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

First HDR image using bracketing - Moon Halo with Mars

To capture a halo around the Moon I applied bracketing using my Nikon D7500. Postprocessing was done using all 5 "bracketing" images with CS4 (Menu Automatic, Merge to HDR). Once the image is made, some minor editing and noise reduction was done. The final image has some more details using this HDR technic.

Moon Halo with Mars

Freezing temperatures and a Moon with a 360° Halo and Mars. Image taken with Nikon D7500 and bracketing setting. 

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas reworked APP

I reworked my images of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas using APP v2.0.0 beta 29 with MAD setting.

Settings APP:

Integrate : Median

Filter MAD rejection

Kappa Low: 8

Kappa High: 2

Comet C/2023 A3 as seen by the STEREO-A SECCHI HI-1 coronagraph.

Comet C/2023 A3 as seen by the STEREO-A SECCHI HI-1 coronagraph. Striations can be seen in the dust tail, and interactions between the faint ion tail and the solar wind can be observed.
The solar Corona was subtracted out to show the solar wind more clearly. The contrast of the comet tail and the solar wind was enhanced with local histogram equalization.
The vertical lines above Venus on the left and the comet are saturation artefacts from the CCD sensor.

Credit: NASA / STEREO-A / SECCHI HI-1 / Simeon Schmauß
processed from the raw data: secchi.nrl.navy.mil/postflight/hi_1/L0/a/img/20241004/

Click on picture to start video

My input: these images show aswell how to interpret the antitail of the comet.

Heliophysics Big Year - Coffies

 

I followed an online solar lecture as part of Nasa's Heliophysics Big Year. When searching for more solar lectures I found following previous recorded lectures :

* The Sun touches everything - see this link
Dr Shea Hess-Webber, Stanford University

Prof. Amy Keesee, University of New Hampshire

Erick Powell, Boston University
This lecture is aswell part of Coffies Seminars (Consequences of Fields and Flows in the Interior and Exterior of the Sun

* Solar Cycle 25 by Dr. Lisa Upton, Southwest Research Institute - see this link

New astrobooks

I bought two second-hand astrobooks in "De Slegte" :

- Witte gaten (translated from Buchi bianchi) from Carlo Rovelli and

- Het tijdperk van onzekerheid (translated from Das Zeitalter der Unschärfe) from Tobias Hürter 

With those two books my library counts 65 astronomical books.

Compilation video of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas

I made a video of my best images of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Click on the picture below to start the video; video is best seen on your PC