ISS ARISS SSTV Collection Finalised

ARISS (Amateur Radio on the ISS (International Space Station)) is celebrating 20years of service. To celebrate this, the Russian radio on board of the ISS is transmitting between X-mas and New year. In total 12 pictures can be downloaded each 1minute transmitting time. I'm using webSDR located in Nürnberg (Germany) and Noordwijk (Netherlands) each time the ISS is flying over. 

The images were send to ARISS, Indonesian Space Explorer and Russian R4UAB which responded all by sending back Award Certificates. Really Cool

In total 13 times (24/12 till 31/12, all during early morning) I was able to make contact with the ISS.  During those 13 ISS passes I could decode 25 images of which 11 out of 12 unique pictures; image 11 was very difficult to get. But even without this one, it's amazing to get this done and it's for sure addicting. 

Out of the 13 ISS passes, I had twice visual which were also photographed. At those moments I was both listening and watching the ISS :)

NOAA18 30/12/2020 UT9h26 Weather Image

Today's weather image downloaded from NOAA18 UT9h26 using webSDR Nurnberg. Picture was stacked and edited using CS4 and DeNoise AI.

NOAA18 Weather image 28122020 UT09h50

Today's Weather image from NOAA18 UT09h50

My Astronomical Highlights 2020

A rather stange year due to the Covid-19 pandemic but still, I was able to got out and watched the sky. Some of my astronomical hightlights in 2020 and astronomical "wow" moments are listed below :

#1 Attending live the launch of Space-X Falcon 9 (CRS-20) from Cape Canaveral SLC40
#2 Comet Neowise C/2020 F3 visible with the naked eye and I could capture both dust as plasma tails
#3 Planet Saturn was observed a couple of days after opposition in almost perfect conditions. Also Mars and Jupiter were observed.
#4 In the evening of July 5th, an impressive sky with NLC covering the sky up to 40°
#5 Making progress in Deepsky photography with M31, M51 and Horsehead nebula in H-alpha


Worth mentioning :

#6 Supernova SN2020jfo in M61. My first supernova which I could track (100days) and making detailed pictures.
#7 My fartest Deepsky objects so far: 3 quasars of which HS 0624+6907 is located at distance of 4.56 billion ly away from Earth.
#8 Communication with NOAA weather satellites and ISS station (ARISS SSTV)
#9 The Sun is awakening with some big sunspots at the end of the year. I was able to see the sunspots with the naked eye... first time ever and remember: don't do this at home
#10 Finishing my Moon sequence from full moon till new moon

Storm Bella over Belgium

Retrieving weather image from satellite NOAA 18 UT10h01 with storm Bella over Belgium and other parts of Europe.

Setting : WebSDR ESA Noordwijk, Software WXToIMG, Decoding with NOAA-ATP and editing using CS4 and DeNoise AI

ARISS SSTV Award - Contact with ISS 20years ARISS

ARISS (Amateur Radio on the ISS (International Space Station)) is celebrating 20years of service. To celebrate this, the Russian radio on board of the ISS is transmitting between X-mas and New year. In total 12 pictures can be downloaded each 1minute transmitting time. I'm using webSDR located in Nürnberg (Germany) each time the ISS is flying over. As I completed one image, I was rewarded with my first ever ARISS SSTV Award. Cool!

In the mean time I downloaded a couple of images. Below the one with the best quality.

Jupiter-Saturn X-mas

Jupiter and Saturn at X-mas evening.

Mercury Transit of May 9th 2016 - pictures reworked

Cleaning up my disk with astropictures I found avi movies of my observation of the Mercury transit of May 9th, 2016. I was at that time not able to proces the files. So I reworked the files using AutoStakkert! using image stabilization anchor and planet selection. Final editing done using CS4.
Setting : Dobson 12" and ZWOASI224MC camera.

X-Mas Contact with ISS

This morning I was able to download images from the ISS while visual seeing the ISS from my backgarden. Really cool!
I'm using websdr located in Nurnberg (Germany) to connect with the ISS. The picture of the ISS (and Envisat) is taken above my location.



Background :
An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) for late December. This will be a special SSTV event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ARISS operations on the ISS. The event is scheduled to begin on December 24 and continue through December 31. Details to follow later. Dates are subject to change due to ISS operational adjustments.
Times for the event appear to have the activity being setup and starting after 16:40 UTC on December 24 and running continuously until 18:15 UTC on December 31.

Mars north of the Moon

This evening, the red planet Mars can be seen north of the Moon.

Jupiter - Saturn T+2 days

Two days after Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, Saturn is "moving away" from Jupiter.

NOAA18 Weather Image 23/12

NOAA18 23/12 UT9h09 Weather Image. Image download using WebSDR from Nurnberg. Image stacked and edited using CS4 and DeNoise AI.

Happy Anniversary

Today I'm having my astronomiccal blog 8 years. At exactly December 23, 2012 my blog was kicked of. In the meantime the blog received more then 60.000 views and I posted more then 1000 blogs. 

Solargraphs 2020

Today I removed both my pinhole camera's from my garden house. Once the can opened the photopaper was dried and put under the scanner :) 600dpi.

Next the scan was edited using CS4 : negative and horizontal rotation.

Start of astronomical winter

 Today at exactly 11h02 (local time) winter starts. 

The moons of the big planets

 

Jupiter Saturn Conjunction T-1day

The grand final is foreseen for december 21 but clouds could spoil this event. Therefor everything was set for today and with great success... an open sky for one hour!

I used my Dobson 12" with a 9mm lens and took photos afocal with my iPhone 11. 

Next to this I took pictures with ASI224MC and TLAPO80/480 f/6 barlowx2. Stacking was done using AutoStakkert! and final editing using CS4. Both planets are within the field of view... wow.

Jupiter-Saturn December 19

In the openingsin the cloud I could see the close encounter of Jupiter and Saturn. No real time to allign but anyway.. I could take some pictures of this rare event. The final is foreseen for next monday december 21, 2020

Jupiter - Saturn Conjunction Series : watch now or wait till 2080

How rare are Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions? And how often are they getting close as 6.1 arcmin?
I searched the internet and found this link : https://sparky.rice.edu/~hartigan/public-night/jupsat2.html  

When looking at this list we see that a simular conjunction took place in 1563 BC and 709BC. We also see some real close encounters in 372 and 1226 BC and it is believed that this could be observed.

How close is 6.1 arcmin, the distance next december 21, 2020? Tom compare, the moon is about 0.5° or 30 arcmin. I used software Stellarium to make this more visible using the field of view of my ASI224MC camera and my 80/480mm telescoop with barlow x2

The next close Jupiter-Saturn conjunction will take place in the year 2080. 

NOAA18 Weather Image

Weather Image from NOAA 18 weather satellite, dated today at UT9h56. Nurnberg WebSDR was used and this time I used my hardwired internet in stead of wifi network. Pictures are stacked and edited using CS4 and noise removal by DeNoise AI.

Lecture : Neutron Stars are Weird

On feb 1, 2020 the University of Maasticht organizes an online and offline lecture "Neutron Stars are Weird".

Moon Jupiter Saturn December 18 2020

Jupiter and Saturn getting closer and closer. Picture taken with Nikon D7500 and 18-200mm lens. The insert was taken with ASI224MC and TLAPO80/480 f/6. 

Moon-Jupiter-Saturn

This evening both the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn low above the south-western horizon.