Very active sun today - July 24th

No sunspots today but still the sun was very active. In Hα however the activity was quit impressive. Using the PST Coronado at least 5 bright "prominence areas" were visible in the afternoon. I tried to capture those on picture but could only realize this afocal one. The picture was edite using CS4. 

Sundog

Very bright sundog seen this evening from Averbode (Belgium).

Yellow sunset.

In the afternoon a heavy thunderstorm luckely missed Averbode and the day ended  into a Yellow sunset. The picture was taken with my Nikon and my Celestron D70 f/400.

New Milestone 1000 Visitors this month

First time ever since the start of my astronomy blog more then 1000 people visited my blog over an one month period. Great achievement!

CalSky.com

If you want to see the ISS or other satellites crossing the moon or suns disk, the website CalSky can help you finding it out. It shows the nearest place where to go for observing the crossing.
See here for the link to the CalSky website.
This website give also other very detailed information and calculations.

Noctilucent Clouds - Use of Radar from Leibniz

Clear sky means also good news for observing noctilucent clouds - without an open sky it's anyway hopeless. The radar of the Leibniz Institute can help to predict your chances, but with last night noctilucent clouds above Averbode the radar did not show much movement.
Find here the link to the Radar and some prints taken the last days.

Sunspots AR 2565 & 2567 B&W

Some more editing of the pictures taken of the sunspots AR 2565 & 2567.  This time pictures are put on black/White and sharpen using unsharp masks. Never thought I would get this great result.

Noctilucent clouds in Averbode

This morning I could observe a few and faint noctilucent clouds above the horizon of Averbode (Belgium). The picture was taken 1h12m before sunrise.

Big Sunspots AR2565 & 2567

Two big sunpsots are now visible on the sun and one is unstable having a beta-gamma magnetic field. The picture below are made using TAL200K with Baader ND5.0 sunfilter.

Saturnus with ASI224MC & TAL200K

Using my AZEQ6 with TAL 200K together with ASI224MC I was able to take some first pictures of Saturnus. Stacking was done using RegiStax 6 and final editing with CS4.  Some blur is still visible and will be worked when time :)

Waxing Gibbous Moon 90%

Almost full moon - moderate seeing. Picture was edited using CS4.

Waxing Gibbous Moon 58%

Just after midnight  (July 13th), Moon is still bright. Picture taken using TAL200K on AZEQ6 using Nikon D60 in oculair. Minor editing using CS4. 

Moon and airplane

Lucky shot when airplane did cross the moon ... the exaust of the plane is visible aswell.

Nikon D60 Tal 200K - Moon 50%

50% Moon taken with Nikon D60 on TAL 200K  using AZEQ6 mount. Beautifull detailed pictures are edited using CS4.

Moon 50%

Today half moon and we have a clear sky for a couple of hours.

Sunspot AR 2561-2564 with Baader solarfilm

Today I used first time ever Baader solarfilm to make some pictures of the sun. The solarfilter from Baader ND5.0 was assembled on the TAL 200K. Pictures taken by Nikon D60 on the oculair.
Results show a more white picture then the one i used before. This was more yellow.

Again sunspots and bright sundogs

During the sunny periods I was able to observe a big flare and a few sunspots with the PST Coronado 40mm. Unfortunately I was not able to take some pictures as I still was busy how my new AZ-EQ operates. On top of that the battery went down of the powerpack.
Luckely and due to high clouds at sunset some sundogs appeared, first right, later to the left of the sun. And that I was able to put on camera.

My weatherstation with a sundog in the back.

Giardano Bruno - Rome

When visiting the campo de fiori in Rome you will see in the middle of the market place a statue of Giordano Bruno. He lived from 1548 - 1600 and he's known for his cosmological theories. He believed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own (exo)planets and he even mentioned the possibility that these planets could even foster life. He also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its center.

He was put in prison and after his 7years trial he was convicted by pope clement VIII and burned at the stake.

Picture Sun PST

Picture a-focal on my PST Coronado 40mm taken and edited by Lieven Philips.

Afocal PST Coronado 40mm July 3th, 2016

DIY Solarfilter

How to make your own solarfilter for your telescoop or camera? This is how you can do it.
What do you need?
Scissor, cardboard, pensil, knife, two sided tape, normal tape and solarfilm.

Step 1 : take the cover shield from your camera or telescoop (in this example it is for my 200mm scope) as a the inner diameter and add 5 cm for the outside diameter. Use the knife to cut the ring.  Complete this step once more for having two sets of rings.

Step 2 : Put two sided tape on both rings and pull the strip off.

Step 3 : Take the solarfim - I'm using astrosolar film from Baader D5.0. Open the sheet and keep it flat by taping the ends on the table. Let one ring with two side tape "fall" on the solarfilter so it sticks to it. Turn it upside down and do the same for the second ring.

Step 4 : Make 3 to 4 long strips of cardboard about 5 cm wide. Fold them around the tube of your telescoop or camera lens and tape the ends together. The result is shown below as a "belt"

Step 5 : Finally tape both the ring with the solarfilm to the belt and make it rigor using normal but strong tape.

Picture taken from the "inside"

Picture taken from the outside. 

Sunset at 10.000m

Sunset during flight from Geneva to Brussels results in beautifull pictures. The picture below was taken on July 5th around 10pm at 10.000m hight using my iPhone 6.

Helios in the news

Astronomy club Helios Averbode in todays newspaper "Het Nieuwsblad".

Helios Sun Observing Day

On July 3th, Helios Astronomy club was present at the national sun observing day. Location this time was the Abbey at Averbode. With 4 telescopes (3 Ha and 1 Newton with Baader) we could welcome more then 120 people and let them show the explosions on the sun. Also present was our founder E.H Gilbert Fleurent which still was very interested and passioned on the clubs activities.

Helios Members with our founder EH G. Fleurent (4th from left)

Solargraph of 1 day

As part of the national sun observing day (July 3th) I installed a pinhole camera at the observing location in Averbode - Belgium. As I wanted the result of 1 day, the pinhole was made larger then normal.

June Weather Summary - wettest June ever since 1833

According to the official KMI in Brussels, june was the wettest ever June since recording in 1833. With 21 days of rain in comparison with 6 days last year I can witness this. In Averbode 157 l/m2 and Temperatures were normal.