Visual – How it all began (Ori Meissa region)When I look back to my childhood, I had nothing but open eyes when my grandmother showed me the "Big Dipper" (asterism in UMa), told me stories about the moon and an old man living there. Or she pointed out the three so called "belt stars" of Orion while being unknowing a constellation named "Orion" exists.
She had a different image in mind: She named the three "belt stars" plus Rigel (beta Ori) "rake" – probably because my grandmother loved gardening and knew exactly how a "rake" looks like.
Years later I got my grandpa's old 10x50 binoculars. Some 25 years later I bought my first Dobson and started planed visual observations – no cables, no battery, no displays – everything by star hopping and fully manual.
At that time I was also a vivid member of the former
usenet group (aka
newsgroup)
de.sci.astronomie which was later completely assimilated by Google and transferred into a Google Group. A good number of my
visual observation reports are still available there.
Now I'm in my sixties and my astrophotography journey has now taken already two years. I am still and every single time amazed and grateful viewing the night sky from a dark place with my own eyes .... without cables, calculations, batteries and in particular without displays.
This image, though taken with technical equipment and the blessings of cameras and computers, is a reminiscence to the time when my amazement at the beauty of the night sky began, mesmerized by what I could see with my own eyes up there.
Thank you, Grandma
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