Saturday, September 23, 2023

Friday, September 22, 2023

Imaging Jupiter GRS and Moon transit

A visual observation of Jupiter with it's Great Red Spot (GRS) is already a beautiful view. Using Winjupos I simulated when Jupiter's GRS is showing up together with a Moon Transit. This combination is even more beautiful both visual as photographic.

See below images with dates of  GRS and Moon Transit combinations: 

Sept 29 UT1h
Oct 3 UT3h
Oct 6 UT2h
Oct 16 UT18h
Oct 20 UT21h
Oct 23 UT19h
Oct 27 UT23h
Oct 30 UT21h
Nov 5 UT5h










Monday, September 18, 2023

Reworked Jupiter with Calisto Sept 8, 2023

 

Reworked picture of Jupiter from Sept 8, 2023. Use of 500 out of 10.000 frames using AstroSurface U4.


Saturday, September 9, 2023

Saturn Sept 8, 2023

 


Very good conditions on Sept 8, 2023. This results in my best Saturn picture this year with a lot of details.


TAL200K @f/22 with ASI224MC
ADC and UV/IRBlocker
Exposure : 48FPS
Capture Area=648x488
Software: SharpCap, AstroSurface U4, CS4

Jupiter and Callisto



My first images of Jupiter this year 2023. Condition were very good with good seeing and good transparency.

Setting: TAL200K @f/22 with ASI224MC
Filter: ADC and UV/IR blocker
Exposure 80,92 fps; 10.000 frames (10% stacked)
ROI 800x600
Software: SharpCap4, AstroSurface U4, CS4

Radio Astronomy Station of Humain (B)


Interferometers - Credit Pascal Hilkens

The date of september 9th was already marked for a long time. The radio astronomy station of Humain in Belgium will open its doors to the public for the first time. Together with my collegue Walter we left early in the morning to visit this once in a life time opportunity.  The weather was perfect with a clear sky to walk along the two north-south and east-west axes of the old interferometer. 

This radio astronomy station was founded in 1953 by the Royal Observatory of Belgium to house the very first Belgian radio telescopes dedicated to observing the Sun. In the 1960s, a solar interferometer of 44 radio telescopes was constructed and operated up until 2001. Today, the station continues to host radio and optical experiments to observe the sky, the Sun, the Earth’s space environment and its atmosphere.

Credit Pascal Hilkens

After a quick snack we walked into a demo with the Solar Explorer or Sol'ex. This was a nice surprise as we didn't expect that the Royal Observatorium would own an amateur Sol'Ex instrument. This gave us the chance to ask in depth questions to Sabrina Bechet from the Royal Observatory. She gave some tips on the position of the instrument with the mount.

From Left to Right: Pascal, Sabrina Bechet (Royal Observatory) and Walter



Friday, September 8, 2023

First Image with Sol'Ex

Today I made the first picture of the Sun in H-alpha with my new Sol'Ex.

Hardware Setting: TS/APO60 f/6 with ASI290MM
Software Setting : 130fps, 7,55ms, Gain  0, Mono 16
Capture area : 1936 x 114 binning 1x1
Temperature Camera : 48°C
Filter: Hoya ND16
Software: SharpCap4, Inti, CS4, Samsung SSD




Saturday, September 2, 2023

My picture of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) published in Heelal

My picture of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) of January 21, 2023 is published in astro magazine Heelal (Jaargang 68, number 9, September 2023, page 20). It's my third picture of a comet that made it for publication. Previous comets were Neowise C/2020 F3 and C/2017 K2 (Panstarrs).