Monday, September 18, 2023

Reworked Jupiter with Calisto Sept 8, 2023

 

Reworked picture of Jupiter from Sept 8, 2023. Use of 500 out of 10.000 frames using AstroSurface U4.


Saturday, September 9, 2023

Saturn Sept 8, 2023

 


Very good conditions on Sept 8, 2023. This results in my best Saturn picture this year with a lot of details.


TAL200K @f/22 with ASI224MC
ADC and UV/IRBlocker
Exposure : 48FPS
Capture Area=648x488
Software: SharpCap, AstroSurface U4, CS4

Jupiter and Callisto



My first images of Jupiter this year 2023. Condition were very good with good seeing and good transparency.

Setting: TAL200K @f/22 with ASI224MC
Filter: ADC and UV/IR blocker
Exposure 80,92 fps; 10.000 frames (10% stacked)
ROI 800x600
Software: SharpCap4, AstroSurface U4, CS4

Radio Astronomy Station of Humain (B)


Interferometers - Credit Pascal Hilkens

The date of september 9th was already marked for a long time. The radio astronomy station of Humain in Belgium will open its doors to the public for the first time. Together with my collegue Walter we left early in the morning to visit this once in a life time opportunity.  The weather was perfect with a clear sky to walk along the two north-south and east-west axes of the old interferometer. 

This radio astronomy station was founded in 1953 by the Royal Observatory of Belgium to house the very first Belgian radio telescopes dedicated to observing the Sun. In the 1960s, a solar interferometer of 44 radio telescopes was constructed and operated up until 2001. Today, the station continues to host radio and optical experiments to observe the sky, the Sun, the Earth’s space environment and its atmosphere.

Credit Pascal Hilkens

After a quick snack we walked into a demo with the Solar Explorer or Sol'ex. This was a nice surprise as we didn't expect that the Royal Observatorium would own an amateur Sol'Ex instrument. This gave us the chance to ask in depth questions to Sabrina Bechet from the Royal Observatory. She gave some tips on the position of the instrument with the mount.

From Left to Right: Pascal, Sabrina Bechet (Royal Observatory) and Walter



Friday, September 8, 2023

First Image with Sol'Ex

Today I made the first picture of the Sun in H-alpha with my new Sol'Ex.

Hardware Setting: TS/APO60 f/6 with ASI290MM
Software Setting : 130fps, 7,55ms, Gain  0, Mono 16
Capture area : 1936 x 114 binning 1x1
Temperature Camera : 48°C
Filter: Hoya ND16
Software: SharpCap4, Inti, CS4, Samsung SSD




Saturday, September 2, 2023

My picture of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) published in Heelal

My picture of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) of January 21, 2023 is published in astro magazine Heelal (Jaargang 68, number 9, September 2023, page 20). It's my third picture of a comet that made it for publication. Previous comets were Neowise C/2020 F3 and C/2017 K2 (Panstarrs). 





Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Saturn @opposition August 27, 2023

There were a few moments with no clouds which I used to iamge Saturn. Saturn was in opposition and thus ideal circumstances; Unfortunately both seeing and transparancy was fair. and even poor.


Polarallignment was done using SharpCap4 with ASI290MM on guiding scope 50x240. Imaging with TAL200K @f/22 with ADC, Barlow x2 and ASI224MC camera with UV/IR blocker. 

Software: SharpCap4, AstroSurface U4 and CS4
Lights:  34.8ms and 28.36 fps, total of 3000 frames
White Balans : B85, R55