ATT Essen: One month to go

On May 4th, the annual European largest Astronomy Fair will take place in Essen (Germany). The ATT (Astronomie udnd Technicktref) is the place to be when looking for both new and second hand astronomy material.

See for more this link.

Sol'ex images : Impact of fps on X/Y ratio

Impact of exposure time on the X/Y ratio of Sol'ex solar image.
According SIMSPEC SHG version V1.6, by Ken Harrison the theoretical result of X/Y ratio 1 should be 4.43ms or 225fps for my set up : TLAPO60/360 f/6 with ASI290MM and scanspeed 16x.

When lowering the speed form 3.38 to 4.04, the shape moved from an ellips towards a circle. Not yet perfect but it proves the theory. 

Sun H-Alpha using Sol'ex

This morning the clouds dissapeared for about half hour, enough to make some images of the sun using my Sol'ex. 

Setting: 

* TLAPO60/360 f/6 with ASI290MM on Sol'Ex in H-alpha

* Software : Sharpcap 

* Tilt : +3.5 to -4,5°

* ROI : 1936 *276, Mono16, binning 1x1

* Exposure time between 294fps and 245fps
* Speed 16x 

* Analyzing : Inti and JSolex

* Editing and stacking : CS4, AS4!, AstroSurface

Comet 12P/Pons Brooks

Finally, I was able to set up my EQAZ6 mount to capture the Comet 12P/Pons Brooks. Unfortunately a lot of clouds but I could use 3 pictures of each 60s exposure time.

Setting: TLAPO80/480 f/6 with ASI2600MC

Filter: Optolong L-Pro

Lights: 3x60s

Software: SharpCap 4.1, APP, CS4

Sol'Ex article in Magazine "Heelal"

Our article of the Sol'Ex project with Helios collegue Walter, Johan and myself is published in magazine Heelal (vol 69, nr 4, april 2024, p11-13). For the full article see this link. 

150.000 Visitors and Comet 12P/Pons Brooks

 

Celebrating 150.000 visitors since the start of my blog and I'm doing this with my picture I took this evening of Comet 12P/Pons Brooks.

Setting: TLAPO80/480 f/6 with Nikon D7500

Filter:Optolong L-Pro

Mount: Manfrotto

Exposure : ISO16000, 2x2s

Software: DNG converter and CS4

Comet 12P/Pons Brooks with telelens

 

Image of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks taken on Wednesday March 27. Some high clouds but still, when looking good you will recognize two tails.

Setting: Nikon D7500 f/5.6 200mm telelens, 39x2s on ISO12500. High ISO to prevent startrailing.
Stacking was done with APP 2.0.0 beta version 26. It took some time as settings were not correct.

Circumscribed Halo

At noon the Sun came out with a halo round it. Beside the 22° halo, there was also a circumscribed halo above the Sun and the parhelic circle. After editing the picture, I found also the lower circumscribed halo.

According Meteoros.de website  i could simulate my image. 

Moon Halo

 

Halo around the Moon, image taken with Nikon D7500.

Jupiter, Mercury and Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

 

Picture of Planets Jupiter and Mercury with Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. The two pictures are single shots using my Nikon D7500 with my new tripod equiped with a ball head. 

Astrometrica Software

 

Yesterday I found out the existance of Astrometrica Software (thanks to Bert Moyaerts) and which can help identifying small objects. Astrometrica Software provides the ability to easily compare astromerical images for the purpose of moving object detection. See links below for software, installation guides, instructions, and practice image sets. 

See this link : http://iasc.cosmosearch.org/Home/Astrometrica

Lecture by Prof Dr Hugues Sana on the search for black holes

Selfie with Prof Dr Hugues Sana

I attended a lecture on March 23, during the annual VVS meeting by Prof Dr Hugues Sana on the search for missing black hole binaries. Stellar-mass black holes are the final remnants of stars born with more than 15 solar masses. Billions are expected to reside in the Local Group, yet only a few are known (according Hugues Sana only 59!), mostly detected through X-rays emitted as they accrete material from a companion star. He discussed the Doppler wobbling of binaries using spectral analysis.  Detailed analysis of the spectrum of such binaries result in a hidden spectrum meaning the precence of two stars. Of no hidden spectrum is found a black hole is responsable for the wobbling. The  team found a (near-)circular orbit and kinematics of VFTS 243 implying that the collapse of the progenitor into a black hole was associated with little or no ejected material or black-hole kick. 

 

Sundials & Timedials

 

Bought this book second hand but never used. Let's see what this brings... building and understanding sun and timedials.

First Light with Skywather Star Adventurer 2i

I expanded my equipment with a transportable travelmount: a Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i. I will install this mount on my Manfrotto tripod. The purpose is to image wide field using my DSLR at home and when I travel.

After putting all together I did some testing last week; unfortunately not successful. I did a more accurate  polarallignment, but stars were still not tracked. Last thursday I found out that I forgot to set the direction of the tracking. Once done, the SA2i is following up to 70s (I did not test longer). To test accurancy over time, I shot 190x30s pictures of Orion using my Nikon D7500. So far this works really good. 

 

Stacking was done using APP and final editing in CS4.

Space Weather workshop by Christine Verbeke

Selfie with Space Weather expert Christine Verbeke

Last week (March 3) I attended a meeting of the VVS Workgroup Sun. Space weather was one of the subjects. Guest speaker Christine Verbeke is a Space Weather Scientist for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and is affiliated with KU Leuven Universtity. Christine was also a finalist in the 2023 PhD Cup for her research on solar storm modeling. The session provided an overview of solar storms and space weather, what are solar storms and what effects can they have on our Earth and society. A demo was given on how to make a prediction of the arrival of a solar storm based on a previous solar storm.

Sun H-Alpha and Ca-K using Sol'ex

A couple of images of the Sun in H-Alpha and Ca-K line. Pictures taken this afternoon.

Setting

TLAPO 60/360 f/6, Sol'ex with ASI290MM

Filter ND1.6 and SSD 
H-Alpha : Tilt angle : -0.8067, Scaling SY/SX : +0.5077

H-Alpha :192fps or 5.18ms, ROI 1936x276, 16bit, binning 1x1Software : SharpCap4, SHG-Main, IMPPG, CS4

Solar Eclipse 1 month to go

 One month to go for April 8th 2024 Solar Eclipse....

Sun Sol'ex Ca K and H-Alpha

A clear sky this morning for about 90 minutes, enough time to set up my Sol'ex and capturing the sun in H-Alpha and Ca K.

Some interesting prominences can be seen in both H-alpha as Ca K.

Setting: TLAPO 60/360 f/6, Sol'Ex with ASI290MM
Filter : Hoya 16

H-alpha : 7,1319ms or 139fps, ROI 1936x548, 16bit, bin 1x1

Ca K : 12ms or 83 fps, ROI 1920x1080, 16bit 1x1

Software : SharpCap 4.1, Inti, SHG4.3, CS4, IMPPG

Some interesting facts :

INTI gives a tilt of -2,9° while SHG gives a tilt angle of -12

Also the X/Y ratio is same for both INIT and SHG: 1,15

Dell Wifi Issues - Great Dell Support

Only recently, my wifi connection was lost and when trying to reconnect no wifi networks could be found. Only when restarting I could reconnect to my wifi network.  The problem was solved using Dell Support and looking for updates of my drivers. It seems that 5 drivers were   outdated! 

Lecture by Dr. Hans Huybrighs on JUICE Mission

Selfie with Dr. Hans Huybrighs

Together with my Helios collegue Walter I joined an interesting lecture on ESA's JUICE (JUpiter ICy Moon Explorer) mission. The lecture was given at the University of Maastricht as part of Studium Generale by Dr. Hans Huybrighs, Planet Scientist @ Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Follow the journey of JUICE via this website with some spectacular Earth flybys :

- 20 August 2024 (6561km)
- 28 September 2026 (8645km)
- 17 January 2029 only 4649 km

Even more spectacular will be Europa Flyby in July 2032 with only 400km!!

Boarding Pass Viper

Viper, Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, will be NASA's first robotic Moon rover. This mobile robot will land at the South Pole of the Moon in late 2024 on a 100-day mission. The critical information it provides will teach us about the origin and distribution of water on the Moon and help determine how we can harvest the Moon's resources for future human space exploration.

My boarding pass is ready ...

Bright Moon Halo

 A very bright 360° Moon Halo.

Moon Halo

 Bright Moon Halo.

Solar Eclipse 50 days to go

Solar Eclipse April 8th, 2024.... 50 days to go.

Selfie with Gerald Rhemann, Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022

 

Winning Picture of Comet Leonard

Selfie with Gerald Rhemann

At the recent annual Day of Astrophotograhy, Gerald Rhemann gave a great lecture on Astrophotography and showing his amazing pictures.  At the end of the presentation we met and took a selfie. Thx Gerald.

Gerald Rhemann has been named the overall winner of Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022 for his photograph Disconnection Event.

The remarkable image shows Comet C/2021 A1, commonly known as Comet Leonard, which was first discovered in January 2021 by astronomer Greg Leonard. For many astrophotographers this comet was the highlight of the year.

However, it was Gerald Rhemann's photograph, taken on Christmas Day, that really blew the judges away.

Gerald's image captured a dramatic moment in the life of a comet: a disconnection event. This happens when a piece of the comet's tail becomes separated after being hit by high velocity solar particles.

"A piece of Comet Leonard’s tail was pinched off and carried away by the solar wind," Gerald recalls. "I was very lucky that the weather at Tivoli Farm, Namibia, was excellent when I opened the roof of the observatory. I recognized that the comet’s tail looked dramatic in the first image I took, so decided to extend the field of view with a second image and that’s where the disconnection happened."

Sunspot AR3559

Sunspot AR3559 with TAL200K f/8.5 and ASI290MM.

Image setting: ND3.8, OIII filter, IR/UV blocking filter

Image setting: ND3.8, Triple stacked Ca K baader 8nmfilter

Stacking: AS4! and editing using IMPPG, CS4, DeNoise AI

Combining both images together

Triple Stack of Baader Ca K Line filter on AR3559

I have two Ca K filters from Baader, both double stacked 8nm. Each double stacked filter has two filters in side the holder. As one of the filters was damaged, I opened it and removed the damaged one. The result is that I now have a single stacked and a double stacked Ca K filter have. We putting them together, I guess I made a triple stacked Ca K filter. The double stacked one is tilted. The filters were placed in the optical train as follow :  

ND3.8 solar film, Telescoop, double stacked Ca K, single stacked CaK, Camera ASI290MM.

In both cases, sunspot AR3559 was imaged using TAL200K f/8.5 with ASI290MM. The conditions were not good with some high clouds. 

As a conclusion at this time: no real difference between triple and double stacking; I would even say double stacking is better; but be aware condition were not favourable.

Setting : TAL200K f/8.5 with ASI290MM

Filters : ND3.8, Ca K 8nm Double and Single stacked filter

Software : SharpCap, AS4!, CS4, IMPPG, DeNoise AI

SSD Samsung.

ESA LISA gets Go-Ahead

 

LISA or Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission, the first scientific endeavour to detect and study gravitational waves from space is approved by ESA's Science Programme Committee. The mission is planned for 2035.

Read more via this link 

Flanders invests 21 million in Einstein Telescope

Good news... Flanders invests 21 million in the Einstein Telescope. The euroregion at the border between Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands will be "a place in the Champions League of the European economy" said our Minister Jo Brouns. 

See also this link : Einsteintelescope.nl 

Selfie with Prof. Nick Van Remortel @ VVS Seminary (Oct 2023)

Moon Halo

 

An 360° halo around the moon. Picture taken with Nikon D7500 10mm f/3.5.

Sun in H-Alpha

 

It was a sunny day with high clouds and around 0°C. I was not able to make some flats and therefor it's not a great picture but still ... a couple of huge prominences and filaments.

Setting: SolarMaxIII 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15 and 0,5x reducer with ASI290MM
Exposure : 1000 frames @ 81,86fps or 5.08ms using SSD, binning 1x1

Software : SharpCap 4.1, AstroSurface V1, CS4

Horsehead and Flame Nebula : H-Alpha and L-Pro Filter

My session of the Horsehead and Flame Nebula earlier this week (see this link) was stacked with my session in H-alpha done in March 2022 (see this link).

The result is a stacked image of 3h10m and clearly more details can be seen. 

Setting: TLAPO80/480 f/6 with ASI2600MC
Guiding : ASI290MM on Guiding scope ZWO Miniscope 30f/4
Filter : Optolong L-Pro; Lights : 24x300s; Flats (10x0,35s), Darks(5), Bias (5), DarkFlats (10)
Filter : H-Alpha; Lights 2x600s, 10x300s

Software : SharpCap 4.1 (Poolallignment), Stellarium, N.I.N.A., APP, CS4, Denoise AI

Horsehead and Flame Nebula

Picture taken on wednesday January 10, 2024 of both Flame (NGC2024) and Horsehead Nebulae (IC434) in constellation Orion. Conditions were good with temperatures between -4.5°C en -6.5°C. This was my first DSO session since June last year. It was also my first DSO session using the Optolong L-Pro filter. It took me more then a hour from installing the mount to taken my first photo. This is beyond the fact that the day before the entire set up was tested inside (dry run). 

Setting: TLAPO80/480 f/6 with ASI2600MC

Guiding : ASI290MM on Guiding scope ZWO Miniscope 30f/4 

Filter : Optolong L-Pro

Lights : 24x300s; Flats (10x0,35s), Darks(5), Bias (5), DarkFlats (10)

Software : SharpCap 4.1 (Poolallignment), Stellarium, N.I.N.A., APP, CS4, Denoise AI

Sol'Ex Lecture @ Astrophotography Day

Walter, Johan and Myself (all Helios members) will be talking about their experience with the Sol'Ex. This is planned for January 27th during the annual Astrophotography day.

Venus and Mercury

This morning I could take some picture of Venus and Mercury. The picture was taken in Aarschot at the Demer river. The temperature was about -7.5°C