Stormy weather

Last night the barometer showed a lowest of 983 hPa or mbar with lot of rain as the stormy wind was already gone.

2013 Astronomical Highlights

For different reasons 2013 was a exciting astronomical year with many ups and some downs.
On Feb 15 a meteor exploded above Chelyabinsk showing the power and energy from out of space and how mankind could dissapear within a second. On March 14, the CERN finally reported the existance of the Higgsboson. Later the year, Francois Englert received the first physics Nobel Prize for Belgium.
Also in March, I tried to find the comet Panstarr at the evening sky. The sky was beautiful but I could not find the comet.

My first solargraph was a fact with a nice result as well.

One of my cloudpictures was published in the newspaper with a shelfcloud.

This summer it was time to experiment making pictures from Iridium flares and startrails with beautiful results.

Comet ISON would be the event of the year but after watching NASA live the comet dissolved completely. An exciting and learning time following this sungrazer comet.
In Utrecht I visited the NASA's exhibition A Human Adventure telling the history of the space journey.

Coldest place on earth

Check out this awesome image from Astronomy Picture of the Day!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap131211.html

Happy anniversary!!

I'm am one year in the air with this blog. More than 1600 people visited my blog this year from all over the world. Nice to see how I can touch people's life!!!
I will keep posting my findings and learnings next year.

Solargraph installed

Today I installed my cans "solargraphs". Always an exciting moment not knowing what the end results will be after 6 months. One of the locations is our local Abbey of Averbode. The can was put at a certain height so people will not touch it by getting curious ... hopefully. The other location is againt my garden house, the same as last year.

Solargraphs (2)

I'm ready with my two cans! Both openings are sealed and will be opened in dec 21 after the cans are put in position.

Solargraph (1)

We are heading december 21, so I'm preparing my cans with photo paper. Thuis year I will install two solargraphs.

ISON or ISOFF

Today the comet ISON was moving towards it's closest distance to the sun, perihelion. Less then 5MM km from the sun and with a speed of more than 300km/s the comet should pass by and show up as the spectacle of the year. Listening live to NASA hangout and looking at SOHO and SDO pictures it's probably clear the comet evaporated. So no ISON but rather ISOF. It was a nice learning the past months and for that see also my tweets with nice linkages on pictures and websites.

A Human Adventure : The Nasa exhebition in Utrecht

Today I visited the exhebition "A Human Adventure" In Utrecht - The Netherlands. Great exhebition with a lot of models as well as unique space "pieces". A must see for those who are interested into space.

New Solargraph page

Solargraph Page
One month to go to be ready and setting up your solargraph. See my new page helping you preparing for this. Good luck and always interesting to see you end results.

APOD

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131021.html

Everyday an astronomy picture, 365 times taking a second of the wonders of the universe. 

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Where is ISON? The Sky Live

Where to find ISON at the sky?
What is the distance of ISON to the Sun or to Earth?
What's the current Magnitude?

See The Sky Live

For more Usefull Links see Usefull Links

Qubits explained by two cats of Schrodinger

Scientists at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands) have found a way to circumvent the quantum states phenomenon and also to manipulate these by measurement. This is important for the development of ultra computers.
See article Schrodinger two cats Qubits

See also video explaining two cats Qubits

Compilation of Chelyanbinsk Meteor

Nice compilation of the meteor above Russia, earlier this year.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=dpmXyJrs7iU&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdpmXyJrs7iU

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Latest ISON magnitude

Latest prediction ISON brightnes between -3 and -5. This is equal as Venus at the morning/evening sky! 

www.isoncampaign.org/Present 

Download de officiële Twitter-app hier

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SECCHI Flight Images of ISON

sharpp.nrl.navy.mil/cgi-bin/swdbi/secchi_flight/img_short/form

Download de officiële Twitter-app hier

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ISON in Stereo

www.isoncampaign.org/karl/cioc-exclusive-ison-in-stereo

First pictures of ISON in Stereo Field View. It's not really spectacular but it 's there! 

More to watch in the opcoming days. 

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Night of the astronomer

Last night, Helios was present @ Veerle for the night of the astronomer. Unfortunately weather was not helping us as it was full clouded. Telescopes set up incl Dobson, Vixen and Celestron.

NASA Exposition @ Utrecht

Still untill Jan '14 you can visit the NASA exposition @ Utrecht (Netherlands) See link http://www.ahumanadventure.nl/

Comet ISON in Stereo

By october 10th, Comet ISON will show up in Satelite Stereo's view field. Follow this beautiful spectacle daily by visiting the Stereo images.

Comet Ison

The Comet Ison is currently of magnitude 10á11 and beyond earlier expectations. However for astronomers it could still be interesting to watch the morning sky near Mars. Other ways of observing are done using the sun observation satellites as from next week. See attached link to follow this exciting period or observe yourself using a small telescoop.

http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/comet_ison/

Finding more information about astronomy, solargraphy, ..

Go to my Usefull links
http://orionxt12.blogspot.be/p/usefull-links_19.html

Nacht van de duisternis - Night of the astronomer

Lights will be put out on Oct 12th. for a dark night enjoying nature and a beautiful sky. Hopefully we will have an open sky so we can share this facinating world with the audience!

3D Sun news: Sundiving Comet and CME

NASA Heliophysics News from 3D Sun iPhone app Sundiving Comet and CME Story posted: Aug. 20 A small comet plunged into the sun on Aug. 20th. Just before it arrived, the sun expelled a magnificent full-halo CME. Tap to view a movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Large image

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Iridium 49 flare with M31 and Double Cluster NGC 884&869

Iridium 49 flare together with Deep Sky Objects M31 Andromeda Galaxy and Double Cluster between Perseus and Casseopeia NGC 884&869.

Startrail Abbey @ Averbode

This evening pictures were taken with beautiful view on the abbey @ Averbode.

Ready for taking pictures of Perseid Meteor Shower

Around August 12&13 the annual Perseid Meteors will show up. What about taking pictures this year? Looking at some forums and websites taking pictures with DSLR from meteors are different when taking pictures from Iridium flares and stars. Most common meteor pictures are taken with lenses equal or below 55mm with low f/ number. Exposure time is depending darkness of the sky (with or without moonlight) but mostly around 30s (see also my blog for rule of 600). ISO number should be high from 800 even as high as 3200 or higher. Good luck! 

Startrail @ Zenith with Lyra & Cygnus

Startrail taken @ zenith with constellations Cygnus and Lyra. Other traces are due to airplanes flying over. Total of 48 pictures taken with Nikon D60 each 30s 18mm f/3.5 ISO100 and stacked using Startrails.de software and edited using CS4.
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Photo Shelfcloud published in Newspaper

Today my photo of the shelfcloud from last Saterday was published in the National Newspaper "Het Nieuwsblad".

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Shelfcloud above Averbode

A couple of minutes before heavy weather above Averbode this rare and impressive shelfcloud was put on picture.

Iridium 67 flare mag -6.1

Bright Iridium 67 flare Magnitude -6.1 taken with Nikon D60 f4 27mm ISO100 with 118s exposure.

Startrail : What's the max exposure time still seeing stars and not trails

Still want to see stars when taking a picture of the evening sky? So what is the maximum exposure time of your DSLR without seeing tracks of stars on your picture.
Rule of thumb : 600 divided by the focalpoint (mm) x cropfactor DSLR.

Example 1 : Nikon D60 with f 18mm : 600/(18*1.5) = 22s
Example 2 : Nikon D60 with f 200mm : 600/(200*1.5) = 2s
Example 3 : Nikon D60 with Celestron 400 : 600/(550*1.5) = 0,7s

Cropfactor Nikon D60 = 1.5

Text changed on August 5th.

Startrail around polarstar

The sky is clear and I'm on holliday. So what do you at evening? Yes, watching the sky and more specific taking some pictures of Iridium flares and trying out making a startrail.
Picture below is build up from 62 pictures each 30s exposure time, ISO 100 with Nikon D60 18mm with 30s between each photo. The first picture is edited using CS4 and "lighten".
The second picture is edited using the software Startrails - see Startrails.de website.
With a full moon and some minor clouds conditions were not optimal but as a first try out...

Edited with CS4 - 62 pictures Nikon D60 30s ISO100 18mm

Edited with Startrails.de - 62 pictures Nikon D60 30s ISO100 18mm

Iridium 41 flare

Very bright (Mag -7.0) Iridium 41 flare taken on July 24th with Nikon D60 in Raw format and edited using CS4.

Iridium Flare

Finally I was able to take a picture of a Iridium flare. Magnitude of -4.0 from Iridium 65 taken by Nikon D60 for 30s.

Evening sky with red clouds

The evening sky colored red!

Article from VVS on Solargraphy

Inserted are the articles from Jef De Wit publised in Heelal (VVS) oktober 2012

Article from Urania on Solargraphy

Article from Jef De Wit from Urania volume 24 / number 4 sept 2012

My First Solargraph

Today, after six months I opened the solargraph. The can was still intact and the photopaper was well preserved. The paper was humid and still fixed against the wall of the can. Looking at the picture you will see some interesting aspects. In the front (at the bottom of the picture) you see my garden with the trapoline in the middle and the trees some further.

Also the top of the sunpaths is not captured on the picture. On the inverted pictures the many black band show the poor spring without "sun".

Original (not inverted)

Original Inverted by Photoshop CS4

Edited  colors intesified by Photoshop CS4

Edited Black/White Photoshop CS4