WIf you want to look deep into space, you have to collect light. Distant celestial bodies can be made visible if photos are repeatedly taken over hours and copied over one another. A long exposure is also possible to detect faintly glowing objects in the night sky, as amateur astronomer Michael Feiler explains. However, this requires the right equipment, a powerful telescope to which a digital camera can be attached. This means that even amateurs can take pictures that a few years ago were still reserved for NASA or the European space agency Esa with their professional equipment.
Feiler and his colleagues from the Orion Astronomical Society in Bad Homburg are happy to have such a telescope, even with Zeiss lenses. It comes from a private observatory in the Odenwald. The Bad Homburg association was able to acquire the optical apparatus cheaply because it is already used, as Bernhard Strauch, a member of the Orion Society, says. But that doesn’t detract from the quality, after all, glass doesn’t age.