One hour to go: partial solar eclipse

About a minute ago, clouds are breaking open. One hour tongo for the partial solar eclipse.

Reworked image Jupiter with Io October 2, 2022

I reworked my image of Jupiter from October 2nd, 2022 (UT20h30). The image is a combination of stacking Jupiter and the moon Io separately using AS3!.

WinJUPOS Derotation Jupiter

I already was using WinJUPOS to find timings when the Great Red Spot would show up. Now I used WinJUPOS to derotate my Jupiter images.
As a reference I used the instructions from Info-Polaris July-September '22 number 156.:

• choose planet "Jupiter" under Program - Celestial Body
• open image and add coordinates and exact date
• choose adj tab and select outline frame - automatic detection
• save the file - be aware not select LD compensation
• start dereotation sequence by choosing Tools and derotation images
• with edit add new images
• select exact timing for rotation period and select image extention (tiff)
• compile image and your are ready

Editing and compiling  9 Jupiter Ser files from October 2, 2022  UT20h24-UT20h39. LD during derotation set on level 0,01. Final editing using CS4 and DeNoise AI

3 Days to go: Partial Solar Eclipse October 25

On October 25th, 2022, a partial solar eclipse can be seen in Europe. 

At my home, the eclipse starts from UT9h09 till UT11h. The magnitude is about 0.302. 

Some pictures from previous partical solar eclipses:

Auguts 1, 2008

March 20, 2015

June 10, 2021

Space Weather - Petra Vanlommel @ SIDC Ukkel

During the recent Open Doors at the Space Pole (september 25th) It was possible to visit the Space Weather room. I met Petra Vanlommel who is leading this devision. Some interesting and more detailed information can be found via the Space Weather Introductionary Course 

Balancing a telescope & mount using a clamp meter

Balancing your scope and mount is very important. Typically I do this by hand moving the scope from one side to the other side,  trying to find the tipping point. A couple of weeks ago, Walter, my astronomy collegue, send me a video from Cuiv, The Lazy Geek - see the video 

In this video a clamp meter is used (with Ampere DC features) to measure the current (Ampere) when moving the scope up or down. When the current is the same for both directions, the scope would be balanced.  If not, adjust the weight and measure the current again... and again. 

So... does it work?  To test it, I borrowed from Walter a clamp meter. It's a Chauvin Arnoux F205AC/DC. The test was done with my AZ-EQ6 with TAL200K f/8.5 including all camera's.

Results: the clamp meter is able to measure the current when the mount moves. There is a difference in current when the mount move up or down. The deviation is about 0,1-0,2A when the scope is out of balance. The deviation is reduced to 0,03-0,05A for a balanced mount.

Conclusion: it's possible to balance your mount & scope using a clamp meter. There is an error of about 0,03 - 0,05A even when the scope is balanced. For that reason I stay with my current workprocess balancing my scope by hand, finding the tipping point.

The weather today

Rain and Sun today thus... Rainbows and Sundogs.