Hobbies - Astronomy

Hobbies: Astronomy

Another hobby of mine is Astronomy. I have been attracted by space since my childhood days, and in 1999 I started to deepen my knowledge. The Internet is a unbelieveable source for this topic, you can find some of my preferred sources on my links page.

On August 11, 1999 I went to Ulm (Germany) to see the totally sun eclipse but unhappily it was very overcast exactly when totality occured :-( ... but I got some nice looks before and after totality.

I own a very low-cost (and of course low-quality) reflector telescope (f = 700mm = 27,6inch ; d = f/9 = 76mm = 3inch) and some cheap binoculars (8x30) which I sometimes use to look at the planets and the moon; but most of the time I'm observing sky with the naked eye.

Around June, 1st 2001 my dad and me improved my telescope's tripod by replacing the old wodden one by a profi-style aluminium tripod. It took us about eight hours to set up a "polar-mounted" head on top of the new tripod together with a new (but still manual) elevation setting. Now the telescope's images are very stable and you can follow an object by just adjusting the azimutal setting.

... to be uploaded ... I will upload an image of my new tripod during the next days (it has to stop raining first before I can setup my reflector outside :-).

My favorite objects to watch are satellites (MIR, ISS, COBE, the Shuttle etc.) and marvellous Venus.

Watch out on these dates for meteorite showers:

Mar. 22nd - Lyrides

May - Aquanides

Aug. 12th - Perseides

Sep. 12th - Piscides

Nov. 15th - Leonides

Okt. - Orionides

(Source: Astronomy Magazine, http://www.astronomy.com)

	Around June, 1st 2001 my dad and me improved my telescope's tripod by replacing the old wodden one by a profi-style aluminium tripod. It took us about eight hours to set up a "polar-mounted" head on top of the new tripod together with a new (but still manual) elevation setting. Now the telescope's images are very stable and you can follow an object by just adjusting the azimutal setting.
... to be uploaded ...	I will upload an image of my new tripod during the next days (it has to stop raining first before I can setup my reflector outside :-).