DeepskyWim

The week of April 20, 2020, close to the new moon, we could again enjoy very nice weather.  We had nice blue skies and warm temperatures during the day.  Also at night, the temperature was still fine and the humidity very low. Luckily, I could fetch the ground board of my Obsession telescope on Monday.  After installation of the old groundboard, I tested the Argo Navis.  As the motor of the equatorial platform is broken (and a ServoCat is ordered), no tracking would be possible during this week.  On Monday, I started observing, but after 30 minutes, clouds started rolling in.  This short night could already confirm that the Argo Navis worked perfectly.  The external battery was already empty after 30 minutes.  This battery is very old, so it is probably time to replace it (and I need a new one for the Argo Navis anyway). Tuesday was a fantastic night! I enjoyed a lot of showpieces (lot's of Messier objects).  The main highlights were M 82 (what an amazing cigar-shaped gal

During the first new moon of the Covid-19 lockdown, the skies were clear. See  https://deepskywim.blogspot.com/2020/03/fun-in-garden.html  for some pictures. Using the 35cm Dobsonian, I had the opportunity to make some drawings of galaxies in Leo.  I'm not very happy with the results yet, but the only way to improve this is to keep practising.  The galaxies itself should be fainter, and not all stars are at the exact location. NGC 2903  NGC 3489

On April 3, 2020, Venus passed through the Pleiades star cluster.  Sadly, it was totally clouded out at home.  Luckily, on April 4, the sky was very clear, so I could take some pictures of Venus very close to M 45.  Through the binoculars, the view was also amazing! Venus in the pleiades, Canon EOS R, RF28-70mm F2 L USM at 70mm, 0.6s at F/2.0, ISO 3200 Venus in the pleiades, Canon EOS R, EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM at 300mm, 5.3s at F/5.6, ISO 3200