Bernhard Hubl

Astrophotography Contributor

Bernhard Hubl lives in Austria, in a flat valley on the north side of the Alps at sea level 400 m. Most of the images in his gallery were taken from his backyard observatory, which houses a 12" Newtonian telescope and a piggy-back refractor. During foggy winter months, he sometimes observes from a nearby hill at sea level 920 m using his mobile equipment.

By profession, Bernhard is a calculation engineer for a local company. His engineering background and software knowledge greatly assist his astrophotography work.

His fascination with astronomy began in childhood, inspired by images of Jupiter and Saturn taken by Voyager 2. This led him to buy a star map and astronomy books, and eventually, he started observing with a 7x50 binocular and later a 6" Newtonian telescope. His interest in astronomical objects led him to study technical physics and astronomy in Vienna. He decided to pursue a career as an engineer and keep astronomy as a hobby, which proved to be a very fulfilling decision. Astrophotography has been a passion of his for over 30 years, and it continues to be a source of great joy.

Over the years, Bernhard has used various equipment, starting with black and white chemical photography with his 6" Newtonian in the nineties. He built a 12" Dobsonian telescope for visual observing and later ventured into CCD photography with a self-made Cookbook CCD camera. With a larger mount for the 12" Newtonian, he progressed to chemical color photography. In 2004, he purchased his first commercial CCD camera, which he primarily used with a 4" refractor. After reworking his Newtonian telescope, the quality of his images improved significantly.