Uranus with Titania ans Oberon

Using my AZ-EQ6 GT I was able to locate Uranus. This is my first time ever I could observe Uranus. Low above the ESE horizon in the constellation Pisces, When enlarging the picture I got Uranus together with two moons Titania and Oberon (via Stellarium0.14.3). Both pictures are edited using CS4

Small Moon

F10 TAL200K Klevtsov-Cassegrain

After 3 months thinking time and testing I made finally my decision and choose for the TAL200K. This is a Klevtsov-Cassegrain type telescoop with a primary mirror reflecting the light into a secundary mirror and corrector. The 8" aperture with focus length 2000mm (f/10 ) is Russian made and thus very robust.

Weather Summary for August

Higher temperatures and less rain compared with last year August.

Gnomonics or the art and design of sundials

As many things also the art, design and the science of sundials (which is being described as gnomonics) can be exciting. 

So when visiting next time a city, town, ... make sure to look around and have an eye for sundials. 

Chicago §USA) - Adler Planetarium

Salzburg (Austria) - Marketplace

Izegem (B) - Marketplace

Barcelona (Spain) - Montjuic Castle

Rovinj (Croatia) - Market place with fontain

Finally my first pictures (M13 & M57) with AZ-EQ6 tracking

It took some time but after reading, looking at youtube video's and visiting the Star party in Ieper last friday, I was able to have a better and stable alignment.

In short I completed following steps of my AZ-EQ6 mount :
1) setting the mount stable and balanced using the bubble of the mount
2) setting the home position - both RA and Dec
3) alignment of the polarstar within the polarscope
4) 3-star alignment using the Synscan of the mount

Visible "goto" observation showed good results with the object in field of focus. Tracking was set and ready to make my first pictures with "long" exposures up to 30s.

Personally I'm very happy about the result of both M57 and M13.

Bright Iridium Flare

Seeing was not good but enough to see a bright Iridium flare. This time it was Iridium 81 with a mag -6.5. Picture was edited using CS4.