Starlink Passes available

Both the Starlink leader as the Starlink Trails are still visible. When? See Heavens-above.com.  As the coming nights will be clear, great opportunity to observe and photograph them.

My Lunar Eclipse pictures published

The total lunar eclipse on January 21, 2019 was entirely photographed. Great to see my pictures are published in Heelal, volume 64 , number 4, april 2019.

NGC7380 and Wizard Nebula

Open Star Cluster NGC7380 surrounded by reddish Wizard Nebula. Picture taken with Nikon D7500 and TLAPO80/480 f/6. Deepskystakker used for stacking and CS4 for final editing.

Open Star Cluster IC4756

Open Star Cluster IC4756 is located at a distance of 1300ly from Earth.

Jupiter Facebook Likes

Great to see my picture getting "Likes" :) - Not bad getting 37 likes from this VVS Forum.

Jupiter

I reworked my pictures taken earlier this week on May 25th, 2019.

Reduced colors

No editing

Prominences, Plages and Filament with SolarMax3

Some more pictures of the Sun this morning. All pictures taken with ASI224MC on SolarMax 3 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15. AutoStakkert!2 used for stacking and final editing with CS4. Both left en right of the sun's disk some prominences. On the disk itself some plages and one big filament.

Compilation Sun H-Alpha

Compilation of two pictures to get a full Sun Disk. Pictures taken with ASI224MC on SolarMax3 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15. AutoStakkert!2 was used for stacking and final editing with CS4.

Sun in H-Alpha SolarMax3

Sun today in H-Alpha with SolarMax 3 70/400 f/5.7. Pictures taken with ASI224MC afocal, stacking using AutoStakkert! and final editting with CS4.
Pictures shows a filament and a prominence.

M98 M99

A couple of beautifull galaxies on below picture :
M 98 part of the Virgo Cluster at 44million ly
M 99 part of the Virgo Cluster at 48million ly
NGC4298 NGC4302 NGC4192

It's not my most beautifull picture but it shows the power of my TLAPO80/480 f/6 with Nikon D7500. Settings are ISO1000 for 150s. Stacking with DeepSkystakker and editing using CS4.

My picture uploaded in Astrometry.net (Credit Astronometry.net)

Globular Cluster M107

Globular Cluster M107 is the last Globular Cluster of the Messier Catalogue. The cluster is located at a distance of 27.000 ly from Earth. The picture is taken with Nikon D7500 and TLAPO8/480 f/6.

NGC5897

Globular Cluster NGC5897 is a satellite cluster of our Milky Way is located about 40000 ly from Earth and 24000ly from the center of our Milky Way.
Picture taken with Nikon D7500 and TLAPO80/480 f/6 ISO1000 for 4 minutes. Stacking using DeepSkystakker and final editing with CS4.

North Virgo Cluster with M86, M87 & M89

Picture of galaxies M86, M87 and M89. Picture taken with Nikon D7500 on TLAPO80/480 f/6 and exposure of 7minutes. Stacking with DeepSkystakker and final editing using CS4.
Early april, the first ever picture taken of a black hole was taken of the black hole at the center of M87. M87 is located at a distance of 55million ly from earth. It is a very massive galaxy and believed to have a mass of 2700 billion times the mass of our Sun (our galaxy, milky way is estimated to have a mass of 1000 billion solar masses). For fun, I added the picture of the black hole which is estimated to have a mass of 3 to 6 billion solar masses.

My picture uploaded in Astrometry.net (credit Astronmetry.net)

*billlion = 10exp9

North Virgo Cluster and Markarian's Chain

This picture shows an incredible number of 67! galaxies. Some of those are :

* M84
* M86
* M87
* The Eyes NGC4438 and NGC4453
* Markarian's Chain M84, M86, NGC4435, NGC4438, NGC4443, NGC4458, NGC4473 and NGC4477

The picture was taken using Nikon D7500 with TLAPO80/480 f/6 with a total exposure of 8minutes. Raw pictures converted to DNG files. Stacking, including darks, using DeepSkystakker and final editing with CS4.

My Picture uploaded into Astrometry - credit Astrometry.net

Globular Clusters M53 and NGC5053

Globular Cluster M53 is located about 63.000ly away from earth. NGC5053 is located at a distance of 53.500ly from earth.
Both clusters are taken with Nikon D7500 on TLAPO 80/480 f/6. Stacking, including darks, with DeepskyStakker and final editing using CS4.

Jupiter

During the dark moment of last night I was able to make some pictures of Jupiter. Picture was taken using ASI224MC on TAL200K. I tried out my new ADC and to get back into focus I added a barlow x2. It was difficult to get the picture sharpened as each time I adjusted the ADC, Jupiter moved out of sight. SharpCap was used as capture software and pictures stacked by AutoStakkert!2. Final editing done with CS4.

Boarding Pass to Mars

Send by iPhone 6 iOS 11.2.5




I'm on board of the next Mars mission. My boarding pass just arrived 😀

SpaceX Starlink

Send by iPhone 6 iOS 11.2.5




This morning at 0h58 I could see many individual lights, like a train. It was very bright and moving as fast as the ISS (which passed 30 minutes earlier at 0h12).
Unfortunately I was just switching scopes and my camera was inside, not ready. However it was a visual spectacular phenomen, "wow".
According other message it was SpaceX with Starlink satellites.
Anyway a fantastic experience and a little "alien".

The Sun - Die Sonne

Finally I bought the book "Die Sonne". My first impression is very promissing with lot's of information about almost all aspects of the Sun. It's not a Solarphysics book but I gives a detailed overview on what needs to be know of the Sun for an amateur astronomer.

The Dark Universe

Yesterday I attended two lectures around the Dark Universe. As part of the Pint of Science series both lectures were given in Café Le Cheval Marin, Brussels.

Selfie with Yoann Genolini

The first one explained that matter alone can not explain the high velocities in the outer regions of galaxies. For that dark matter was introduced with a ratio of 80% dark matter and 20% matter. Dark matter is invisible, meaning it's not interacting with light and it shows up via gravitational phenomena. Beside this it should also be colliosionless. Candidates for dark matter come and go but at this stage no defined theory is available.

Selfie with Wout Merbis

The second lecture was about black holes and more specific how they store information. After explaining what a black hole is, more information was given on Hawking radiation, singularity, event horizon, photon sphere, ergosphere and finaly holography. Black holes are such extreem that both the big as the small is needed to explain them or trying to explain them. So both gravity (Einsteins general relativity theory) and quantum mechanics should be used to describe black holes.

Robbert Dijkgraaf - Science and Cocktails

A Science and Cocktails public lecture will be held on Saturday 13 July at 8:30 p.m. with Robbert Dijkgraaf as speaker and the World Premiere of a Strings-inspired classical-modern piece. This is part of the Strings 2019 conference July 1- 13, 2019 at Flagey.

Francois Englert - Science and Cocktails

Francois Englert will give a lecture in the Frensh language with the title :"La compréhension de l’Univers: de Galilée, Newton et Einstein au boson BEH, et au-delà".This lecture is part of the series Science and Cocktails.

Pint of Science

The Annual Pint of Science Festival will take place on May 20 - 22, 2019. Lectures will be given in 14 cities within Belgium. For other countries check the website - Pintofscience.

Specific for Belgium and astronomy related, these are the lectures :

20 May 2019

Brussel : The Dark Universe. 

Leuven : It’s a small world after all. 

Mechelen : Een blik in het eindeloze heelal. 

21 May 2019

Antwerpen : From Cold plasme to cold space. 

Brussel : Outer Space, What lies beyond. 

Leuven : Life, Death and afterlife of stars.

22 May 2019

Brussel : A tour of the microcosmos. 

Leuven : And there was light. 

Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector ADC

An ADC is used to corrects light dispersion typically for planets and the moon when low above the horizon. At the ATT in Essen I bought an Omegon ADC. Hopefully I can start testing it the coming days as both Jupiter and Saturn are getting into opposition. More to come with my review and results.

Great Lecture by Ulrich von Kusserow

Selfie with Ulrich von Kusserow

As part of the 35th edition of ATT in Essen, Ulrich von Kusserow gave a lecture on "about the exploration of our magnetic solarsystem". 

The lecture describes the history from newtonian gravition to the current understanding of magnetism. What causes the magnetic fields on the Sun and around our planets? What's the influence of magnetic fields on life on earth, in space and on other planets... and much more.

After the presentation I took a selfie with Ulrich von Kusserow ... he still remembered the selfie from last year :)

For more information see website from Ulrich von Kusserow - see this website. 

ATT Essen

The ATT astronomy exibition is now open!

Today ATT Essen

The biggest astronomy fair for Amateurs will open today it's doors at 10AM in Essen (Germany). It will be my third time visiting this interesting event.

The ATT is Europe's biggest exhibition especially for amateur astronomers. You will find state-of-the-art telescopes and accessories as well as used and homemade instruments. Here you meet manufacturers and experienced amateur astronomers from all over Europe to share your thoughts with. Furthermore the ATT offers a platform for public presentation of observatories and astronomy clubs. In short, this is the place to be for anyone who is interested in astronomy. You will get plenty of ideas and inspirations for your hobby. Come and find out for yourself, and we are looking forward to meeting you at the ATT in Essen, Germany.

Moon

Picture of the Moon was taken without a tripod and normal settings. No editing was done at all. Great picture of my new Nikon A1000.

Sun H-Alpha Solarmax3

This morning, Observing the Sun in H-Alpha with SolarMax3 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15 and pictures taken using Nikon D7500. Compared with yesterday morning, conditions were much better. The active region in the west is sunspot AR2741.

Moon 88%

Almost full moon (88%).

Sun H-Alpha with SolarMax3

Again a cloudness day, the second in a row. Time to capture the Sun in H-Alpha with my SolarMax 3 70/400 f/5.7 and ZWO ASI224MC. A the surface of the Sun their is s.one bright active area, AR2741 and a less active one AR2740. Connecting the scope with the ZWO camera requires a PC. During daytime with the Sun high in the sky the contrast on the screen is very difficult. I have not yet found any solutions but still some great results. AVI files are stacked using AutoStakker!2 and final editing with CS4.

Lecture by Stijn Ilsen

Together with two Helios members I attended a lecture on spacemissions past, current and future. The lecture was given by engineer Stijn Ilsen in Herselt.
Very professional presentation and well presented with some humor.

Race to the Moon

Pascal Hilkens (l) - Koen Geukens (r)

Attending a lexture by Koen Geukens on the new race to the Moon. The lecture started with a short history of the first man on the Moon, 50 years ago with a lot of nice details.
The new race to the moon is a next step to explore Mars and beyond. The journey is difficult due to politics, budget and even scientists discussing the best approach.
It's not sure if we will have a new step on the Moon before 2024!

Sunspot AR2740

The last time I set up my scope was on Feb 27. Today it was time to set up the scope again. The more the Sun is covered by a new sunspot (AR2740) and having a partly open sky.
The picture was taken with Nikon D7500 on TAL200K. The insert was made using Barlow x2.