My Twitter QR Code

Send by iPhone 6 iOS 11.2.5

Opendeurdagen Space Pole Ukkel 29 en 30 september 2018

Op 29 en 30 september zijn er de opendeurdagen van Space Pole te Ukkel.

De Pool Ruimte omvat
– de Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België, inclusief het Planetarium van Brussel
– het Koninklijk Meteorologisch Instituut (KMI)
– het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimte-Aeronomie (BIRA)

Milky Way in the Vosges

Some pictures of the Milky Way in the Vosges Region in France. All pictures taken using Nikon D7500 without guiding. Watch for the bright Andromeda Galaxy and Perseus Double Cluster.

Buran Russian Space Shuttle in Technik Museum Spyer Germany

"Selfie" before Buran OK-GLI and Soyuz landing capsule TM-19 in Spyer Museum

One of my bucket list items : visiting the Russian Space Shuttle. In the Technik Museum Speyer in Germany the Space Shuttle Buran (OK-GLI) can be seen in real life. This prototype was used for testing landings and gliding-flights. In order to do this, the prototype was equipped with 4 fan jets so it could take off and land on its own. This prototype was also the first "shuttle" to land with full automated control without any pilot activity.  Based on this prototype and the learning of the scaled models BOR 1-5 two final Space Shuttles were made. One of those was succesfully launched in space on November 15, 1988 and landed safely and automated after making two orbits.

BOR 5 Scaled test Model

For more information see this video.
See also this Russian Video
Information of Technik Museum Spyer

Bijschrift toevoegen

Inside of the Buran Space Shuttle

View on the tail and 4 fan jets of the Buran

Wiring of the 4 Fan Jets in the tail of the Buran Space Shuttle

Assembly of Buran piggybacked on Myasishchev VM-T Atlant to Baikonur

Buran OK-GLI Prototype with 4 Fan Jets

Launch of the first and only Buran into space on Nov 15, 1988

Landing after two orbits in space; fully automated

Perfect set up of the Buran at the Technic Museum Spyer 

Nightscape Iridium 35 Flare

Very bright Iridium Flare (Iridium 35) with constellations Perseus, Cassiopeia and Andromeda (including M31 Andromeda Galaxy).

Technic Museum Sinsheim

Send by iPhone 6 iOS 11.2.5




Visiting the Technic Museum Sinsheim (Germany) with a lot of interesting cars, F1 racingcars but most interesting of course the two main attractions are the Concorde and Tupolev 144. Both jets could reach twice the speed of sound.

Double Double Epsilon Lyrae

Only Double (Double Double  Epsilon Lyrae)

About 1,2° east from Vega it's possible to observe a double star with low magnification. This is epsilon Lyrae and is separated by 208 arc seconds. Compare this with a separation of 720 arc seconds of Alcor & Mizar in the constellation Ursa Major.
When viewing with larger magnification both stars have a compagnon. They are separated by respectively 2,3 arc seconds and 2,4 arc seconds.

Visual I was able to see the Double Double using reflector TAL200K with 12mm. However, my pictures did not cover the Double Double; both using the TAL200 aswell as the TLAPO80/480 f/6.

Double Star Albireo Beta Cygni

The Double Star Albireo (Beta Cyg) as observed with refractor TLAPO 80/480 f/6 and reflector TAL200K f/8.5. Both stars are separated by 35 arc seconds and both telescopes show the double star nicely. The brightest star is colored yellow, the B-component itself has a blue color. This combination is one of the best to see the difference in color and a perfect view during a starparty.

All pictures are taken with Nikon D7500 and are single shots. Limited editing using CS4.

Pictures of a couple of NGC's

A couple of NGC are observed the past weeks.

NGC 6210 Planetary Nebula : beautifull blue dot
NGC 6440 Globular Star Cluster
NGC 6445 Planetary Nebula : small blue shape
NGC 6712 Globular Star Cluster
NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula - in the middle of the milky way - rich of stars
NGC 6997 Open Star Cluster - in the middle of the milky way - rich of stars
NGC 6207 Galaxy near M13 Globular Star Cluster

All pictures taken with Refractor TLAPO80/480 f/6 and Nikon D7500 with flattener x1. Stacking was performed with DeepskyStacker and final editing using CS4.

Parker Solar Probe underway to the Sun

So far so good after a great lift off of the Delta IV Heavy rocket.

T-4 Countdown started

The Delta IV Heavy is ready to take off carying the Parker Solar Probe.

M8, M10, M11, M12 and M92

Observing a couple of Messier Objects with refractor TLAPO80/480 f/6 and taking pictures with Nikon D7500. Stacking done with DeepskuStacker and editing using CS4.

NGC 6440 and NGC 6445

Both NGC 6440 and NGC 6445 are seen on the picture below. Both very faint objects are taken with Nikon D7500 and TLAPO80/480 f/6.
NGC 6445 is a planetary nebula located about 4500 light years from Earth. The literature refers also to Box Nebula or Little Gem.

Messier M8 Lagoon Nebula

Just after twilight and low above the Southern horizon, I took some pictures of the Lagoon Nebula. This time with the correct working distance of the flattener to the camerasensor.
The nebula is slightly visible and even the Lagoon itself. South of the nebula, globular star cluster NGC6544 is seen.
Pictures are stacked with deepskystacker and editing using CS4.

9h53 launch time of the Delta Heavy IV with Parker Solar Probe

Credit NASA

The Delta Heavy IV rocket is ready to take off the next 20 minutes (9h53 GMT+1). It will take off from the launch complex 37 at  Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying the Parker Solar Probe.

One day to go before Parker Solar Probe lift off

On August 11th 2018, NASA's Parker Solar Probe is planned to start it's journey to the Sun's Corona. It will be the closest approach to the sun in history. And I will be on board :)

Perseids Meteor Shower 2018 - My first pictures using all-sky camera

Around August 9-13 make sure you watch the sky for the Perseids Meteors. During this period space debris form the Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle will be entering the atmosphere creating the Perseids Meteor shower.

The maximum (as many as 60-100 metors/hour) occurs on Monday morning August 13th. look out for a dark place to count for the meteors.

This evening I was able to make some pictures of a couple of meteors using my all-sky camera.

Again Wrong Working Distance from Sensor - Messier M8 Lagoon Nebula

Seeing was very good on August 2nd with low Moon impact till UT24h. So ideal to make pictures of deepsky object. Based on my earlier learnings I changed the position of the flattener in order to increase the working distance between camera sensor and flattener. Unfortunately I did not measure the final distance. The result showed still aberration at the edged. Not so big as with the flattener just in front of the sensor; but still, it clearly can be seen.

So, I did some detailed measuring and found out the picture was taken with the flattener at a distance of 151mm. The pictures taken earlier had a working distance of 117.8mm; wich is below 5% of the ideal working distance according the technical data.

Focal plane of my camera is shown below :

The recommended distances from the M48x0.75 thread to the corrector via technical data is shown below. In principle this rule applies: the shorter the refractor´s focal length, the longer the working distance to the sensor has to be.

♦ focal length < 450 mm: 128 mm
♦ focal length 450-490 mm: 123 mm for my TLAPO 80/480 f/6
♦ focal length 500-550 mm: 118 mm
♦ focal length 560-590 mm: 116 mm
♦ focal length 600-690 mm: 113 mm
♦ focal length 700-800 mm: 111 mm
♦ focal length as from 800 mm: 108 mm

An underrun or an overrun of the distance of up to 5% has no visible effect on the sharpness in the field of sensors with formats up to APS-C. With larger sensors, the tolerance is reduced to 1-2%.

Mars TAL200K ASI224MC

Observation of Mars, one week after opposition. Mars was low above the south-southeast (SSE) horizon at an altitude of only 9.5°. It's still very bright with a magnitude of -2.7 and the diameter is now 24.28". As a reference, on July 9th, the planet was only 22.28", a difference of almost 10%.

Seeing was good and details on the surface were clearly seen. The surface showed clearly light and dark areas. I made a series of picutres which nicely showed clearly the rotation of the planet.

Observations are made with TAL200K and ASI224MC with Barlowx2. All pictures made with capture software SharpCap and capture are was reduced to 480x400. Stacking using DeepskyStacker. Final editing with CS4.

July Weather Summary

July 2018 was a very warm and very dry month. Two days of rain with only 3 l/m2 and an average temperature above 20°C.