Lecture by Prof Dr Hugues Sana on the search for black holes

Selfie with Prof Dr Hugues Sana

I attended a lecture on March 23, during the annual VVS meeting by Prof Dr Hugues Sana on the search for missing black hole binaries. Stellar-mass black holes are the final remnants of stars born with more than 15 solar masses. Billions are expected to reside in the Local Group, yet only a few are known (according Hugues Sana only 59!), mostly detected through X-rays emitted as they accrete material from a companion star. He discussed the Doppler wobbling of binaries using spectral analysis.  Detailed analysis of the spectrum of such binaries result in a hidden spectrum meaning the precence of two stars. Of no hidden spectrum is found a black hole is responsable for the wobbling. The  team found a (near-)circular orbit and kinematics of VFTS 243 implying that the collapse of the progenitor into a black hole was associated with little or no ejected material or black-hole kick. 

 

Sundials & Timedials

 

Bought this book second hand but never used. Let's see what this brings... building and understanding sun and timedials.

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