DeepskyWim

During a technical mission to the Mercator  telescope on La Palma, I took some time to make some timelapses and nightscapes.  I used my Canon EOS 80D with a Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 lens. I'm really happy with the results!

We traveled to Reisenschuh, Italy where we had a nice view on the mountains.  I made a nightscape, timelapse and a picture with star trails.

For some tests on the MIRI instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope, I had to be in the Johnson Space Center in Houston. We had free access to some of the historical buildings, like the control room for the Apollo missions, which I could visit during one of my night shifts. I could also visit the building where a Saturn V rocket was lying without all the people that are in the building during official tours.  What a huge rocket!  Saturn V rocket In the visitor center, the NASA airplane that transported the space shuttles could be seen (with a mock-up of a space shuttle), Gemini 4 and Apollo 17 (the last mission to the moon). Gemini 5 Apollo 17 The control room for the Apollo missions

We planned to see the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse in the United States already years in advance.  Our hotel was located in Jackson, Wyoming, right in the totality zone.  We already booked the hotel two year in advance, and that was not so easy... Half of the hotels complained because we wanted to book so early, the other half of the hotels complained because we were so late (because of the eclipse).  We made a very nice roadtrip, starting in San Francisco, visiting the national parks in the South-West of the USA.  We ended in Wyoming, to visit Grand Teton National Park, were we experienced the eclipse and finished our trip in Yellowstone. The weather was extremely nice, and the high altitude made the smallest details during totality visible.  The picture were made using a Canon EOS 80D camera and a 300mm zoom lens.  We could observe the eclipse from within the Grand Teton National Park.  The wonderful scenery only added to the magic of the eclipse.  On of the roads, Gros

On our roadtrip in the USA to observe the solar eclipse of August 21, we passed by Flagstaff, where we visited the Lowell Observatory.  At this observatory, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. We were lucky because we could enter the building with Clark Refracting Telescope (diameter of 61 cm).  We spent some time in the nice park surrounding the observatory.

Our next stop on our trip to the solar eclipse of August 21, is the Meteor Crater (also known as Barringer Crater). An amazing sight! We also could see an Apollo Test Capsule and the American Astronaut Wall of Fame.

During our trip from Mammoth lakes to Death Valley, we passed very close by the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. We made a small detour to see the radio telescopes.

Because we are in the USA for the solar eclipse on August 21, we take the opportunity to visit some other interesting astronomical places. The first observatory we visited is the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. The main attraction is the 91cm refractor telescope.

I had a meeting in the Observatoire de Paris, where we could visit old observatory. The main attraction is the meridian of Paris and luckily it was sunny and we visited the observatory at noon, so we could see the picture of the sun projected on the meridian.