LX200 Classic Storyboard
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) � 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.
� 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.
� 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) � 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