North America Nebula NGC7000 and Pelican Nebula IC5070

Triggered by Astrometry.net I restacked my pictures of the North America Nebula using DeepSkyStacker. Using CS4 I changed my way of editing the stacked result :

1) slightly sharpen the picture using unsharp mask
2) narrowing each Red, Green and Blue curve
3) narrowing each Red, Green and Blue level

The result is much better then my previous editing and the "head" of the pelican is clearly visible.
The pictures are taken with Nikon D7500 on TALAPO 80/480 f/6. A total of 11 pictures, each 30s with different ISO levels.

Astrometry.net

Astrometry.net

If you have astronomical imaging of the sky with celestial coordinates you do not know—or do not trust—then Astrometry.net is for you. Input an image and it will give you back astrometric calibration meta-data, plus lists of known objects falling inside the field of view.

Astrometry.net has built this astrometric calibration service to create correct, standards-compliant astrometric meta-data for every useful astronomical image ever taken, past and future, in any state of archival disarray. They hope this will help organize, annotate and make searchable all the world's astronomical information. (Source Astrometry.net)

Having troubles finding out what I recently photographed my Helios collegue Walter refered towards the website Astrometry.net. After uploading my picture, it took a couple of minutes showing all the details I was looking for. I did some more testing and each time feedback was in short matter of time given of the details of the picture.

You can sign in using your google-account which makes it possible to go back into earlier personal searchs.

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Opendeurdagen Space Pole Ukkel 29 en 30 september 2018

Op 29 en 30 september zijn er de opendeurdagen van Space Pole te Ukkel.

De Pool Ruimte omvat
– de Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België, inclusief het Planetarium van Brussel
– het Koninklijk Meteorologisch Instituut (KMI)
– het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimte-Aeronomie (BIRA)

Milky Way in the Vosges

Some pictures of the Milky Way in the Vosges Region in France. All pictures taken using Nikon D7500 without guiding. Watch for the bright Andromeda Galaxy and Perseus Double Cluster.

Buran Russian Space Shuttle in Technik Museum Spyer Germany

"Selfie" before Buran OK-GLI and Soyuz landing capsule TM-19 in Spyer Museum

One of my bucket list items : visiting the Russian Space Shuttle. In the Technik Museum Speyer in Germany the Space Shuttle Buran (OK-GLI) can be seen in real life. This prototype was used for testing landings and gliding-flights. In order to do this, the prototype was equipped with 4 fan jets so it could take off and land on its own. This prototype was also the first "shuttle" to land with full automated control without any pilot activity.  Based on this prototype and the learning of the scaled models BOR 1-5 two final Space Shuttles were made. One of those was succesfully launched in space on November 15, 1988 and landed safely and automated after making two orbits.

BOR 5 Scaled test Model

For more information see this video.
See also this Russian Video
Information of Technik Museum Spyer

Bijschrift toevoegen

Inside of the Buran Space Shuttle

View on the tail and 4 fan jets of the Buran

Wiring of the 4 Fan Jets in the tail of the Buran Space Shuttle

Assembly of Buran piggybacked on Myasishchev VM-T Atlant to Baikonur

Buran OK-GLI Prototype with 4 Fan Jets

Launch of the first and only Buran into space on Nov 15, 1988

Landing after two orbits in space; fully automated

Perfect set up of the Buran at the Technic Museum Spyer 

Nightscape Iridium 35 Flare

Very bright Iridium Flare (Iridium 35) with constellations Perseus, Cassiopeia and Andromeda (including M31 Andromeda Galaxy).