Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks in Big Bend (Texas)

My Helios colleague Lieven asked my why comet 12P/Pons-Brooks wasn't selected in my 2024 Highlights. My answer was that I don't have good pictures of the Comet. But then I realised that I tried to image the Comet when I was in Big Bend (Texas) a couple of days after the Solar Eclipse of April 8th, 2024. With the support from Stellarium I good trace the Comet on my images, including Uranus.

Reworked Milky Way Big Bend

I reworked my images of the Milky Way taken in National Park and Dark Park "Big Bend" in Texas (US). This is a real Bortle 1 location. 

Setting: Nikon D7500 on Sky Adventurer 2i

Lights : 44x60s

Editing: APP Stacking and Mosaic on Stars; APP Stacking and Mosaic no Stars, Light Pollution filter, Combining using CS4

Installation of new 7micron slit in Sol'Ex

I installed a new slit (second generation) in my Sol'Ex Pro version. This slit has two positions, 7 and 10micron.The 7 micron position was used. The slit support was 3D printed by a Johan (Helios colleague) and all fit well. Some advantages using the new 7 micron slit results in increasing

• the resolving power R of the SOl'Ex from 36.000 to 46.000, an increase of 27%  (using ZWO678MM camera)
• the spectral resolution from 0,18 to 0,14 angstrom for H-alpha; an increase of 22%

The "height" of the slit is now 6mm (before 4,5mm) which makes it possible to image the Sundisk using both my TLAPO80/480 f/6 with ZWO678MM camera.

All information of the second generation slit can be found in the following document from Christian Buil (https://buil.astrosurf.com/starex/slit_solex_gen2.pdf)

See specifications of the 7 micron slit: https://www.shelyak.com/produit/fente-solex-sunscan-2-positions/

 

Chart of Nuclides

I used to have a chart of Nuclides but can't find it any more :(
On line some interesting links to nuclides websites:

https://www-nds.iaea.org/relnsd/vcharthtml/VChartHTML.html

https://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat3/

To buy a chart of nuclides, choose the one from Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart via https://nuklid.shop/

At the Tabloo Expoo a Nuclide chart was build in "glass" cubes with additional LED lights.  The X-Y axes are number of Protons and Neutrons, the vertical axe is Energy. The lower, the cubes, the more stable the isotope is. The lowest of all is iron - Fe.

Visiting Tabloo Dessel

Together with Helios Astronomy Club I visited Tabloo Expoo in Dessel (B). Tabloo is the brand-new visitor and meeting centre in Dessel about radioactivity, the management of radioactive waste and research into nuclear applications.

My Blog Statistics 2024

My Blog Statistics 2024:

A total of 134 blogposts and more then 45.000 visitors this year. This brings the total blogposts to almost 2150 and total visitors to 188.000.

Selfie compilation

My selfie compilation so far. A total of 52 selfies with astronauts, scientists, field experts and a Nobelprice winner. 

Astronomical Highlights 2024

Again an interesting astronomical year "2024" with some amazing "wow" moments and again great learnings. At home clouds and rain had an impact on my deepsky imaging. But still ...I had to limit the list but these are my astronomical highlights:

#1 Amazing Northern Light show above my home, first time ever 

#2 Sol'Ex presentations, Sol'Ex images and attending ROS in Serbannes

#3 Huge sunspot 3664 which was also published in STCE magazine

#4 Houston Space Center 

#5 Imaging Milky Way in Big Bend Dark Park (bortle 1) 

#6 Visiting Gravitational Wave Centrum LIGO @Livingstone

#7 Occultation of Saturn by Moon

#8 Comet C/2023 A3 Tsushinshan-Atlas

#9 Noctilucent Clouds

#10 Halo's around Sun and Moon

#11 Nightscape Venus and Mercury

#12 Solar Eclips Kerrville-Texas April 8, 2024

#13 Reworked image of Solar Eclipse August 21, 2017 using Larson-Sekanina filter

Horsehead and Flame Nebula reworked using Starnet++

I followed a lecture on postprocessing of deepsky images by Astronomy club Altair (Sint-Truiden). The learning I took away was to remove the stars and edit both the nebula and star image seperate. Once completed combine both images again.

I used starnet++ to remove the stars and editing was done using CS4 and DeNoise AI. The result is better as my stars aren't that big any more compared with the nebula.

Sol'Ex and Doppler Image of the Sun

Finaly some sun! It was only in the morning and with high clouds. I could record a couple scan using my Sol'Ex pro. Setting is not yet 100% due to my new camera. In order to get this back to 100% I need more "sun" time.

The image taken was during an outburst C2.9 in AR3928 with huge prominences. 

Setting: Sol'Ex Pro with TLAPO60/360 and Herschel Wedge

Camera  ASI678MM 

Software: SharpCap 4, Inti, JSolex

I managed to get the X/Y as the tilt close to 1.

Lecture Prof. Frank Verstraete and Céline Broeckaert

Selfie with Prof Frank Verstraete and writer Céline Broeckaert

Together with Helios members Walter and Henk, I attented a lecture by Prof Frank Verstraete and writer Céline Broeckaert. The title of the lecture was the same one as the title of their book "Waarom niemand kwantum begrijpt en iedereen er toch iets over moet weten" (Why No One Understands Quantum and Yet Everyone Needs to Know Something About It). 

The lecture gives an overview of quantum physics by talking about Planck, Einstein, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, de Broglie, Feynman, ... and for me a new name Emmy Noether (see link to wikipedia)

Beside the famous names following concepts were talked: 

• wave-particle duality
• superposition
• quantum entanglement
• quantum uncertainty
• quantum interference
• qauntum spin
• quantum computing
• and sysmmetry

As a conclusion, a very well presented lecture with a brief historical overview and good real life examples of quantum physics. After the lecture, by a drink, we kept on discussing, even with the professor.

Bibliography

Frank Verstraete (51) studied civil engineering at KU Leuven and later physics at Ghent University. After a PhD in Leuven, he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Munich and Caltech in California. In 2006, he became a professor at the University of Vienna. He built up his own research group at Ghent University. Since 2022, he has been the Leigh Trapnell Chair of Quantum Physics at the University of Cambridge. Verstraete gained fame with the development of a language that allows many-particle problems in quantum physics to be described. For this work, he received the Francqui Prize in 2018, also known as the Belgian Nobel Prize. Céline Broeckaert (43) studied theatre directing at the Ritcs and language and literature at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and in Bologna. She taught Dutch to non-native speakers and worked for many years at Theater Antigone and Muziektheater LOD. Since 2015 she has been an impact producer for documentaries. 

Sun in H-alpha, H-beta and CaIIK

Setting of images in H-Alpha, H-Beta (with some smal flares), CaIIK

TS TLAPO60/360, Sol'Ex Pro, ASI678MM on EQ6

Herschel Wedge

SSD Disk

Software: SharpCap, Inti, JSolex, CS4

Sun in H-Beta

The Sun imaged in H-beta using my Sol'Ex and new ASI678MM camera.

Jupiter - One week before Opposition

First time this year that I captured Jupiter. Temperature was 1°C and declining.

Setting:

TAL 200K @ f/23 with Barlowx2, ADC and IR/UV cut

ASI224MC camera

Software : SharpCap, AstroSurface and CS4

Sol'Ex with new ASI678MM

My last observation of the Sun dated from September 21. Today I had a day off and luckely with some good weather and a lot of sun. Unfortunatenly some high clouds made it unpossible to image the sun in the afternoon. 

Sunshine on this Black Friday November 29, 2024

To image the Sun I used my classic set up with TS TLAPO60/360 with Sol'Ex Pro and my new ASI678MM camera. This camera has 2micron pixels, much smaller then my 2,9 micron pixel 290MM camera. Both telescope and Sol'Ex are mounted on my EQ8R.

Imaging was done in H-alpha and H-beta and all H-alpha data was also send to Bass2000 as part of the Solap (ProAM) program . 

My Image of Sol'Ex H-alpha on main Bass2000 portal

Setting:

- TS TLAPO60/360 with Sol'Ex Pro and ASI678MM

- Herschel Wedge

- Software SharpCap, Inti and CS4

- Pro-AM FileZila Client

Reworking 2017 Eclipse pictures using Larson-Sekanina

After attending the The Dark Day (DDD see https://pascalhilkensastropage.blogspot.com/2024/11/dr-sebastian-voltmer.html) I searched my 2017 Solar Eclipse images.

I found two sets: 1/15s and 1/50s. Each set was stacked and then treated with special Larson-Sekanina filter (low radius, low rotation) in Fitswork 4. The stacked image and the LS filter image are substracted; The results of the two sets are then stacked and edited. The final image shows the low and high corona.

Dr Sebastian Voltmer

Selfie with Dr Sebastian Voltmer

During the DDD (De Duistere Dag - The Dark Day) on Saterday November 16, 2024 a lecture was given by Dr. Sebastian Voltmer. Voltmer is beside a movie director, composer also an astrophotograph.

During his lecture he showed many images including eclipse pictures from Mexico (April 8, 2024). 

Some links : 

• Youtube Spacemovie : https://www.youtube.com/@spacemovie
• Wikipedia : https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Voltmer
• Flickr : https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacemovie/
• Webpage : https://voltmer.de/

Some tips he gave:

• use of bracketing
• use two camera's for eclipse photography; one 135mm, the other 700mm in order to image the entire corona
• sort eclipse images by exposure time, stack and edit the result using Larsen-Sekanina filter Fitswork
• Finaly stack all edited images to one image; this image can be edited aswell

Below some images from Sebastian : eclips 2017 and Mercury with sodium tail.

New Weatherstation Levenhuk PRO LP500

I replaced my Oregon WMR200 and BAR928 with a new weatherstation Levenhuk Pro LP500. Both Oregon stations are >10 years old and the sensors did not work anymore. My preference for Levenhuk Pro LP500 was based on following criteria:

• Measuring in/outdoor temperature, humidity, rain, winddirection, windspeed and pressure
• Data capturing of all data in order to do analysis
• Samrtphone connection 

The Pro LP500 forfills all criteria and has following extra's:

• moon phases
• sunrise, sunset and sunpath
• UV index
• Solar radiation (Lux/W/m2)
• automatic time
• link to Ecowitt and WUnderground and thus linked to smartphone
• datacapturing via microSD or direct PC connection
• weather forecast

Using PWS Monitor app, you can find my weatherstation with ID = ISCHER75