My primary interest is studying changes in the sky: track comets, observe planets and their changing atmospheres, observe variable stars, transiting exo-planets, observe supernovae or even GRB afterglows.
My secondary interest is imaging. Imaging is a fun activity on its own and very challenging as many techonologies and atmospheric conditions must cooperate.
small projects
Although the sun is currently in its inactive stage during its 11 year cycle, I observe the sun in white light and Ha regularly. Besides studying sunspots, I tried to determine the rotation of the sun and how it varies depending on the latitude. Furthermore, I am trying to capture explosions of active regions in Ha.
By taking long exposure unguided wide field images, one can calculate the rotation period of the earth.
Supernovae decay. I am collecting images of supernovae after their discovery and observe their decay. For example I witnessed a supernova in M51 right after its discovery and saw it decay in the weeks after that.
bigger projects
construction and continued improvement of my observatory. update july 2011: I replaced the tripod by a permanent steel pier, on a concrete base.
I am trying to image all Messier objects.
study of comets, especially nucleus dynamics and tail disconnects
planned projects
construction of a solar radio telescope to record sudden ionospheric disturbances
installation of a weather station
variable star astrometrics
meteor observations with an allsky camera
observe the Venus transit 2012!
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