Queensland AUSTRALIA | Southern Astronomical Society Inc.

This journal  is a tribute to Erwin van der Velden’s passion for astrophotograghy and in particular with Mars.  His images are fascinating and inspiring.

‘Erwin became interested in astronomy at an early age. At the age of 7 years old he got his first telescope and also became a member of the Royal Dutch Society of Weather and Astronomy in Rotterdam.

At the age of about 29 he started with astrophotography. With his analogue camera Olympus OM-1 and Minolta XE-5 he succeeded in making his first photographs on slides. In 2002 he made his first webcam modification fit for photography of the planets.

The dutch sky was not dark enough and was one of the reasons for his decision to emigrate to Brisbane in Australia in March 2003. Here he became a member of the Southern Astronomical Society and the Brisbane Astronomical Society. At Leyburn in 2004 he used his self modified Nikon D70 camera to take many deepsky photographs.

With the combination of his determination, patience and knowledge of photo processing techniques, he made outstanding astrophotograhs considering the limitations of his equipment. Later he specialised in photography of the planets. In 2003 he made detailed photographs of Mercury which were used for scientific research.

Erwin passed away much too early as a result of a heartfailure. In recognition of his contribution to astrophotography and astronomy in general a planetoid was named after him in 2006. The planetoid “1999 BY25” discovered by Mr. Urata on 25th January 1999 is now called “(14664) Vandervelden”   ‘

–  extracted from the website set up by his sister, Ilse van der Velden as a tribute – http://www.erwinvandervelden.nl/