Lynn van Rooijen

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Lynn is a member of the KNVWS (Royal Dutch Association for Meteorology & Astronomy) and its Workgroup Astrophoto-graphy, as well as chairman of the 't Gooi Chapter of the KNVWS.

Her interest in Astronomy goes back as long as she can remember, but she has only been an active amateur for the past 12 years. She made her first attempts at astro-photography in 2006/7.

After a busy business career, she is now completing a MSc (Astronomy). Her main (astronomical) interests are exoplanet systems, globular clusters and astrophoto-graphy. She also gives presentations for schools & clubs and is the first NASA-JPL "Solar System Ambassador" for the Benelux.

In addition to the deep-sky photos on these pages, Lynn traveled in 2008 to Hami, China and photographed the total Solar eclipse. For her report and photos, click here.

Equipment

Telescopes

Telescopes & mounts:

Lynn started with a 12.5cm telescope (an original version Nexstar 5) but now has 5 telescopes varying from 6cm to 28cm:

Nexstar 5" - my first scope and still going strong. A great travel-telescope!
Meade 8" LX200-ACF on a Losmandy Gemini 8 mount
Televue 60 , serving as finder on the 8" and stand-alone scope for Solar and eclipse observations
Celestron 11" Nexstar GPS, on a wedge for astro- photography or in alt-az for visual use
Stellarvue Nighthawk 80 as finder on the 11" and also stand-alone scope for astrophotography and use with the AstroTrac
AstroTrac with wedge: handy (& lightweight!) mount for traveling and wide-field astrophotography. Can be used with DSLR & (tele)lenses or the Televue 60 or Stellarvue 80

Cameras:

Canon 20Da, a model Canon produced briefly, especially for astrophotography
Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C
Atik 16 & Lodestar as guiders
Canon 10D - an old favorite, when photographing with both telescopes & AstroTrac

Software:

MaximDL
MiraPro 7
Photoshop CS4
StarryNight Pro
DeepSky (planning)

April 2010: Markarian's Chain, M58 area, M81-82 & M13, taken with Celestron 11", Hyperstar 3 & Starlight Xpress SXV-M25c

m86

Markarian's Chain, a deep field of 12.5 hours and 194 exposures; background galaxies to +/- mag 22 visible and redshift 0.7 (or > 6 billion years light-travel-time). These are far beyond the Virgo cluster @ 17 Mpc. Taken with 11" Celestron Nexstar GPS with Hyperstar 3, Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C. Click here for larger version. Click here for version with redshifts, here for inverted version with redshifts. Click here for the full paper.

M58 & surrounding galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, 4.5 hours; taken with 11" Celestron Nexstar GPS with Hyperstar 3, Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C. Stacked with Maxim, finished with Photoshop. Click here for larger version..

M81- M82 and surrounding galaxies, 2 hours; taken with 11" Celestron Nexstar GPS with Hyperstar 3, Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C. Stacked with Maxim, finished with Photoshop. Click here for larger version.

M13, something I'd not taken since 2007, 2 hours @ f/2 and 70+ background galaxies appeared! Taken with 11" Celestron Nexstar GPS with Hyperstar 3, Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C. Click here for larger version.

These images were taken in southern France while working on an observation project for my MSc (Astronomy) at Swinburne. The Virgo Cluster images are deep fields of several hours @ f/2, and measured magnitudes down to 21 - 23. Up to 400 background galaxies per image. Click the links under the pictures for higher resolution versions. M81-82 & M13 were taken when the Virgo Cluster had gotten too low. The big surprise was that M13 also had 70+ background galaxies.

April & June 2010: M8, M22, Comet McNaught C/2009 R1

M8, the Lagoon Nebula, 5600s; taken with 11" Celestron Nexstar GPS with Hyperstar 3, Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C. Stacked with Maxim, finished with Photoshop. Click here for larger version.

M22 in Sagittarius, only 25 minutes, since the Sun was coming up; taken with 11" Celestron Nexstar GPS with Hyperstar 3, Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C. Stacked with Maxim, finished with Photoshop. Click here for larger version.

Comet McNaught C/2009 R1, taken from an attic window because it was so low in the north. Stellarvue 80ED & Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C. Comet-focused image stacked on background-focused image. Click here for larger version.

Comet McNaught C/2009 R1, taken from an attic window because it was so low in the north. Stellarvue 80ED & Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C. 32 minutes, focus on comet. Click here for larger version.

This block of images were very challenging for similar reasons, although the first two are from France and the last two from the Netherlands. In both cases, the subject was very near the horizon. The Sagittarius images were taken just before sunrise, since it was April. The comet McNaught images were taken near midsummer night at 52N, when it never really gets dark, The comet was just above the horizon while the Sun was just under.

April 2010: taken with Meade 8" LX200-ACF & Canon 20Da

M104, Sombrero Galaxy

M104, 5840s @ ISO 1600. Taken with 8"Meade LX200-ACF and Canon 20Da on two nights in France. Stacked with Maxim, finished with Photoshop. Click here for larger version.

M63, the Sunflower Galaxy in Canes Venatici & part of the M51 group, 4000s @ ISO 1600. Taken with 8"Meade LX200-ACF and Canon 20Da. Stacked with Maxim, finished with Photoshop. Click here for larger version.

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici: 2814s @ ISO 1600. Taken with 8"Meade LX200-ACF and Canon 20Da. Stacked with Maxim, finished with Photoshop. Click here for larger version.

NGC 4258: 3840s @ ISO 1600. An interesting galaxy with a warped disk and water masers, making accurate distance measurements possible. Taken with 8"Meade LX200-ACF and Canon 20Da. Click here for larger version.

These photos were also taken in Pradines, France. The Losmandy was (again!) acting up, despite careful balancing and clutch readjustment - and was slipping noticably. The result was sloppy guiding and shorter exposures than I'd have liked. For another project, I'd reduced images of the last three galaxies that had been taken on a much larger scope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas - so I decided to image them as well for comparison. All things considered, these compare more favorably than I'd expected!