Pierre Mechain - Metre - Montjuic

When walking in the fortress at Montjuic in Barcelona I found at the wall of the tower a small plaque and a sundial. Reference was made to Pierre Mechain who set out to measure the meridian arc distance between Dunkirk to Barcelona. The fortress was chosen a the reference point. Using this measurement and the latitudes of the two cities he could calculate the distance between the North Pole and the Equator and produce the first prototype "Metre" which was defined as 1/10.000.000 of that distance.

Sundial reference the coordinates.

Fortress on Monjuic in Barcelona

Lightning pictures

On Aug 13, 2015 a thunderstorm hit almost entire Belgium with heavy rain, wind and lighting flashes all around.
I was able to make some pictures trying out different settings. This time is used a very small aperture of f/20 and increased time up to 30s.
Both pictures are edited using photshop CS4.

String Theory Universe

After a stressfull day it's always important to relax. Why not attending a public lecture on the tring theory universe at the university of Leuven. The lecture on tuesday gave a short overview on the string theory and the beginning of the universe. But most relevant discussion was about spacetime and how string theory describes gravity. This was done by holographic principle based on the fact that information not can be lost - even in black holes.

Phantastic Optical phenomena by the sun

Fast changing weather conditions also trigger optical phenomena as the sun interacts with ice chrystals in the atmosphere (high clouds).

In this section I show my most recent picures from most common halo's, sundogs and rainbow.

On august 3, 2015 I could make the the picture below. After modification using CS4 the picture shows different phenomena. From top to bottom :

 

Circumzenital Arc

"attached" Supralateral Arc

Pary Arc and Tangent Arc

22° Halo Arc

On the right/low end a sundog

Modiefied Using CS4 B/W


What do you see ...  in theory

The above is not my picture but it shows what is seen!

Orignal picture without modification

 

The picture below shows on top a part of 22° Halo taken on August 2, 2015

Above the bright rainbow it's hard to see but there is a faint second rainbow, July 27, 2015

Beautiful sunset with left and right hand sundogs. On the right most probably a piece of the parhelic circle. Picture taken August 2, 2015

July Weather

July weather results for Averbode - Belgium using WMR200 - Cumulus 1.9.4 Sandy Soft

The sun today

Hot weather today and open sky with high clouds. But still able to observe the sun. I made a compilation of the sun using Orion XT12 with Baader film and 24mm Ocular. Two small sunspots are seen on this picture. The other picture is black/white picture from PST 40mm with 24mm Ocular. On the right / low corner you can observe a "small" prominence.

ESTEC Opens Door for Public

See Website ESA Website
On October 4th, ESTEC opens their doors for the public. ESTEC is the technical heart of ESA and a must for all who have interest in space. My tickets are ordered :)