First Light with Skywather Star Adventurer 2i

I expanded my equipment with a transportable travelmount: a Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i. I will install this mount on my Manfrotto tripod. The purpose is to image wide field using my DSLR at home and when I travel.

After putting all together I did some testing last week; unfortunately not successful. I did a more accurate  polarallignment, but stars were still not tracked. Last thursday I found out that I forgot to set the direction of the tracking. Once done, the SA2i is following up to 70s (I did not test longer). To test accurancy over time, I shot 190x30s pictures of Orion using my Nikon D7500. So far this works really good. 

 

Stacking was done using APP and final editing in CS4.

Space Weather workshop by Christine Verbeke

Selfie with Space Weather expert Christine Verbeke

Last week (March 3) I attended a meeting of the VVS Workgroup Sun. Space weather was one of the subjects. Guest speaker Christine Verbeke is a Space Weather Scientist for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and is affiliated with KU Leuven Universtity. Christine was also a finalist in the 2023 PhD Cup for her research on solar storm modeling. The session provided an overview of solar storms and space weather, what are solar storms and what effects can they have on our Earth and society. A demo was given on how to make a prediction of the arrival of a solar storm based on a previous solar storm.

Sun H-Alpha and Ca-K using Sol'ex

A couple of images of the Sun in H-Alpha and Ca-K line. Pictures taken this afternoon.

Setting

TLAPO 60/360 f/6, Sol'ex with ASI290MM

Filter ND1.6 and SSD 
H-Alpha : Tilt angle : -0.8067, Scaling SY/SX : +0.5077

H-Alpha :192fps or 5.18ms, ROI 1936x276, 16bit, binning 1x1Software : SharpCap4, SHG-Main, IMPPG, CS4

Solar Eclipse 1 month to go

 One month to go for April 8th 2024 Solar Eclipse....

Sun Sol'ex Ca K and H-Alpha

A clear sky this morning for about 90 minutes, enough time to set up my Sol'ex and capturing the sun in H-Alpha and Ca K.

Some interesting prominences can be seen in both H-alpha as Ca K.

Setting: TLAPO 60/360 f/6, Sol'Ex with ASI290MM
Filter : Hoya 16

H-alpha : 7,1319ms or 139fps, ROI 1936x548, 16bit, bin 1x1

Ca K : 12ms or 83 fps, ROI 1920x1080, 16bit 1x1

Software : SharpCap 4.1, Inti, SHG4.3, CS4, IMPPG

Some interesting facts :

INTI gives a tilt of -2,9° while SHG gives a tilt angle of -12

Also the X/Y ratio is same for both INIT and SHG: 1,15

Dell Wifi Issues - Great Dell Support

Only recently, my wifi connection was lost and when trying to reconnect no wifi networks could be found. Only when restarting I could reconnect to my wifi network.  The problem was solved using Dell Support and looking for updates of my drivers. It seems that 5 drivers were   outdated! 

Lecture by Dr. Hans Huybrighs on JUICE Mission

Selfie with Dr. Hans Huybrighs

Together with my Helios collegue Walter I joined an interesting lecture on ESA's JUICE (JUpiter ICy Moon Explorer) mission. The lecture was given at the University of Maastricht as part of Studium Generale by Dr. Hans Huybrighs, Planet Scientist @ Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Follow the journey of JUICE via this website with some spectacular Earth flybys :

- 20 August 2024 (6561km)
- 28 September 2026 (8645km)
- 17 January 2029 only 4649 km

Even more spectacular will be Europa Flyby in July 2032 with only 400km!!