• Heidelberg,  Landscape,  World at night

    Earthlight, Jupiter and Saturn

    17. Dezember 2020 / No Comments

    The sun is setting in the west. The Moon moves east and setting in the west, too. If one compares the position of the Moon relative to the prominent planets Saturn and Jupiter, because they appear close to each other, it is no longer below the two, but to the east next to them.

    Yesterday, crescent moon right below Saturn and Jupiter © Julian Köpke
    Today, Moon east of Saturn and Jupiter © Julian Köpke

    Temporarily there was much less haze today, so that the earthlight (in german: aschfahles Mondlicht) of the moon in the right hand image is very well visible. Yesterday you could only guess. With the spotting scope the crescent moon shows up well detailed.

    Waxing crescent moon, 72h old © Julian Köpke

    The spotting scope allows to photograph the two planets Saturn and Jupiter with a full frame camera in a single field of view at lowest magnification (x30, which is about 800mm focal length). The structure of the planets ist better outlined with short exposure times (see insets), the Galilean moons of Jupiter need a longer one.

    Saturn and Jupiter, 4d before Great Conjunction © Julian Köpke
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  • About me

    3. November 2018 /

    Julian Köpke

    What am I doing ?

    Sometimes I answer: I’m making every day black and white images to earn my life. I’m a radiologist by profession, a physicist and physician by graduation. 

    Beside scientific research I always felt attracted by music, literature, painting and art.

    After times of painting in watercolor, oil and sketching I restarted photography in 2005  with my first digital SLR, a Canon 350D. After a couple of years of poking around in the dark I discovered astrophotography in 2010.

    Physical properties of lenses, telescopes and of sensors had to be understood. I became familiar with technical details of image acquisition and editing under a cosmos of conditions.

    And I found a way back to the light at daytime. Only recent with a friend we combined digital images of photo sensors and x-ray sensors to get beautiful results.

    The sky is the limit.

     

    Julian Köpke

    Heidelberg, November 2018

    • email me: koepke (at) himmelslandschaften.de

    Lighthouses

    You learn the benefit of a lighthouse easily on a sailing boat.  

    Flowers

    There are different approaches to photograph flowers.

    World at night

    Colors and moods are vivid after sunset. Digital sensors catch it, when our eyes see only grey.

    What's important to me

    Ever since I undertook any image related efforts: there’s always something to show, the naked eye wouldn’t see without.

    It’s just normal in my profession as a radiologist.

    It’s likewise in astronomy.

    And in good photographs, too. 

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