Mercury Transit November 11, 2019

On May 9th, 2016 a Mercury transit was observed in Belgium. This rare event will occur again in Belgium on Novermber 11, 2019. So make sure you block your agenda 

Above are the timetables for the Mercury Transit in Belgium.

Increased Cosmic Rays - Solar Cycle #24 minimum

Solar Cycle #24 is moving in to a minimum with more and more sunspots free days. As a result the sun will be less active and the magnetic field will be weaker with decreasing solar wind. This solar wind acts as a shield to protect Earth against high energetic cosmic rays. Based on historical data we see an inverse correlation between the sun's activity (sunspot number) and gallactic cosmic rays.

As we are moving into a "quit" period I took data from 1/1/2014 - today and compared :
1) Sunspot data from Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels (WDC-SILCO-SIDC) with
2) Gallactic Cosmic Rays data from University of Oulo, Finland

It's not outspoken but we see clearly an inverse correlation between the sunspot data and the cosmic ray activity.

Also Spaceweather.com is tracking these changes with balloonflights above the US. Since 2015, levels of radiation increased up to 19%.

Saturn June 18

Some more experimenting with AutoStakkert! 2.6.8 in order to get more details of my Saturn observations. Frames were taken using ASI224MC on TAL200K f/10 with capture software Sharpcap 2.8 and editing with CS4. Saturn shows up with some minor details on the planet and the rings have clearly the Cassini division.

Spicules Explained

Scientists uncover the origins of the dynamic swirling jets called spicules on the sun's surface. The publication was made in Science and a summary can be read via this link here.

Spicules show up as "grass" above the sun's surface but are in reality 7500km long jet's with a speed up to 95 km/s and lasting only 10minutes. Scientist always believed that magnetic fields and charged particles in the sun's atmosphere are responsible for creation of spicules but the mechanism of creation was unclear. Adding neutral particles into the model provides a lot of answers and solves the question on how spicules are created. The magnetic fields move more freely and the neutral particles provide the neseccary buyancy the magnetic fields (fluxtubes) need to rise through the sun's convection zone up to the chromosphere. There they snap into spicules, releasing plasma and energy. The friction between the charged and neutral particles are responsable for heating up the plasma in and around the spicules which also could explain the increased tempature from the transition region (region between chromosphere and corona).

Zonnekijkdag 2 juli in Moment Averbode

Op zondag 2 juli kan je in Het Moment te Averbode terecht om naar de zon te kijken. Met speciale filters en telescopen kun je zelf de zon op een veilige manier ontdekken. Leer meer over zonnevlekken en wie weet zie je zelf wel een zonnevlam. Leden van sterrenclub Helios zullen in de namiddag aanwezig en zullen graag een woordje uitleg geven.
Klik hier voor link naar zonnekijkdag.

Start of Summer

At 6h24 start of the summer... enjoy it :)

Sunset at Motovun (Croatia) 

Sun Eclipse ... 2 months to go

Total Sun Eclips on August 21, 2017 in the US... still 2 months to go.

Occulation of Io

At exactly 20h30UT the moon Io entered occulation. Below two pictures taken afocal with iPhone 6 on Dobson 12" and 9mm oculair.

Solargraph ready?

It's almost summertime. This is the moment the sun reaches the highest altitude and from now on the sun will be each day lower at the sky untill the lowest point at december 21st. So a good time to install your pinhole camera for a nice solargraph. This year I will install two cans - one 50 cl and one 70cl. Both have Ilford non shining photopaper. If you want to make one yourself - see my blog DIY solargraph. Goodluck

M13 Hercules Cluster

Ring Nebula M57

Ring Nebula M57 using AS224MC on TAL200K f/10 and stacking using RegiStax6.

Saturn 3 days after opposition

Saturn was opposite the sun in Earth's sky on June 15th, and is seen during the entire night. Typically the best moments to observe planets like Mars, Jupiter, ... are those moments of opposition. However, as Saturn shows up only 17° above the horizon, conditions to observe are rather poor.

This morning I was able to make some pictures of Saturn using TAL200K and ASI224MC. Stacking was done using both RegiStax as AutoStakkert!

The Cassini division can be observed which is about 4500km wide and located between ring A (outer) and ring B (inner) and seen as a dark "line". Also some sort of shape is seen on the planet's surface. 

Below you can find a presentation of Saturn's Rings geometry over a long period.

Jupiter and GRS

Yesterday evening the sky was clear and seeing was good with a relative humitidy of 90%.  Using Sky & Telescope I was able to know when the Gread Red Spot (GRS) on Jupiter faces directly to earth. This was around 20h20 UT. I made  observations using my Dobson 12" and 9mm oculair and immediately recognized the big spot. Using my TAL200K and ASI224MC I took some pictures  and movies of Jupiter and the GRS.

Photo Nightscape Awards ESO

The Photo Nightscape Awards are for those amateur astrophotographers who want to compete. The contest is open till august 15th, 2017. See for more information here.

Planes all over...

Partial Halo around sun

High clouds above Averbode resulting in a partial halo and sundog.

Jupiter using SharpCap Capture Soft

In stead of using FireCapture I used SharpCap 2.8 for Capture Software of my ASI224MC camera. The advantage is that colors are shown in Live view during capturing. With moderate seeing I could take some pictures with TAL200K. Stacking completed with RegiStax.

Saturnus with ASI224MC

Meteoblue predicted an open sky... unfortunately clouds all over. Clouds only dissapeared for a short period after midnight. Enough to take some pictures of Saturnus but with a full moon in the back. Pictures taken using ASI224MC using capture software SharpCap 2.8 on TAL200K. Stacking done with both RegiStax and AutStakkert 2.6.8. Results are combined in CS4.

Jupiter using ASI224MC

Jupiter is still visible from sunset untill after midnight and seen as a bright "star" in the south about 40° altitude.
Even the fact the moon is almost full I was able to observe Jupiter (and it's moon) and to make some pictures using my camera ZWO ASI224MC on the TAL 200K f/10.
Capture software FireCapture and stacking of the pictures was done using both AutoStakkert 2.6.8 and RegiStax6. Afterwards editing using CS4.

Beautiful and Active Sunspot AR2661

Sunspot AR2661 is growing and with an open sky this morning, I was able to take some pictures in visual aswell in H-alfa. Using my TAL200K f/10 with Astrosolar filter ND5 results in a shutter speed of 1/500s applying ISO100. This resulted in a very sharp picture with a lot of contract and details. Editing was done using CS4.

Near Sunspot AR2661 and seen at the "edge" of the sun, some big prominences could be observed using my PST40. The best result was realized using ISO800 and a shutter speed of1/25s. The picture was taken afocal on a zoom lens 8-24mm on 24mm and finished using CS4.

Parker Solar Probe : Touching the Sun

In July 2018, NASA will launch their first mission ever to fly directly into the sun's atmosphere. It will orbit within only 6 million km from the sun's "surface".  To compare : the sun's radius is about 695990 km and the distance earth-sun is 150 000 000 km.
The objective of this mission "Touching the Sun" is to understand better what's happening in the sun's atmosphere and gatter data to predict space weather more accurate.
The mission is named after Eugene Parker, who in 1958 announced that the sun constantly sends out matter and magnetism affecting the entire solar system. Today we know this is as the solar wind forming the Heliosphere.

Ligo detects gravitational waves for the third time.

For the third time, LIGO spots gravitational waves? This time the merging black holes are as far as 4 billion ly (farrest so far) from earth and a combined 49 sunmasse s - see article.

Update geschiedenis van astronomievereeniging Helios

De geschiedenis van astronomievereeniging Helios te Averbode werd geactualiseerd. Zie hiervoor link naar de blogpagina.

Start of NLC season

June and July are typically the start of NLC or Noctilucent Clouds. Those highest clouds we know are showing up around 80km above Earth's surface. They are very cold and exist of very small ice crystals. When sunlight hit those crystals they will show up as a blue glow. They appear during the summer months and the best way to observe is about 2à3h after sunset or 2à3h before sunrise.

The picture below I took last last year mid July, 1h before sunrise.

How to calculate exposure time during suneclips

When making pictures of the sun and during a totality it's important to have the right settings. You can experiment yourself upfront with the sun high in the sky and using your solarfilter. Try out shutter speeds from 1/8000s -1s for different ISO numbers and f/stop numbers and see what's the best result. As long as the sun is visible this setting can be used. During totality settings need to be adjusted and without filter.

For more information see this calculator or see below chart for settings during totality and what detail (chromosphere, corona,..) you want to photograph

Weather Summary May 2017

As a summary May 2017 was a warm and dry month.
Average temperatures are up to 2°C higher then last three years. In comparison with last 4 years, May 2017 was a very dry month with 23 dry days and only 45 liter/m2.