Bernd Brinkmann About me

 

At the top of this page you will see me in thermal infrared emission (8-12 µm). My hometown is Herne in the middle of the Ruhr Area between Essen and Dortmund in Germany. My interests in astronomy are astrophotography and imaging with a Starlight SX CCD camera. During my holidays I want to be as often as possible in the shadow of the moon, that means I'm chasing total solar eclipses. Up to now I have been in: Finland 1990, Mexico 1991, Bolivia 1994, Siberia 1997, Curacao 1998, Bulgaria 1999 and Zambia 2001. I am member of the three astronomical associations: Foundation member and chairman of the Astronomische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wanne-Eickel / Herne e.V., which operates the Public Observatory Herne with a 5"-refractor and a GOTO 5 planetarium;

the Interessengemeinschaft Astrofotografie Bochum (IAB), which owns a Lichtenknecker Schmidt-Telescope (MPT-200) and the VdS (Vereinigung der Sternfreunde), sections Minor Planets, CCD-technology and Planetary and Cometary observers. At home I use a 18 year old Celestron 8 with tele-compressor and SLR lenses from 24 mm to 1100 mm focal length for CCD imaging. The light pollution here is severe (see below), so convetional astrophotography is only done from darker sites in the Eifel midlands (220 km south-west of my hometown) and the Sierra Nevada in Spain or Namibia. Most of the CCD images of comets and minor planets are not made for pretty pictures, but for measuring positions and brightnesses with Astrometrica. So the single exposure times are short, mostly 60 or 180 seconds. Limiting magnitude depends on seeing and transparacy of the sky and is about 15 mag with 180 sec. integration time. The images taken through the Celestron 8 are from Herne in the Ruhr Area and the ones taken with the 5" refractor were made at the Observatory Hoher List near Daun in the Eifel midlands. During my visits at the Observatory Hoher List I also used the 340/500/1375 mm Schmidt telescope in combination with an SBIG ST-6 CCD-camera.