Solargraphs Dec'17-June'18

In December 2017 I installed four pinhole camera's for capturing the sun's orbit. The end result is a Solargraph.
This year I experimented to have some foregrounds projected with the Solargraph. It was a partial succes and this is my story  :

1) My House
Pinhole camera installad about 10m from my house; south oriented. Sun's orbit is well captured aswell as the shape of my house.

2) Langdorp Windmill
Pinhole camera installed 25m of windmill, East oriented. Seems the Solargraph was not fully captured. Also the windmill is hardly visible.

3) Zichem Maagdentoren

Pinholecamera installed with view on the Maagdentoren about 75m away and located in the South-East Direction. The camera was installed in a public area and only the last month it was heavenly damaged by people who want to rip it off. The Solargraph is fully visible aswell as the Tower. The reflections in below the solargraph are possible due to reflection in the water by the Demer River.

My fourth pinhole camera is still to be delivered as it was put on another location.
Conclusion : all my camera's (50Cl) can capture the entire sun's orbit. Putting a camera in a public area is still risky; it's not my first time I lost a camera or a camera got damaged. Getting a landscape as a foreground of the Solargraph is possible but need more exercise.

Start Astronomical Summer

Today at exactly 12h07 the Astronomical Summer will start on the Northern Hemisphere.

Sunrise in Berceanos Del Real Camino - Spain(Credit Pascal Hilkens)

Setting Jupiter June 16, 2018

Settings Jupiter (June 16, 2018).
ASI224MC on TAL200K with Barlow x2. Capturing for 60s with SharpCap 2.8. Files are AVI in RGB and stacking done with AutoStakkert; editing using CS4 specifics Sharpening, Constrast -50 and Brightnest +10. Finally Jupiter central alligned .

Halo around Sun

Bright Halo around the Sun this morning above #Averbode. Compilation of different pictures and editing & stacked using CS4.

Exciting evening - Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Fireball, Meteor, Iridium

The evening of June 16, 2018 was very exciting. Clouds dissapeared slowly and the Moon and Venus showed up after Sunset. Low at the North West horizon both Venus and the Moon were easy to spot and very bright. Picture taken using 18-200lens on Nikon D7500.

During set up of my TAL200K a very bright fireball lighted up the sky. Around UT21h11 a white fireball crossed the sky in the direction of the South to South East. At the end the fireball fell into different green pieces. Wow what an event. 

The fireball was reported via the Meteor website and has the reporting number #143001. I reported the fireball also on Twitter and immediately feedback came from others who saw the fireball in the Netherlands (Brabant).

I made some pictures of Jupiter with TAL200K and ASI224MC. I used barlow x2 and about 20 captures were taken of each 1 minute. Seeing was variable with some very bad and some good results. Capturing was done using SharpCap2.8; stacking completed with AutoStakkert and editing using CS4.

The Great Red Spot (GRS) is recognizable and bright enough to capture on the pictures.

After midnight at UT22h14 pictures taken from a Iridium Flare (Iridium 80) and a couple of minutes later a slow meteor crossed the sky in the direction from south east to north west.

Halo boven #Averbode

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Heldere #Halo boven #Averbode.
Currently a Halo around the Sun can be observed @Averbode

Zonnekijkdag op 1 Juli

Altijd al eens de zon willen zien doorheen een telescoop? Kom dan eens kijken tijdens de zonnekijkdag op zondag 1 Juli.  Op een veilige manier en met de nodige zonnefilters kun je dat de zon van kortbij bekijken. Noteer de datum alvast in je agenda.
Helios Averbode zal die dag aanwezig zijn vanaf 14h aan het Moment van de Abdij van Averbode.