Rolf Wahl Olsen astrophotographyI have always been very interested in astronomy, and I have had telescopes since 1990, starting out with a 60mm refractor, moving up to a 4" refractor on an equatorial mount and now a 10" f/5.2 Newtonian permanently mounted in the observatory. In 2003 I ventured into the world of webcam astrophotography, and I am currently taking my images with a long exposure modified Philips ToUCam Pro webcam. A lot of thanks go to Steve Chambers for pioneering in the area of long exposure modifications. As I'm also a programmer I have made GalaxyMerger, a program for modelling the gravitational interaction of galaxies. As a genuine geek I find it appealing to watch cataclysmic collisions and impact simulations unfold on my screen. My observatory is located in Titirangi, a west Auckland suburb in the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges and bordering a natural rainforest reserve. The sky is very transparent here, due to the general low amounts of air pollution and high altitude dust in the southern hemisphere. The sky is also very dark since I live on the edge of the city, bordering a large rainforest reserve and the nearby Tasman Sea. Also the latitude of -37 degrees provides an 80% view of the entire two hemispheres.
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