A second attempt at NGC 3660 and friends, previously imaged here, with the longer focal length of the Cassegrain (4500 mm) at the IAS Hakos Observatory, Namibia.
More details at Astrobin.
Continue readingGalaxies and Supernova in Crater Reloaded
Tag Archives: EN
Oddball Planetary Nebula
Imaged at the IAS Hakos Observatory, Namibia with the 20″ Philipp Keller Cassegrain at full focal length of 4500 mm, f/9, this oddball object is listed both as a galaxy (PGC 49877) and a planetary nebula (Fr 2-8).
Quoting from Planetary Nebulae in the Solar Neighbourhood: Statistics, Distance Scale and Luminosity Function by David John Frew
Fr 2-8 (Fr 1400-5102, AM 1357-504, LEDA 49877). This small nebula, about 2′ across, was found serendipitously from SHASSA field 057, while measuring a Hα flux from the nearby PN MeWe 2-4, and has been confirmed spectroscopically as a high-excitation PN, with the 2.3m MSSSO telescope. The position is coincident with the SIMBAD ‘galaxy’ AM1357-504 (Arp & Madore 1987). It had been independently noted as a PN by Cˆote et al. (1997), but no details were provided in their paper.
Interestingly enough, the team around IAS member Uwe Glahn observed this object visually at Hakos back in 2009.
More details at Astrobin.
Continue readingCometary Globule CG 19
Results from the second night at the IAS observatory on the Gamsberg plateau with the 28 inch Newtonian “Wolf-Peter-Hartmann-Teleskop”, adding to my growing catalog of cometary globules.
Alas, sky flats at dusk didn’t work well, so some of the dust struture seen here may be artefacts of the calibration and gradient removal.
More details at Astrobin.
Continue readingGalaxies and Supernova in Crater
First result from this year’s trip to Namibia, including two nights at the IAS observatory on the Gamsberg plateau using the mighty 28 inch Newtonian telescope for astrophotography. I came across this field of view when observing the supernova SN 2026cff in NGC 3660 with the IAS remote telescope and noticed the near-by, peculiar Hoag-type galaxy PGC1000714 with its ring structure.
More details at Astrobin.
Continue readingLonely CG 14 in a Turbulent Sea
Continuing the growing catalog of cometary globules, here comes CG 14.
More details and full resolution at Astrobin.
Continue readingPhotobook Eclipse Road Movie
The photobook of the road trip Texas to Missouri series is now readily available at my Blurb bookstore. Even if you don’t want to buy it, paging through the preview gives a good impression of the book.
Die Serie des Roadtrips Texas to Missouri is jetzt als Fotobuch bei Blurb verfügbar. Auch wenn man es nicht kaufen will, lässt sich beim Durchblättern in der Vorschau ein guter Eindruck gewinnen.
BTW: aktuell ist beim Bestellen der USD-Preis auf blurb.com viel günstiger als der EUR-Preis auf blurb.de!
Texas to Missouri
After more than 6 years, another total solar eclipse brought us back to the US. Weather forecasts favoured Texas, so that’s where we went. But for the eclipse day on 08 Apr 2024, things turned out differently, so after the visit to Austin and Houston we took the long haul to Pocahontas, Missouri. This second part of the series shows the road trip from Texas to Missouri and back again, visiting West Texas after the eclipse.
Nach mehr als 6 Jahren hatte uns wieder eine Sonnenfinsternis in die USA verschlagen. Die Wettervorhersagen favorisierten Texas, das daher unser Reiseziel war. Für den Tag der Finsternis am 8. April 2026 entwickelte sich jedoch alles anders, bessere Aussichten je weiter man in den Nordosten kam, also hatten wir uns kurzentschlossen auf die lange Strecke nach Pocahontas, Missouri gewagt. Der zweite Teil der USA Serie zeigt den Road Trip von Texas nach Missouri und zurück nach der schwarzen Sonne in West Texas.
Complete series / komplette Serie Photography > USA > USA 2024 – Road Trip
Solar eclipse / Sonnenfinsternis: Photography > Eclipse > Total Solar Eclipse 2024
Cometary Globule CG 10
Continuing with the CGs, this one took really loooong, from mid January to mid February. Alas, CG season is also rain season in Namibia. Good for the country, but not so much for astrophotography.
Part of the ever growing CG catalog here at Photography > Astrophotography > Cometary Globules.
As always, more details at Astrobin.
Continue readingNGC 131, NGC 134 and Eta Sculptoris
More remote data from 2025. NGC 131, NGC 134 and Eta Sculptoris.
And more details at Astrobin.
Continue readingCometary Globules CG 15 and CG 16
Another CG image, completed just after Christmas Day, showing CG 15 (lower right) in Puppis and CG 16 (upper left) in Carina. Two more for the growing catalog of CGs here.
More details at Astrobin coming soon.
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