Open Star Cluster NGC7686

Open Star Cluster NGC7686 in constellation Andromeda. Picture taken on Sept. 26 using TLAPO80/480 f/6 with Nikon D7500. Stacking with DeepSkyStakker using darks, final editing with CS4.

Onze Zon - De meest nabije ster (nieuwe update v2.5)

Afgelopen dagen heb ik tijd genomen om mijn werkje rond "Onze Zon - De meest nabije ster) te actualiseren. Het was al weer een tijdje geleden (dec 2017) en ik voldoende materiaal voor een nieuwe update.
De actualisatie betreft ondermeer :

- Update resultaten Ulysses
- Voyager 2 en Heliosfeer
- Parker Solar Probe en Corona heating problem
- Differentiële rotatie
- ...

Veel leesplezier - en hierbij de link.

Weather Summary October 2018

Temperature and rainfall last month October are comparable with last year.

Solar Wind and Corona Timeline

Some of the key discoveries and ideas that led to our current understanding of the corona and the solar wind which result into to the Parker Solar Probe Mission by NASA.

Credit NASA

Parker Solar Probe Breaks Record and Becomes Closest Spacecraft to Sun

After the first gravity assist on October 3rd, 2018, between Parker Solar Probe and Venus, the Parker Solar Probe now holds the record for closest approach to the Sun by a human-made object. Parker Solar Probe passed the current record of 42.72 million km from the Sun's surface on Oct. 29, 2018, at about UT17:04, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team.

Over the next years the probe will continue to break it's own records as it will fly closer and closer to the Sun.

Credit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

Increased Cosmic Rays - Solar minimum

I looked into data to see if the current solar minimum (cycle #24) has a impact on increased cosmic rays. The data I used was :

1) Sunspot data from Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels (WDC-SILCO-SIDC) with
2) Galactic Cosmic Rays data from University of Oulo, Finland

The data was plot starting from Jan 2009 till last month Sept 30, 2018. At least, the graph is showing an inverse correlation between solar minimum/maximum and cosmic radiation min/max. 

Graph by Pascal Hilkens - Credit SILCO/SIDC & Oulu Finland

The mechanism is believed that the sun during a less active period, the sun's magnetic field will be weaker with decreasing solar wind. This solar wind acts as a shield to protect Earth against high energetic cosmic rays. During solar minimum, those high energetic cosmic rays penetrate further into Earth's atmosphere resulting in more counts/s. This is what the Neutron Monitoring System of groundstation Oulu  (Finland) detects.  

The sources of high energetic cosmic rays (typically 5-30GeV) are from beyond our Solar System and even from outside our own milky way and thus Galactic and Intergalactic. For that we talk about (Inter)Galactic Cosmic Rays. 

Review Smartphone Adapter Levenhuk A10

Smartphone Adapter Levenhuk A10

A month ago I bought the Smartphone Adapter Levenhuk A10 at the Photokina fair in Cologne. Only last week I used this adapter for the first time during a public star party. The adapter was mounted on a standard ocular on my Orion XT12 Dobson scope and pointed to the Moon. Both kids and adults requested to use their smartphone to make some pictures of the moon. Adjusting for Iphone, Samsung and Huawei was easy and the result was appreciated by the public.

Iphone 6 picture with Smartphone adapter Levenhuk A10 on Zoom Ocular 24mm with OrionXT12 Dobson