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Karel Teuwen was born in Antwerp in 1951.  He currently lives in Turnhout, Belgium, a medium-size town about thirty kilometres East of Antwerp. Karel runs a small company in the advertising business and has done so for the past 25 years. He has been married to Karin for 20 or those years.  The Teuwens have two lovely children ... "and a bunch of animals."

Like most of us, Karel was bitten by the astronomy bug in his youth. It all began when he was about 10 years old and his father bought him a small telescope.  When he looked through it at the moon, it was like heaven on earth!  At the age of 15, Karel worked during his vacations to collect the money for a 76 mm refractor.  It was with this scope that he made the first images of the moon.  He held his camera "right behind the scope without any adapter ring." A few years later, in the late 1970's, he bought a C8 for more serious work. This was the beginning of his deep sky exploration. In those days it was of course with film (Kodak 103a spectroscopic).

Karel's Early C8 Photographic Setup

Work and other interests took over though and astronomy took a back seat for a while, but since 2003 his interest returned to astrophotography.  He bought a new set-up and is not "more passionate than ever."  He started with the Paramount ME with a C14 with an SBIG ST-10XME.  Although the optics were "not perfect," he enjoyed working with it for a few years and with good results, winning first place (all catagory) of the SCT User Imaging Competition in 2005.  But as CCD sensors became larger, Karel exchanged the C14 for a 16” Hypergraph that was designed for this purpose.  With this f/8 and f/3 system in one instrument, he continues to work with during the rare clear and transparent nights in Belgium.  "But I wanted to do better…I already know a few friends who were operating telescopes from a long distance remotely, and I always was of the opinion that this is not the right way to experience astronomy.  But due the very bad weather and sky conditions at home, I was on the lookout for a dark place in France for a couple of years."  Karel thought about buying a second home, building an observatory there and using it to photograph the night sky under almost perfect conditions. But due to the high prices for the properties, and also his work and family commitments, he eventually gave up the idea, instead opting for a portable system that he could take with him on trips to Southern France.    

"Especially for my astro-vacations to Southern-France I bought some transportable equipment (TMB152 mounted on a 10Micron GM2000QCI and an SBIG STL-11000M). I visited France about five times a year with friends and during such a trip I met a French guy who owns a large property at an almost perfect spot in France. Alain, the landlord, suggested to me that I place a dome on his land. The idea of building a remote observatory was born. Together with Daniel Marquardt, a German friend with whom I already enjoyed a few astro-vacations in the past, we worked out the plans and the final decision of building two observatories side by side was made very soon after that. Six months passed by and after a lot of worries and hard labour, I’m proud what we have accomplished and now I’m glad that everything is working like planned. In August 2008 I made my first picture remotely and I was very thrilled to watch the first frames appearing on my screen at home. I can image now with much longer exposure time and go much deeper into space, a great experience!"

Many of Karel's images have been published Belgian and Dutch astronomical magazines such as Distant Targets, Heelal, Zenit and Astro Bulletin.  Twice they have been selected by NASA as Astrophoto of the Day (APOD).  In addition, Karel has written articles concerning deep-space astrophotography also published in the same magazines.  He has also given lectures in Belgium and the Netherlands about astrophotography.  Karel is a member of VVS (Flemish Astronomical Society), Workgroups of Astro-photography in Belgium and Holland.

"There are a lot of contemporary astrophotographers whom I admire, like Tony Hallas, Rob Gendler, R. Jay Gabany, Johannes Schedler,... and with the increasing quality in their images, they are lifting my own work also to a higher level and induce me to make improvements every time."

Some samples of Karel's excellent work are displayed below.  To see more of his astrophotos please visit his web site at http://ww.karelteuwen.be

 

   

Karel's Current Portable Astrophoto Gear	At Work in his Roll-off Roof Observatory

Congratulations and Thanks to Karel!

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Revised: September 15, 2009 11:15:38 AM.
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