60.000 Visitors

Awesome... reaching 60.000 visitors of my astroblog. Thank you all :)

I'm boarding Mars 2020 Perseverance

Yes, tomorrow July 30, I will be leaving Earth at 13h local time (UT11h) and will be travelling to Mars. My journey starts at Cape Canaveral in Floride platform SLC41 and I will be landing on Mars, Jezero Crater, Feb 18, 2021. The rocket used is a ULA Atlas V rocket. 

Last March I was visiting Cape Canaveral and SLC41 with Atlas V under construction for launching Mars2020 Perseverance. 

 

Compilation of Comet Neowise C/2020 F3

I made a video of my best pictures of Comet Neowise C/2020 F3. The video is made using Movie Maker. All pictures are made with Nikon D7500 and taken this month July on different locations: Donk, Zichem (Demer River) and Averbode.  Pictures are a combination of both single shot and stacked ones. The stacked pictures are realised with tracking on an AZEQ6 mount. Royalty free Music was added from www.bensound.com.

For the video see this link from Google Drive. 

Proud: New personal Facebook record with Saturn

My most recent picture of Saturn was posted on Facebook Sterrenkunde Forum VVS and got about 76 likes. My previous personal record was 61 with comet Neowise C/2020 F3. 

Jupiter and Saturn

Pictures of Jupiter and Saturn combined. Both pictures taken using TAL200K f/8.5 with ASI224MC, Barlow x2 and ADC.

Jupiter with TAL200K ASI224MC and ADC

Jupiter reached opposition last week in the night of July 13 and 14. Due to last weeksfocus on Comet Neowise C/2020 F3 it took me untill yesterday to take some pictures of Jupiter. Some clouds in the north but the southern sky was cloudfree with a good seeing. The GRS (Great Red Spot) showed up central around UT0h but I started to take some pictures 1h before. 

Setting : Camera ASI224MC on TAL 200K f/8.5 and Barlow x2 and ADC. I reduced the area of interest and shooting 1min avi film. Stacking was done using Autostakkert!. Final editing with CS4.

Saturn 2 days after opposition

On July 21, 2020 Saturn has reached opposition, meaning earth is exactly between the Sun and Saturn. Perfect conditions to observe Saturn.

Yesterday I took time to make pictures of Saturn. I used my ASI224MC camera on TAL200K f8.5. Setting: use of ADC and Barlow x2. Capture software SharpCap 3.2 was use to captures images. Stacking with AutoStakkert! and final editing using CS4.

The result is really amazing with a clear view on A, B and C rings aswell as the Cassini Division and Encke Divsion.