I started with astronomy in Summer 2006 with a second-hand Skywatcher 8″ f6 Dobsonian. I had fun with it for some time and it came as it had to come. I wanted to photograph the objects I weakly saw.
An EQ6 (first series) was purchased, on which the Dobson came. This was the beginning of an exiting hobby…
After a short time, this had to give way to an f4 GSO Galaxy, which was supplemented with a 70mm f10 “Lidl” guide tube and a Phillips webcam VestaPCVC675. Later, a 4″ MAK, a Skywatcher ED80mm, and a Vixen 90M with a GP mount were added. A Boxdörfer SDI was updated by a display and a guiding interface. My camera was the first Canon DSLR, the 300D.
The EQ6 was bought used and I didn´t ask about the performance/ error. The first attempts where more than bad, so I tried to adjust it as well by myself. I took it completely apart, cleaned it, replaced the bearings and re-greased it. The result was only a little improvement, but not good enough. So I sold it and bought a “tuned” EQ6 from VTSB from Bremen.
In 2007 my former girlfriend and me bought a house close to Oldenburg. Luckily for me, it also had a garden shed, so my next project was born – an observatory.
In 2008 I broke up with my girlfriend. Due to the fact that I had to move out, I also stopped astrophotography.
In retrospect, I have to say in all fairness that at the time, it was more the journey that was the goal for me and not the photography. I still like to create private projects, like the creation of this website.
Here are a few pictures of my equipment and the observatory at that time. As you might notice, a lot of electrical stuff was not available at that time or too expensive. So I soldered some parts by myself.
