Solar Wind and Corona Timeline

Some of the key discoveries and ideas that led to our current understanding of the corona and the solar wind which result into to the Parker Solar Probe Mission by NASA.

Credit NASA

Parker Solar Probe Breaks Record and Becomes Closest Spacecraft to Sun

After the first gravity assist on October 3rd, 2018, between Parker Solar Probe and Venus, the Parker Solar Probe now holds the record for closest approach to the Sun by a human-made object. Parker Solar Probe passed the current record of 42.72 million km from the Sun's surface on Oct. 29, 2018, at about UT17:04, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team.

Over the next years the probe will continue to break it's own records as it will fly closer and closer to the Sun.

Credit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

Increased Cosmic Rays - Solar minimum

I looked into data to see if the current solar minimum (cycle #24) has a impact on increased cosmic rays. The data I used was :

1) Sunspot data from Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels (WDC-SILCO-SIDC) with
2) Galactic Cosmic Rays data from University of Oulo, Finland

The data was plot starting from Jan 2009 till last month Sept 30, 2018. At least, the graph is showing an inverse correlation between solar minimum/maximum and cosmic radiation min/max. 

Graph by Pascal Hilkens - Credit SILCO/SIDC & Oulu Finland

The mechanism is believed that the sun during a less active period, the sun's magnetic field will be weaker with decreasing solar wind. This solar wind acts as a shield to protect Earth against high energetic cosmic rays. During solar minimum, those high energetic cosmic rays penetrate further into Earth's atmosphere resulting in more counts/s. This is what the Neutron Monitoring System of groundstation Oulu  (Finland) detects.  

The sources of high energetic cosmic rays (typically 5-30GeV) are from beyond our Solar System and even from outside our own milky way and thus Galactic and Intergalactic. For that we talk about (Inter)Galactic Cosmic Rays. 

Review Smartphone Adapter Levenhuk A10

Smartphone Adapter Levenhuk A10

A month ago I bought the Smartphone Adapter Levenhuk A10 at the Photokina fair in Cologne. Only last week I used this adapter for the first time during a public star party. The adapter was mounted on a standard ocular on my Orion XT12 Dobson scope and pointed to the Moon. Both kids and adults requested to use their smartphone to make some pictures of the moon. Adjusting for Iphone, Samsung and Huawei was easy and the result was appreciated by the public.

Iphone 6 picture with Smartphone adapter Levenhuk A10 on Zoom Ocular 24mm with OrionXT12 Dobson

Helios : Succesvolle Nacht van de Duisternis te Langdorp

Naar jaarlijkse traditie was Helios ook dit jaar aanwezig op de nacht van de duisternis.
We bleven trouw aan de locatie te Langdorp gelegen achter het Wolf Cafe en aan de Demer. De locatie heeft recent een opknapbeurt gekregen met picknick tafels en een gescheiden parking en natuurlijk met een mooi uitzicht op de sterrenhemel.
In totaal waren 7 Helios leden present (Dany, Patrick, Lieven, Bart, Walter, Jacqueline en Pascal) en stelden we 5 telescopen op.
Met een open hemel, de Maan, Mars en Saturnus laag boven de horizon daagden de eerste bezoekers al op nog voor we klaar waren met het opstellen van de apparatuur. De bezoekers bleven daarna aanstromen en we konden zo een 75-tal geïnteresseerden te woord staan en laten genieten van een stukje sterrenhemel. Toppers waren natuurlijk de maan maar ook Mars, Saturnus, de Pleiaden, de Andromeda nevel en Ringnevel.

Dit jaar ook enkele nieuwigheden waaronder Lieven zijn ultrasoon toestel waardoor vleermuizen konden worden opgespoord en Pascal zijn smartphone houder waardoor bezoekers hun eigenste foto van de maan en mars konden maken.

Dany overtrof zichzelf opnieuw en zorgde voor de innerlijke mens met warme choco en zelfgemaakte broodjes. De koude voeten werden daardoor even vergeten.
Omstreeks 22h00 vertrokken we huiswaarts en kon iedereen terugblikken op een geslaagde nacht van de duisternis.

Another 22° Halo around the Sun

A 22° halo around the Sun, not fully covered but still fascinating.

Helios Nacht van de Duisternis in Langdorp

Deze avond is het Nacht van de Duisternis. Sterrenvereniging Helios staat je op te wachten in  Langdorp achter het Wolf Café om samen naar de maan, sterren en planeten te kijken. Om een kijkje doorheen de telescoop te doen ben je welkom tussen 19h00- 22h00.

Sun dogs and other arcs

This morning some very bright Sun Dogs and a very bright circumzenithal arc above the Sun.

When editing the picture in black/white the arcs become clearly visible.

AutoStakkert!3 AS!3 now available

The beta version AutoStakkert!3 is now available. It's not fully tested but can be downloaded here.

Voyager 2 is leaving our Solar System

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

Voyager 2 is currently on a journey toward interstellar space. According NASA the probe has detected an increase in cosmic rays which travel from outside our solar system. Voyager was launched in 1977 and is about 17.7 billion kilometers from Earth, this is more than 118 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.

Since August, the Cosmic Ray Subsystem instrument on Voyager 2 has measured a 5% increase in the rate of cosmic rays hitting the spacecraft. The probe's Low-Energy Charged Particle instrument has detected a similar increase in higher-energy cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays are fast-moving particles that originate outside the solar system. Some of these cosmic rays are blocked by the heliosphere, so mission planners expect that Voyager 2 will measure an increase in the rate of cosmic rays as it approaches and crosses the boundary of the heliosphere.

In May 2012, Voyager 1 experienced an increase in the rate of cosmic rays similar to what Voyager 2 is now detecting. That was about three months before Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space.

The fact that Voyager 2 may be approaching the heliopause six years after Voyager 1 is also relevant, because the heliopause moves inward and outward during the Sun's 11-year activity cycle. Solar activity refers to emissions from the Sun, including solar flares and eruptions of material called coronal mass ejections. During the 11-year solar cycle, the Sun reaches both a maximum and a minimum level of activity.

Credit NASA Article 

Renewed Editing Mars July 13

Astropictures from Mars taken on July 13, 2018 UT01h23 with TAL200K and ASI224MC were edited again. 

I used the new update of AutoStakkert!3.0.14 (AS!3) which is now a 64bit version. Stacking was done in planet mode, drizzle 1.5 and Sharpened 10%.

The result was edited in CS4 in following order of unsharp mask and Gaussian blur. 

Comparison of Mars as predicted by Calsky

Draconid Meteor Shower this evening?

When the sky is clear get a chance to go outside this evening to watch for meteors. The annual peak of Draconid meteors is expected this evening around midnight. Last month the parent comet,
21P Giacobini-Zinner, reached its perihelion. It means there is a small chance the number of meteors could peak.  But watch yourself :)

Startrail

Startrail taken on the morning of October 5th, UT2h-3h. Picture taken in the direction of South-East with Nikon D7500 f/3.5 10mm. Pictures stacked using Startrails v2.3

Freek Roelofs & Marcel Vonk

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Afgelopen weekend vond in Oostende het 32ste VVS/JVS weekend plaats. Diverse onderwerpen kwamen aan bod maar 2 lezingen sprongen eruit. Twee topsprekers waren aanwezig die uitzettingen gaven over Event Horizon Telescope : de eerste foto van een zwart gat (Freek Roelofs). Een tweede lezing ging over Emergente Zwaartekracht en het donkere Heelal (Marcel Vonk)

Prachtige ochtend

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Mistige Zonsopkomst

Spiral Galaxy NGC891

In the constellation Andromeda you can see an unbarred spiral Galaxy known as NGC891. Visually it's difficult to see and shows up as a very faint blur. I took some pictures at the moment the moon was 98% illulinated. That's why the picture is not really dark. The galaxy is loacted at a distance of 30 million light years from Earth. This is 15 times further then the Andromeda Galaxy M31.
The picture was taken with my nikon D7500 on TALAPO80/480 f/6. Darks are included and stacking with DeepSkyStacker. Final editing in CS4.

Geostationary Satellites

When looking at the pictures I made of the planet Neptune, I noticed a couple of traces.  Most probably these traces are satellties, interesting to notice is the fact the pictures shows three "satellites" 'in line'.

Weather Summary September

September was a warm and dry month with only  28 liter of rain /m2. Interesting to see is the 1 air frost day on September 30th. This is first air frost day since 2014.