Boarding Pass Viper

Viper, Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, will be NASA's first robotic Moon rover. This mobile robot will land at the South Pole of the Moon in late 2024 on a 100-day mission. The critical information it provides will teach us about the origin and distribution of water on the Moon and help determine how we can harvest the Moon's resources for future human space exploration.

My boarding pass is ready ...

Bright Moon Halo

 A very bright 360° Moon Halo.

Moon Halo

 Bright Moon Halo.

Solar Eclipse 50 days to go

Solar Eclipse April 8th, 2024.... 50 days to go.

Selfie with Gerald Rhemann, Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022

 

Winning Picture of Comet Leonard

Selfie with Gerald Rhemann

At the recent annual Day of Astrophotograhy, Gerald Rhemann gave a great lecture on Astrophotography and showing his amazing pictures.  At the end of the presentation we met and took a selfie. Thx Gerald.

Gerald Rhemann has been named the overall winner of Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022 for his photograph Disconnection Event.

The remarkable image shows Comet C/2021 A1, commonly known as Comet Leonard, which was first discovered in January 2021 by astronomer Greg Leonard. For many astrophotographers this comet was the highlight of the year.

However, it was Gerald Rhemann's photograph, taken on Christmas Day, that really blew the judges away.

Gerald's image captured a dramatic moment in the life of a comet: a disconnection event. This happens when a piece of the comet's tail becomes separated after being hit by high velocity solar particles.

"A piece of Comet Leonard’s tail was pinched off and carried away by the solar wind," Gerald recalls. "I was very lucky that the weather at Tivoli Farm, Namibia, was excellent when I opened the roof of the observatory. I recognized that the comet’s tail looked dramatic in the first image I took, so decided to extend the field of view with a second image and that’s where the disconnection happened."

Sunspot AR3559

Sunspot AR3559 with TAL200K f/8.5 and ASI290MM.

Image setting: ND3.8, OIII filter, IR/UV blocking filter

Image setting: ND3.8, Triple stacked Ca K baader 8nmfilter

Stacking: AS4! and editing using IMPPG, CS4, DeNoise AI

Combining both images together

Triple Stack of Baader Ca K Line filter on AR3559

I have two Ca K filters from Baader, both double stacked 8nm. Each double stacked filter has two filters in side the holder. As one of the filters was damaged, I opened it and removed the damaged one. The result is that I now have a single stacked and a double stacked Ca K filter have. We putting them together, I guess I made a triple stacked Ca K filter. The double stacked one is tilted. The filters were placed in the optical train as follow :  

ND3.8 solar film, Telescoop, double stacked Ca K, single stacked CaK, Camera ASI290MM.

In both cases, sunspot AR3559 was imaged using TAL200K f/8.5 with ASI290MM. The conditions were not good with some high clouds. 

As a conclusion at this time: no real difference between triple and double stacking; I would even say double stacking is better; but be aware condition were not favourable.

Setting : TAL200K f/8.5 with ASI290MM

Filters : ND3.8, Ca K 8nm Double and Single stacked filter

Software : SharpCap, AS4!, CS4, IMPPG, DeNoise AI

SSD Samsung.