LX200 Classic Storyboard


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Here are some pictures of and made by my LX200 12" Classic, when observing or photographing comets since the last 25 years.

    

Observing on the Emberger Alm in September 1997
The ITT telescope meeting in Austria was my first contact to other amateur astronomers.
Some of the guys there where talking about the just discovered comet C/1997 Meunier-Dupouy.
From that time on I was infected with comets.

C/1997 J2 (Meunier-Dupouy) � by Bernhard Haeusler, Germany

C/1997 J2 (Meunier-Dupouy)  � 1998-08-29 by Bernhard Haeusler, Maidbronn, Germany. Photo taken in Rimpar, Germany                                                     

5 min. exposure, 1998-08-29 UT 19:41,  12" SCT  f-10 + CCD ST-8
13.77 mag, coma: 31", tail: 37"  in PA 170�            


September, 27 1998 on the Emberger Alm again           


Some weeks later, I surprisingly found a tail of C/1998 W3 (LINEAR) in a long-term exposure of  80 minutes.
This detection was the first highlight in my comet astronomy, though the comet was in distance of Jupiter at the time of exposure.

C/1998 W3 (LINEAR) � by Bernhard H�usler, Germany

� 1998-12-17 by Bernhard Haeusler, Maidbronn, Germany

Comet:  C/1998 W3 (LINEAR) 8 x 10 min. exposure, 1998-12-17 UT 00:16 to UT 02:19, 12" SCT f-10 + CCD ST-8, croped 2x2 bin image
Magnitude: 16.69,  coma: 10", tail: 2'05" in PA 167� , the length of the tail is around 340.000 km  and corresponds to the distance between Earth and Moon


September, 24 1999 on the Emberger Alm  


In summer 2000 we expected a new comet becoming bright: C/1999 S4 (LINEAR).

 

My brother Guenther and me were driving in mid July 2000 for a week to the Emberger Alm, to take some photos of the new comet.
Unfortunately the weather was so bad and it was raining the complete week.

The ST-8 has a parallel interface which is connected with a laptop. A 200 mm, f-2.8  tele lens of a Minolta X-700 is sattled on the ccd camera, 
combined with a 2 x focal length duplexer.

This was the moment after six days rain, when the sky cleared for the first time.The Alm is lying in 1750 m and normally
the parking place is full of cars in summer. But caused by the bad weather we were almost alone. (July, 12 2000)

The sun came out a bit and so I hopefully prepared the comet shooting for the coming night.
The ccd camera ST-8 with a 200 mm tele lens is piggy-backed on the telescope.
Later I performed the guiding manually with a guiding ocular.

C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) � by Bernhard H�usler, Germany

� 2000-07-13 by Bernhard Haeusler, Maidbronn, Germany,  Photo taken on the Emberger Alm, Austria 

Comet:  C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) 6 x 2 min. exposure, 2000-07-13 UT 01:00 to UT 01:15,
ST-8 with 400 mm tele lens f-8, piggy-backed and manually guided with the 12" Meade SCT
North up, East left

Only three quaters of an hour the sky was clear on direction to the comet.


Nine days after our trip to the Emberger Alm, we decided to drive not so far to observe the comet.
The Kreuzberg Mountain in the Rhoen in Central Germany is famous for its very tasteful Monastery beer and its delicious Schweinehaxe.

...but we can get not only culinary deliciousness on the mountain, but also very good dark skies in 850 m above sea level.
This is my older brother Guenther who assisted me on the Kreuzberg at July, 23 2000

C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) � by Bernhard Haeusler, Germany 

C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) � 2000-07-13 by Bernhard Haeusler, Maidbronn, Germany,  Photo taken on the Kreuzberg, Germany 

Comet:  C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) 10 x 1 min. exposure, 2000-07-23 UT 22:09 to UT 22:20,
ST-8 with a 200 mm tele lens f-2.8, piggy-backed and manually guided with the 12" Meade SCT
North up, East left

The Beauty and the Death of comet C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) with an image of the desintegrating comet.
Only a week later the comet broke in hundreds of peaces.
The Hubble space telescope took some photos of this event.


On the Emberger Alm at September, 2000

In Grand Champs, Provence in Southern France at June, 2003

On the Emberger Alm at September, 2003


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Copyright: The author of NEO Planner and all sites of this web is Bernhard Haeusler, Dettelbach, Germany, all rights reserved