I observe and photograph the universe from my private backyard observatory from a reasonably dark site in the Netherlands.


clearsky clock - prediction of local cloudcover, seeing and transparancy

sample images (more photos)

Open starcluster M46 and planetary nebula NGC2438 in constellation Puppis, 4x300s per channel (RGB) 2x2 binning. RC8/f6, 21 February, 2014.
Galaxy NGC891, Andromeda constellation, 5x300s per channel (RGB) 2x2 binning. RC8/f6, 21 February, 2014.
First light in 2014! This the Cone Nebula (NGC2264) in constellation Monoceros. Due to wind and clouds, only 3x10min exposure, 2x2 binned Ha filter.
February 2, 2014, telescope: WO ZS71ED APO, field flattener/reducer, Atik 383L.
NGC1499, the California nebula in Perseus (full resolution).
December 29, 2013, 9x20 minutes Ha (3 hours total) as luminance and red and a single 20 minutes OIII exposure as green and blue. Telescope: WO ZS71ED APO, field flattener/reducer, Atik 383L.
IC1396, the elephant's trunk nebula in Cepheus.
September 29, 2013 (Ha) and October 1st, 2013 (OIII), 10x15 minutes Ha and 10x15 minutes OIII. Telescope: WO ZS71ED APO, field flattener/reducer, Atik 383L.
NGC7000, the North America nebula in Cygnus.
Taken on August 21, 2013, 12x5 minutes Ha and 12x5 minutes OIII. Telescope: WO ZS71ED APO, field flattener/reducer, Atik 383L.
IC5146, the cocoon nebula in Cygnus.
I took the Ha data on July 27 and August 1, 15x10minutes in total. The RGB data was taken on August 3, 5x10minutes each. (full resolution)
July 20, 2013, NGC6888, the crescent nebula in Cygnus.
First light with my new William Optics Zenitstar 71 ED APO doublet.3x1200sec Ha (Red), 3x1200sec OIII (blue), 2x2 binned, autoguided with the new OAG and filterwheel. A synthetic green channel was created by taking OIII+60%Ha. Due to the field curvature of the scope, I cropped this image to cut out the coma at the edges of the FOV.
May 18, 2013, M97, the owl nebula in Ursa Major.
8"RC/f6, 383L, 6x900sec Ha, 6x900sec OIII.
May 3, 2013, NGC4631, the whale galaxy in Canes Venatici.
8"RC/f6, 383L, 20x300sec subs, autoguided.
February 11, 2013, IC443, the jellyfish nebula in Gemini.
8"RC/f6, 383L, 8x900sec Ha filtered subs, autoguided.
January 12, 2013, IC434 (or B33), the horsehead nebula in Orion.
8"RC/f6, 383L, 6x1200sec Ha filtered subs, autoguided.
January 12, 2012, M1, the crab nebula in Taurus. 8"RC/f6, 383L, 6x900sec subs, autoguided.
November 18, 2012, M31, the Andromeda galaxy. 80mm/f4.8 refractor, 383L, 20x300sec subs, autoguided.
September 8, 2012, NGC6992, the eastern veil nebula. WO ZS80/f4.8, 383L, Ha filter, 5x600sec + 2x1200sec subs, autoguided.
August 11, 2012, M27. 8"RC/f6, 383L, Ha filter, 2x2 binning, 3x10min subs.
July 23, 2012, milkyway. Single exposure of 1 minute with a Canon 550D and 18mm lense.
July 23, 2012, M16 (left) and M17 (right) in Serpens. Stack of 9x30s exposures with a Canon 550D and 250mm lense.
November 27, 2011, moon and venus. Canon 350D, 200mm telelens, 0.07s exposure, 1600 ISO.