Exhibition Solarsystem in Herentals by Polaris

Yesterday I visited the exhibtion of the solarsystem in Herentals.
Yesterday and also today, ASH Polaris organises an exhibition of the latest evolutions of our solarsystem. An overview of the history of our solarsystem from ancient Greek till today is presented aswell as an update and latest news on dwarf planet Pluto. Beside this, also Jupiter, Mars and Mission Rosetta are covered. But most I liked the presentation of the observations done by the members of Polaris themselves. This presentation showed multiple observations of the sun and all of the (dwarf) planets of our solarsystem. It's impressive that amateur astronomers can see all aspects of the solarsystem from their backyard.

An immediate eyecatcher is located at the center of the exhibition where you can find an impressive model (scale 1:4) of ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

VVS Annual Meeting

Bruparck in Brussels was choosen to host the annual meeting of the VVS. Beside the mandatory aspects of an annual meeting, two things to mention.

First, Claude Doom presented two new booklets. Twaalf Maanden Sterren Kijken and VVS Sterrenbeelden Atlas. Two nice editions for amateur astronomers. For sure the first book "Twaalf Maanden Sterren Kijken" I would recommend.

Second, Jan Janssens gave a great presentation on the latest insight of Space Weather. As a member of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and working at the SIDS, he is on top of this interesting subject.

Jan Janssens - SIDC

Active Sun

After two weeks hiding, the active sunspot region is showing up again.

Time Lapse Video

How to share big files like documents or videos using Blogger. The easiest way is using Google Drive. In order to try this out a made a short Time Lapse Video this cloudy afternoon.

See the result on this link "Time Lapse Video".

Nikon D60 Shutter Count

Using software Opanda IExif 2.3 it's possible to track shutter counts. To date my Nikon D60 has 46514 shutter releases. 

Different databases show an average shutter lifespan for a Nikon D60 around 49500 counts based on consumer data entry inputs. Nikon guarentees a 50000 shutter count for the Nikon D60.

New Nikon D7500

This week Nikon announced the new Nikon D7500 DSLR camera. It will probably replace the Nikon D7200 and the D7500 has almost the same features as the DX flagship D500. Availability is foreseen in June 2017. It's not a fullframe camera, has 20Mp CMOS chip, 4K video and up to ISO 51000. Shutterspeed up to 1/8000s and 8 frames per second shooting in raw. Connectivity is realized using Wifi, Bluetooth and wire(less) remote features. Let's wait the reviews and other Nikon releases before making the decision to replace my Nikon D60.

Lucie Green - answer on my feedback.

Nice respond from Lucie Green, author of the book "15 million degrees", on my feedback of the book.

My review of the book in the Magazine "Heelal"