Unfortunately it is a very expensive enterprise. This is the main reason why I do not yet have my own telescope. For all of you, who are not so familiar with the topic, I would like to give some sites on the internet to get a first impression.
First there is the site of my former astronomy club Astronomischen
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mainz e.V. (AAG). Here you will get some information
about special events and the workgroups of this club. (in German only).
In addition to this link, I have created a small site introducing the
Paul-Baumann-Observatory
which is run by the AAG. Most of my observations have been done in this observatory.
Another site gives a short introduction to the VHS-Observatory
in Mainz, where most of the club meetings take place.
Some of my own Astrophotos are presented in the gallery below.
The pictures shown there are taken with my old Canon FT QL or since end of 2001
with my new Canon EOS 50E.
They cover different fields like deepsky-photos and planetary-photos but there
are also photos of objects orbiting the earth and of atmospheric phenomena.
Photographs of special astronomical events like lunar or solar eclipses can
be found under the link "Astro-Events".
Any comment in my guestbook is very much appreciated.
And here is the Astrophoto-Gallery:
Here are some images of noctilucent clouds from the season 2006 and the season 2009.
More photos will be added from time to time.