DeepskyWim

As the end of the year approaches, it is time to look back at 2014 and make a list full of good intentions for 2015. 1. Telescope Making    2014 I did not work a lot on the 35cm Dobsonian. Some varnishing was done and the telescope saw first light in France.  I started reading ' Engineering, Design and Construction of Portable Newtonian Telescopes ' by Albert Highe. I already learned a lot and plan to finish the book in 2015. I went to the very successful ATM-day in Ghent .   2015 Finish varnishing the 35cm Dobsonian. Add black self-adhesive foil in the mirror box of the 35cm Dobsonian to make sure straylight will not hit the mirror. Add Digital Encoders to the 35cm Dobsonian. Try to make the 35cm Dobsonian a bit lighter using some tips from the 'Portable Newtonian Telescopes' book. Find a company where I can re-coat the mirror of my 18'' Obsession Telescope. I received a 10cm Barco f/4 lens from Raf, a member of VVS Capella . I hope to test th

On December 5, I was invited to give a talk for Murzim vzw , the astronomical society of Aalst. The topic I talked about was : My astronomical trips in 2014 And indeed, I did a lot of astronomical trips in 2014, both private and work related. These are the topics I talked about : Tucson, Arizona, USA: Steward Observatory, Mirror lab. Leuven, Belgium: Premonstreit telescope. Paris, France: Headquarters of CNES : Centre National des Études Spatiales. Cruis, France: Observing in the garden, Montagne de Lure, Le Castellard-Mélan. La Palud-sur-Verdon, France: Observing in l'Enchastre, Mont Chiran. Saint-Véran, France: Sundials, Observatoire de Pic-du-Chateau-Rénard, Col d'Izoard. Greenbelt, Maryland, USA: Goddard Space Flight Center. Washington DC, USA: Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Chantilly, Virginia, USA: Udvar-Hazy Center. Grandpré, France: Observing weekend with Murzim vzw and VVS Capella . You can preview the presentation here : 

I hadn't been observing for a long time, so I was looking forward to the observing weekend organized by Murzim vzw , the astronomical association from Aalst, which took place from November 21 to November 23. This year, the members of VVS Capella , the astronomical association of Hoegaarden / Boutersem were also invited to join for a weekend full of astronomy. As we are members of both astronomical associations, we looked forward to seeing our friends again. The days before the observing weekend, everyone was looking at the weather predictions. At some moments, the weather looked very promising, at other moments, it looked like we would not have an opportunity to observe at all. But because at an observing weekend you also learn a lot from other people even when it is too cloudy to observe, we picked up Lotte, our little daughter and we left for Grandpré. After a trip of 3 hours (it was sunny during a part of the ride), we arrived in Grandpré. The house in Grandpré We gre

On November 8, Olivier picked me up to go to the ATM day in Ghent. The ATM day is organized by the 'Telescope Builders Working Group (' Werkgroep kijkerbouw ') of the A. Pien observatory in Ghent together with Jan van Gastel . The day was an enormous success, with more than 100 participants from Belgium and the Netherlands. More than 60 ATM-telescopes were exhibited. The program was very interesting, with a lot of nice and entertaining talks. Just after the dinner, there was a skype-con with Bruno Ernst (Hans de Rijk), who wrote the first and most important works on astronomy (Thieme's Sterrenboek) in Dutch in the 1960's and encouraged a lot of people in Belgium and the Netherlands to start with astronomy. He also invented the Kutter telescope together with Anton Kutter. He described in his books how to build a Kutter telescope. This made the Kutter telescope very popular in the 1970's. Lots of Kutter telescopes were exhibited during the ATM day. A