Showing posts with label Planets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planets. Show all posts

Thursday, March 26, 2026

Near occultation of SAO77121 by the Moon on March 24, 2026

Last Monday (March 24), I was located just north of the graze line for the lunar occultation of star SAO77121. My colleague Bart from Helios had alerted us, allowing me to track the event. As Bart predicted, I was in the area where the star was not occulted. My colleague Lieven also observed the event; he was positioned just south of the graze line and saw the star narrowly escape occultation as well.






Timing UT21h34
Setting: Star Adventurer GTI with Nikon D7500 and 200mm lens
Conditions: Transparency good and Seeing moderate. 





Sunday, March 1, 2026

MoonSwatch - Omega Speedmaster Mission to Earthphase Moonshine Gold

Not only I was interesested in the Speedmaster as a Moonwactch but also the fact the MoonSwatch shows the phases of the Moon. And in the case of the MoonSwatch Mission to Earthphase, the watch shows aswell the phase ot the Earth from the Moon. At the 10 o’clock position, the earth phase indicator shows the Earth with oceans that glow blue under UV light. Beneath the earth phase indicator is an illustration of Snoopy and Woodstock on the Moon, marveling at the enchanting spectacle of Earth. The illustration showcases a phrase that appears only under UV light. At the 2 o’clock subdial, is a moon phase indicator with two radiant full moons, both coated with OMEGA’s Moonshine™ Gold. One of the moons is designed in the distinctive style of the world of Snoopy, while the other features a unique snowflake design. The design is unique for every model, ensuring that, just like snowflakes in nature, no two timepieces are ever the same.
I bought the watch last week in Brussels, together with my daughter.






Sunday, February 1, 2026

MoonSwatch - Omega Speedmaster Mission to the Sun

Since a couple of years I want to buy the Speedmaster of Omega. The Speedmaster is the only watch qualified by NASA. Just three weeks after receiving NASA’s official qualification, the Speedmaster ST 105.003 made its space debut on March 23, 1965. It was worn by astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young during the Gemini 3 mission. 

Following Gemini 3, the Speedmaster— and its subsequent evolutions— became an essential piece of equipment for every crewed NASA mission. It gained legendary status when astronaut Ed White wore it during the first American spacewalk later that same year, and again during Apollo 8 in 1968, when its crew became the first humans to witness "the far side of the Moon."As the missions advanced, so did the importance of the Speedmaster. On July 20, 1969, NASA achieved its ultimate goal: Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Moon. As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface, the Speedmaster became the first watch worn on the Moon— a milestone in both space exploration and horological history.

From that moment forward, the Speedmaster continued to accompany astronauts on every Moon landing and remained a trusted tool throughout the Apollo program and beyond.

When a couple of year ago the MoonSwatch was launched, it was my chance to buy this historical watch. But it was only recently when I bought one. I choose the MoonSwatch, a Sun Yellow dial "Mission to the Sun" Speedmaster with Dot over 90!





Sunday, November 23, 2025

Saturn November 17

Imaging Saturn on November 17, 2025 with ring tilt of 0,38°.

Editing was done using the newest version of AstroSurface W3.

Setting: TAL200K, ADC, Barlowx2, ASI715MC
Filter: IR/UV Cut
Software: SharpCap, AstroSurface, CS4, DeNoise AI, WinJupos.




Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Saturn with new ASI715MC Camera

First time this year capturing Saturn. The tilt of the rings are almost zero with 0,45°, a Saturn with edge on rings is not the Saturn we typically know from the books. But still interesting view.

I used my new camera ASI715MC with small pixels. I forget to keep an eye on the whitebalance on sharpcap. I made image both with and without IR/UC cut filter.



Compared with my ASI224MC



Setting is same as previous year; it was difficult to get blue/red out even when using my ADC.




Thursday, August 21, 2025

Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Moon at sunrise

 At UT3h21 this morning I was able to capture Mercury which was only 3° above the horizon. The sky was special with Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and the Moon and a golden hour background.





Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Venus-Jupiter Conjuction

Venus passes south of planet Jupiter this morning. I got up very early and went to Schaffen to get a free eastern horizon. Images mad with my Nikon D7500.




Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Moon and Pleiades

 


Moon and Pleiades.
Set up: TLAPO80/489 f/6 on EQ8 and Nikon D7500
Bracketing and HDR using CS4

Friday, March 7, 2025

Monday, February 10, 2025

Mars Profiler - Mars Map - Mars Mapper

When observing Mars, this website can be used which structures you imaged or drawed. 

Mars Profiler 

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Mars Feb 3, 2025

 



Image of Mars on Feb 3, 2025. The polar cap is clearly visible aswell other structures on the disk.

Setting
TAL 200K @f/26 using Barlow X3
ASI224MC camera and IR/UV blocking filter
Sofware: SharpCap 4, AstroSurface and CS4

Jupiter and Transit of Io with Shadow and outbreak in NTrZ

 


Transit of Io on Jupiter with shadow. Moon Ganymede can be seen left on above picture. Also visibel is the "outbreak" in the Northern Tropical Zone (NTrZ).

The ADC with my Barlow x2 was replace with a Celestron Barlow X3 (on loan from Helios colleague).



Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Mars

Image of planet Mars. It's the first time I could image Mars since the last opposition of 2022.

Setting:
- TAL200K with ASI224MC
- IR/UV cut and Barlow x3
- SharpCap, AstroSurface and CS4




Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Jupiter and Shadow transit of Ganymede

 




Temperature dropped to -5°C when shadow transit of Ganymede started.

Setting: TAL200K @f/26 with ASI224MC
ADC and IR/UC Cut
Exposure tim 27ms and 30.000 frames of which 3000 stacked.
Software: SharpCap 4, AstroSurface and CS4


Saturday, January 11, 2025

Jupiter Jan 9, 2025 with GRS

I reworked by image by applying derotation using Winjupos. All in all, no huge improvements.





Thursday, January 9, 2025

Jupiter and GRS

This evening some clear skies with 2 inches of snow and 0,5°C. Time to capture Jupiter with Great Red Spot. 

Setting
TAL200K f/23 with ADC and Barlow x2
IR/OV Cut filter
ASI224MC
16bit, 127fps, 30.000 frames of which 3000 withhold
Software : SharpCap 4, AstroSurface V3 Volcano, CS4





Saturday, January 4, 2025

Moon-Venus Conjunction

My first observation of 2025 with a nice Moon-Venus conjuction.

Setting :
Nikon D7500 with 18-200mm lens set on 90mm
Bracketing and HDR combining using CS4. Final editing with DeNoise AI.





Saturday, November 30, 2024

Jupiter - One week before Opposition

First time this year that I captured Jupiter. Temperature was 1°C and declining.

Setting:
TAL 200K @ f/23 with Barlowx2, ADC and IR/UV cut
ASI224MC camera
Software : SharpCap, AstroSurface and CS4







Saturday, November 23, 2024

First HDR image using bracketing - Moon Halo with Mars

To capture a halo around the Moon I applied bracketing using my Nikon D7500. Postprocessing was done using all 5 "bracketing" images with CS4 (Menu Automatic, Merge to HDR). Once the image is made, some minor editing and noise reduction was done. The final image has some more details using this HDR technic.


Thursday, November 21, 2024

Moon Halo with Mars

Freezing temperatures and a Moon with a 360° Halo and Mars. Image taken with Nikon D7500 and bracketing setting.