New Bright Comet Atlas C/2020 M3

After the great comet Neowise C/2020 F3 this summer there is now good news. We will be seeing again a bright Comet, Atlas C/2020 M3. Not as bright as C/2020 F3 but still worthwhile to get out. It's currently mag 8.5 and increasing. The comet was discovered at magnitude 19 on June 27, 2020, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System or ATLAS..

It's currently visible in constellation Lepus and moving toward Orion. For more information see The SkyLive.

VVS Deepsky Dag November 7, 2020 - online via Youtube

This year, the Annual meeting - "VVS Deepsky Dag" - will take place on November 7, 2020. Beside a limited number of fysical attendees, the meeting will be broadcasted via the Youtube channel - see this link 

The agenda is available. There is agood mix of both theoretical as practical aspects. 

Moon-Jupiter-Saturn Close encounter

This evening, the moon close together with Jupiter and Saturn. 

Twin Paradox Minkowski Diagram

A space time diagram or Minkowski diagram made of the Twin Paradox. I used my old fashioned graph paper to draw both "twin" situations.

Left : earth twin "leaving" the rocket twin
Right : earth twin "staying, and the rocket heading away (and returning)
Both believe  the other one is younger as they "see" the other one moving away.

 

Mars at opposition : use of Denoise

 My pictures from Mars at opposition (October 14th) are reworked using Topaz DeNoise AI.

Andromeda M31 5 sessions 244 minutes expoisure

 The Andromeda Galaxy M31 : picture from 5 sessions and total of 244minutes exposure. 

Mars to Opposition

During the night of October 13 to October 14, 2020 Mars came to Opposition. Seeing was moderate but with a couple of good moments. My best pictures are presented below. I added aswell a picture from Mars Mapper.

Setting : ASI ZWO224MC and TAL200K f/8.5 with ADC and Barlow x2. AVI movies 127 fps for 60s. Stacking with AutoStakkert! and 33% of best frames are collected. Final editing using CS4.