Solar Eclipse and Airplane transit

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The partial solar eclipse on October 25th happened conveniently during lunch break, and the skies were perfectly clear. I opted for the big refractor (Astro-Physics 127mm f/8) combined with a 2x Nikon teleconverter in the hope to capture some detail in the form of sunspots on the solar disc.

I setup the camera to record a set of timelapse images, taking a picture every 20s. After I while I also setup the 60mm refractor to be able to observe the eclipse visually.

Shortly after maximum eclipse I noticed an airplane with contrail heading to the area of the sky where the sun was located. From past experience I thought that it will miss the sun (the apparent diameter of the sund and moon in the sky is only about half a thumb’s width at arm-length), but switched the camera to video and started recording.

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Rosette Nebula

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I chose the Rosette nebula again as my target of choice when I wanted to test if I can improve on the image quality when using the 0,7x reducer.

The Rosette nebula is a large and relatively bright emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros. Various parts of the nebula have separate NGC numbers and the embedded star cluster itself is NGC2244

This wider view was taken with the Takahashi FS-60CB and shows the surrounding area of the sky.

Later I discovered that the reducer only provides a 10% reduction in focal length, while introducing quite a bit of vignetting.

Rosette Nebula, Nikon D750a, Optolong l-enhance Filter, Astro-Physics 127mm f/8 with 0.7x Reducer, 61x120s, ISO400
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Milky Way above Piz Buin

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I had to wait quite a bit for the clouds to reveal this view of Vorarlberg’s highest peak, the Piz Buin (3312m). The image was taken at an elevation of 2650m in the Silvretta mountain range in Vorarlberg, Austria.

Nikon Z6, 20mm f/1.8, 15s at f/2.2, ISO3200

The Rosette Nebula

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The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237, 2238, 2239, 2246) with the embedded open cluster NGC 2244, 1h53, Nikon D750a, Takahashi FS-60CB, Vixen Polarie, Optolong L-enhance

The Rosette nebula is a large and relatively bright emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros. Various parts of the nebula have separate NGC numbers and the embedded star cluster itself is NGC2244

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The Great Conjunction

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This december Jupiter and Saturns position in the sky are very close. This is a very rare event. I hiked above the fog to capture it before clouds rolled in for the next few days.

Wide angle image showing the fog covered Rhine Valley in Vorarlberg, the moon to the left and right above the clouds to the right Jupier and the much fainter Saturn.
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