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.