Interview with users of SV503 telescope 3 -Harald Becher “ interest = work”

Today we invite Harald Becher to do this week's SV503 interview. When the interest becomes your work, everything is getting full of fun.

1. Can you give a short introduction of yourself?

My name is Harald Becher, I am 53years old and I am married and have two sons. I live in southern Germany. I studied in Munich air and space technology.

(Voice-over: I don't believe what he said about the age, he is more like 40 years old.

)

2. You take nice deep sky images, have you been into the Astronomy hobby for many years? And what gears are you using right now?

I am interested in astronomy since I am 12 years old. My first Teleskope I bought in 1995. After „some“ years I decided in 2020 to restart with astrophotography. I use an Azeq6 pro-Mount. My camera is a Zwo ASI071mc pro. Additionally I use a LUMIX G81 sometimes. I have an 8“Newton and the Sv503 80ED. Controlled is everything with the Asiair plus.

3. Why did you choose the SV503 80ED telescope among the so many famous refractors, and how do you think of this scope by your experience?

I was searching for a scope suitable to take along into holiday and a wider field of view but wanted not to invest too much into a secondary scope. The 80ED is a very good quality scope compared to its price. It holds focus very well through the night and the focuser is solid and very fine in tuning. The SV193 Reducer works perfect. I love the easy handling with it compared to my Newton. Stars are a little bit bloated unfortunately but as said fair compared to its price.
M42 by SV503 80ED+SV193

4. From your picture, we can see excellent post-process skills, which are essential for a qualified Astronomer, how do you learn and what methods are you most fond of?

I started with deepskystacker and advanced over Siril and Astropixelprozessor to Pixinsight.
I watched tutorials and read forum articles to learn how to use the software. For finetuning I use Affinity Photo which is great for curves and colors. As well the community of other astrophotographers is always great to support when getting stuck.

5. You have a cute dog, what's his/her name and how old?

Where do you usually do deep-sky photography? It is really nice you can get accompanied when you do star exploration.

My dog is a golden Retriever and is called Nelly. She is 2,5 years old and is our 3rd Goldie. She is accompanying me when I am in my backyard. She is so quiet that I get scared when she moves suddenly as I forgot she is there when concentrating on stars.

6. the last question, do you have some suggestions or funny astronomy experiences want to share with us? I can still remember the first time I saw the Tycho crater with a telescope and didn't go to sleep until 1:00 AM.😅

At the total eclipse of the sun in2000, I was driving crazy around with my car to fetch a hole in the clouds, but did not succeed. I remember my euphoria when I managed to ban my first picture of M13 with my Astromaster and the small ASI224mc. No goto and no tracking just the RA motor.

My most challenging target so far was IC342 with my Newton and the Svbony I/Rcut filter.