Year End ARISS SSTV Event ISS Expedition 66

Still 2 days to go to download SSTV images send by ISS expedition 66. All images are related to historical lunar missions. So far I received 7 out of 12 images of which have poor quality. I'm using the WebSDR from Nurnberg. Nürnberg - Empfang aus 70m Höhe | WebSDR N (nbgsdr.ddns.net)

See previous blogpost on X-Mas SSTV event.

Mercury Transit May 9 2016 with ASI224MC and PIPP

I was cleaning up my astrodata and found some AVI-movies from the Mercury Transit of May 9, 2016. Some editing was done but always without a good result. Today I installed PIPP software (Planetary Imaging PreProcessor) to rework the AVI-movies (setting : Solar Close Up and AFB/AOI square on the solar edge). Next I used Autostakkert! 2.6.8 to stack the images (setting : Planets, max. treshhold and all "edge" boxes selected). The images are edited using CS4 and DeNoise AI. And the result... awesome. 

See also my earlier blogpost on the Mercury Transit

Astro Page #Visits

My Astro Page was visited many times... since the start in 2012 already more the 120.000 times.

Astro Page #posts

A visual presentation of my posts on my Astro Page. 

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) using new APP 1.083 beta3

Since december 22, 2021 the new beta 3 (almost stable) version of APP 1.083 is available. Previous beta2 version did not always allowed to select the nucleus of the comet. With this new beta3 version no issues were found when selecting the comet's nucleus. Great work to the Aries Production team!

I reworked my pictures of the Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) taken on december 8th with following setting :

- Nikon D7500 and TLAPO80/480 f/6

- lights ISO1600 and 32x30s

- darks, bias, flats and dark flats

- stacking using APP and final editing with CS4 & DeNoise AI

Happy Anniversary : 9 years blogging!

Today, I celebrate 9 years of blogging. My blog "Astro Page" started on december 23, 2012. I posted more then 1600 posts and people visited my blog more then 120.000 times. 

First Light ASI2600MC Pro: Orion Nebula and Pleiades

Awaiting a clear sky for testing my Astrocamera ASI2600MC Pro. For this first light I used my refractor TLAPO80/480 f/6 which was connected to N.I.N.A.

Setting : TLAPO80/480 f/6 and ASI2600MC Pro, ZWO Miniguidescope 30f/4 with ASI224MC

Setting : Cooling -10°C - No dewheat; outside temperature -7°C

Software : N.I.N.A with PHD2 for guiding. Astropixel Processing and CS4.

Object 1: Orion Nebule M42 with Running Man Nebule 

Object 2: Pleiades M45

Issues : 

- Com port not found when connecting the mount. This was solved to rename the com port back to its previous name.

- PHD2 guiding not smooth due to calibration of a to big star; recalibration done using a smaller star. 

- Guiding errors resulting in startrails impacting 50% of pictures 

- Gray scale in Tiff file. When saving 16bit data no color was found in the Tiff file. This was solved with the settings in  APP.

- stars are not sharp at the edges of the pictures. After a deep investigation the rootcause was identified as a too short back focus distance (85mm in stead of 123mm).

As a conclusion: great first light experience with ASI2600MC with  a couple of beginner mistakes. But I believe these will be solved next time. My PHD2 guiding experience is low and needs to be increase as well.

Astronomical Highlights 2021

Again a strange year due to the wave 3 and wave 4 Covid-19 pandemic but still, I was able to got out and watched the sky. Some of my astronomical hightlights in 2021 and astronomical "wow" moments are listed below :

#1 Green flash at sunset @  Belgian coast (this picture was published in magazine Heelal)

#2 Noctilucent clouds (NLC) 

#3 My best picture so far of Jupiter

#4 Moon with Mercury in the evening sky

#5 Orion Nebula in OIII, H-alpha and RGB

Worth mentioning

#6 Mars near open cluster Messier M35 (this picture was published in magazine Heelal)

#7 Partial Sun eclipse with Astronomical club "Helios"

#8 Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) in the morning sky

#9 My first guiding session photographing the Veil Nebula using PHD2 and N.I.N.A  

#10 Sunspots with CaK filter using ASI224MC camera

Jupiter Saturn Venus in the evening sky

This evening I tried to find comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) low above the south-western horizon. Unfortunately without succes and probably due to some low clouds. Instead I took some pictures of the Jupiter-Saturn-Venus allignment.

Upcoming XMAS ARISS SSTV Event

An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) for late December. This XMAS ARISS SSTV event is planned between december 26 and december 31.

ISS Moon Transit

On December 8, 2021, UT17h06, the International Space Station - ISS - was flying in front of the Moon. This was easy observed with the naked eye. I made different pictures but was unable to get a sharp picture of the station. The pictures shows the ISS twice.. as the picture was stacked. 

Awards ARISS SSTV MAI75 Experiment December 1

I received my Awards from SSTV December MAI75 experiment with ISS Expedition 66 (december 1, 2021).

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) using APP 1.083 Beta2

On the morning of December 8th, 2021 I was able to take some pictures of Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) which is located in constellation serpens. 

Setting : Nikon D7500 and TLAPO80/480 f/6; 30x30s ISO1600, darks, bias, flats and darkflats. Stacking with APP 1.083 Beta1 (comet option) and final editing using CS4 and DeNoise AI.

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

Observation of Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) which is moving "fast" between the stars and currently located in constellation serpens. The comet is not yet visible with the naked eye.

Setting : Nikon D7500 and TLAPO80/480 f/6; 30x30s ISO1600, darks, bias, flats and darkflats. Stacking with APP (comet option) and final editing using CS4 and DeNoise AI.

MAI 75 SSTV Expedition 66 December 1 Event - Results

Today the ISS was submitting images to Earth as part of the MAI75 SSTV Expedition 66 event. I used the websdr from Nürnberg (http://nbgsdr.ddns.net/) and MMSSTV software. The results were rather poor. I was able to receive 5 pictures but not one was really good.

Darth Vader's Galaxy NGC936

As a Star Wars fan, the object NGC 936 is realy cool. The galaxy looks like a Star Wars Empire (advanced) TIE fighter and was named Darth Vader's Galaxy. It's located in constellation Cetus and is about 60 million lightyears away from Earth. It forms a pair with NGC941. When comparing the field of view with SIMBAD we will find more then 160 galaxies aswell as Quasar 4C 01.11 with a redshift z=2.038.

Setting : Nikon D7500, TAL200K f/8.5, ZWO Mini Guidescope 30, guide camera ASI224MC.
Image : ISO400, Lights 12x90s; 4x300s, Darks, Flats, Bias and Dark Flats.

Software : N.I.N.A, PHD2, APP, CS4, DeNoise AI.

MAI-SSTV Experiment Dec 1 & 2

The Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) is planning for a SSTV experiment session for December 1 and 2. Timings are listed below but could be changed :

    December 1 – Start: 12:10 UT. Stop: 19:10 UT
    December 2 – Start: 11:40 UT. Stop: 17:20 UT

SSTV mode is traditional PD120 and images will be transmitted on 145.800 MHz.

See also my previous blog on MAI experiment via this link

My Current Astrophotography Set Up

 

This flowchart is a visual of my current astrophotography set up. Starting from my mount untill processing of the astropictures. Still some learning to be done eg. the use of platesolving. 

Finding COM-ports in Windows 10

Windows10 environment: type "configuration" in search field (right of Windows Start). In the Click on devices and this will show the ports. If ports are not shown, click on view and enable "hidden devices". 

Veil Nebula NGC6960 RGB and H-alpha

The Veil Nebula (NGC6960) in constellation Cygnus is a supernova remnant. The cloud of ionised gas is located about 2400 lightyears away from Earth. Estimations when the supernova happened range between 5000 and 20000 years ago.
A picture was made of the Western Veil Nebula near star 52 Cygni. 

Setting : Nikon D7500 and TLAPO 80/480 f/6; RGB 7x600s ISO400 and H-Alpha 11x300 ISO1600 which results in a total exposure of 125 minutes. No darks, bias or flats.

Guiding Set up: N.I.N.A (Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy), EQMOD, Stellarium, PHD2 with guiding camera ASI224MC and guidescope ZWO 30 f/4.

Pictures are stacked using APP and final editing with CS4 and DeNoise AI. 

My blog picked up by Robots: 50.000 views in 5 days

End of October my blog was picked by a robot. Between October 26 and October 31my blog received 51.000 views. All views could be traced back from the US. After disabling the option for "robots" in the settings, my views went back to normal. In the meantime all settings are enabled again and the blog is performing as before. 

This means also that the blog is viewed more then 120.000 times :)

First steps to remote astrophotography: VNC and N.I.N.A

 

My set up with N.I.N.A and VNC

With the installation of VNC (Virtual Network Computing - VNC Server and VNC Viewer) I'm able to remotely operate my telescope. This means that my laptop with all related software is connected to the telescope (mount, camera, guiding,..) and remotely connected to a second laptop inside the house. 

In the meatime I'm making progress with N.I.N.A (Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy) and I'm able to use platesolving with pictures made earlier this week. 

Awaiting clear skies to have a real live session with all captured learnings. 

Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard

This and next month is worthwhile to have a look at the morning sky. Look in the east for Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard. Current best estimates predict magnitude below 6 (beginning of december) meaning the comet is visible with the naked eye.

Some nice conjunctions between the Comet and Deepsky objects which can be photgraphed or visual observed :

- November 19 : together with NGC4399 and NGC4400

- November 23-25 : together with galaxies Hockeystick (NGC4657) and Whale (NGC4631)

- November 30 : together with 7 NGC objects 

- December 3 : together with globular Cluster M3

Succes and clear skies!

EQASCOM Meridian Limits

To protect your telescoop and camera setup from crashing with the mount once the mount is past the meridian it's recommended to set meridian limits. When the mount reaches the limits it will stop guiding and/or can park your scope and/or can start a meridian flip. 

A good video which explain how to set meridian limits through EQASCOM can be found here.

Disabling meridian limits in EQASCOM is possible by checking out the "mount limitsbox". 

Lecture by Robbert Dijkgraaf

I attended a lecture by prof. Robbert Dijkgraaf in Leuven (B). With 350 people we listen to the future of science and the challenges of quantum physics, genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. These 3 aspect go hand in hand as a expanding Helix and are seen as the building blocks for the future.

See capturing of the lecture via Youtube

My picture of a Green Flash published in Heelal

My picture of a Green Flash taken mid July at the Belgian coast in De Panne (see my post) is published in the astronomical magazine "Heelal" edition November 2021. This is a nice recognition.

Reworking Picture of Veil Nebula NGC6960

I reworked my picture of the Veil Nebula NGC6960. This time I used Starnet++ to eliminate all stars and keeping the nebula. After boosting up the contrast of the Nebula, the starless picture was added as a new layer in CS4 together with the original picture. 

Double Cluster NGC869/884

Double Cluster NGC869 and NGC884 in Constellation Perseus.

Set up : Nikon D7500, TLAPO80/480 f/6, ZWO Miniscope f/3.5, ASI224MC and setting ISO400, 360s. Software : Stellarium, EQMOD, ATP Camerasoftware and PHD2 Guidingsoftware. Pictures are edited with CS4 and DeNoise AI.

Black Hole Cygnus X-1

Where is Cygnus X-1? Cygnus X-1 is a black hole in constellation Swan. As it is a black hole it can't be seen. But we know it's near star HDE226868. I tried to find this star a couple of weeks ago but this failed due to setting issues and bad transparency. Yesterday I tried it again using Stellarium and with succes.

Setting: Nikon D7500 with TLAPO80/480 f/6, mini guidescope and guiding camera ZWO224MC, ISO400, 4x360s exposure time. Software used: Stellarium, PHD2 and ATP to control the camera. Pictures stacked using APP and final eding with CS4 and DeNoise AI.

Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann was observed in constellation Auriga, near star Hasseleh (iota Auriga). 

First Time Guiding - Veil Nebula NGC6960

A new milestone ...my first time ever guiding experience.

Set up : Nikon D7500, TLAPO80/480 f/6,  ZWO Miniscope f/3.5, ASI224MC and setting ISO400, 7x600s. Software : Stellarium, EQMOD, ATP Camerasoftware and PHD2 Guidingsoftware. Pictures are stacked using APP and final editing with CS4 and DeNoise AI.

 

Sunspot AR2887 in Ca-K

Sunspot AR2887 was observed in Ca-K with setting: ASI224MC, TAL200K f/8.5, solarfilm ND3.8 and. 30s. Pictures stacked using AutoStakkert and final editing with CS4/

Halo with Parry Arc and Parhelic Circle

This afternoon the Sun could be observed with a 22° halo but also with some other arcs and circles.