Weather Summary Dec 2018

December was warmer and wetter then average.

Happy New Year 2019

Happy New Astronomical Year 2019 with lots of Astronomical Highlights and don't miss the Lunar eclipse of Jan 21st, 2019 and the Mercury Transit on November 11th.

Venus and Jupiter in the morning sky

Temperatures as low as -6°C but with a clear sky. So you would think ideal to see Mercurius, Venus and Jupiter in the morning sky. This is a yes for Venus and Jupiter but I was unable to locate Mercurius. It must be there...

Astromical Highlights 2018

Some of my Astronomical Highlights of 2018 are summarized below :

- Nighscape Startrail Picture
- Comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner and M35 Open Starcluster
- Planets Saturn, Mars and Jupiter with GRS
- The Russian Space Shuttle Buran in Germany
- The Quit Sun with SolarMax3 DS and an unique circumscribed Halo
- Pictures of M45 Pleiades and M31 Andromeda Galaxy


Beginning of 2018 I successfully completed a workshop Nighscapes and took the time to make some startrails.

A couple of Comets crossed the sky with 21P Giacobine-Zinner "close" to M35 :

The planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturnus 

The Sun was quit in 2018 but I could make some nice picture with my new SolarMax3 Double Stacked and of course some halo's :

Visiting the Technic Museum Spyer in Germany with Buran and Soyuz TM-19

And being proud of a couple of deepsky pictures M31 and M45 :

Right hand Sundog

Today I was working in my garden and could observe a couple op Sundogs. Due to fast changing circumstances the Sundogs did not last long. This is one picture I could make during noon time with a right hand Sundog. 

Happy Birthday - 6 Years Blogging

My first blog was published on December 23, 2012. So, today, time to celebrate 6 years of blogging.
Congratulations :)

The Solar System Barycenter

The Barycenter of our Solar System is the mutual center of mass of the total Solar System with the Sun and all it's Planets. 

So the Sun and the Planets orbit this mutual center. This center or Barycenter of our Solar System moves depending the position of the planets. The location of the Barycenter is mainly driven by Jupiter and next by Saturnus, Uranus, ...

Sometimes the Barycenter is located within "the Sun" but as it is currently, the Narycenter is located outise the photosphere of the Sun. See picture above - the Sun is drawn in Yellow.

For more information see this website.