Astropage

Rescent publications

Marco Verstraaten — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:55:10 +0000

After sending “Zenit” (a Dutch astronomical magazine) some images I made the last couple of months, I was very surprised finding 5 pages with my photos in last months issue.

In “Jaarboek sterrenkunde” 2012, Govert Schilling used my APOD image of the Perseids to show the radiant effect as meteors appear to start from a central point in the sky when entering the earths atmosphere.

And this years issue of “Sterrengids 2012″ shows an image of the Horsehead nebula.

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Sunflowers & galaxies

Marco Verstraaten — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 06:32:43 +0000

What do they have in common?

Nothing really, but someone, someday found a similarity in it. Not for me. I see a galaxy!

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M97, the Owl nebula.

Marco Verstraaten — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:43:51 +0000

For some reason I never captured this nice nebula (actually a planetary nebula) before. I guess I’m not into those small objects. But extending my focal length with the purchase of my RC gives this nebula a better look from “nearby”. A larger magnification if you like.

Anyway, I’m really impressed with the result, also showing a lot of very faint galaxies in the backdrop. Like : 1 !

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Copy paste?

Marco Verstraaten — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:22:11 +0000

As you probably know, I totally remodeled my 10″ GSO RC into a truss version. The day the OTA arrived at my place, the saw went into it’s nice spotless white tube. I ended up with this prototype on the 21st of April, 2010:

This is the final version displayed at my observatory section. (photo taken first of June 2010)

I was then surprised to find out that this scope came out at the end 2011:

IKHAROS IK-RC10CFT 10″ F8 CF Truss Tube Ritchey Chretien by astro.phad

or the

Altair GSO RC Truss Tube

I know I shared some pictures of it but……

Do I have to feel honored? I’m not sure……

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Monkey head!

Marco Verstraaten — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:41:28 +0000

Nothing personal! It’s actually the nickname of NGC2174, a nebula in Orion. I captured this in two days under a cold and clear night. One of the last opportunities to capture a nebula this season since my equipment is now setup for galaxies. No more narrowband OIII & SII filters in my filterwheel.

It therefore is a LHaGB composite of this beautiful nebula, clearly showing a monkey head in silhouette.

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Edge viewed galaxy NGC 4565

Marco Verstraaten — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:44:58 +0000

Viewed from the side NGC 4565 really is a very nice galaxy to image. Not the best circumstances: bad seeing and the moon high up in the sky, but it’s a nice image. I shoot with a clear luminance filter and maybe it’s better to get a lightpollution filter to get more contrast and detail.

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Auriga, some open star clusters.

Marco Verstraaten — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:43:32 +0000

While waiting for some of the deeper targets, I captured some open clusters in Auriga to get the rig steamed up! Got a couple of nights for this. Normally not a target for my setup, but they should be in anyones album.

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Hunt for aurora

Marco Verstraaten — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:23:53 +0000

During the more or less predicted chances of seeing the Aurora on the 24th of January, I had some time to make this panorama view at the shore of Kornwerd. The Aurora didn’t show up but I liked the view over here!

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Bubble Nebula in narrowband

Marco Verstraaten — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:26:15 +0000

Processing images shot in narrowband is timeconsuming, as is taking enough data to get a descent result. But it’s worth the effort if the result is there!
I’m pleased with this result!

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NGC 7380, The Wizard

Marco Verstraaten — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:15:26 +0000

I just love this hobby! Look at those colors, which are obtained by using SII, Halpha and OIII 5nm. smallbandfilters ,used in a Hubble pallet. (SII/Halpha/OIII = R/G/B)
Just over 14.5 hours of exposure during the short summer nights (in terms of darkness)! I used some Halpha data recorded last year as well.

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