Zimmer Tower in Lier

Last week I visited the town Lier near Antwerp. In front of the Zimmer Tower a very impressive clock is build in. This clock is build by Louis Zimmer (1888-1970) and consist of one central clock with around 12 smaller once.

From top right (1 o'clock) to the left the smaller clocks show :

- the Metonic cycle, this is a 19 year cycle after which the different phases of the moon fall on the same date in the year

- the Equation of time, showing the difference in minutes between mean solar time and apparent solar time

- the Zodiac

- the Solar Cycle, this is a 28 year cycle after which the dates show up in the same order, the clock shows the current year of the cycle

- the dial shows the day of the week

- Globe with the rotation of the Earth

- the dial shows the month 

- Calender date

- the Seasons and this dial shows also the length of each season in days and hours

- the Tides by location in Lier

- the age of the moon since new moon 

- the real time phase of the moon 

On a other side of the Tower you can see a Sundial with the inscription "Ultima (hora) Latet", meaning "The last hour is hidden".

EISA Award for Nikon D7500

Great to see that my new Nikon D7500 received the Best Product 2017-2018 award from EISA (European Imaging and Sound Association).

Raw Solar Eclipse Pictures

Solar Eclipse pictures were taken using my new Nikon D7500. Unfortunately raw pictures from Nikon D7500 can not be used by Photoshop CS4. Therefor I downloaded the free version from Nikon Capture NX D to edite raw Nikon D7500 pictures.
As an example I edited solar eclipse pictures taken in Rexburg (ID).

Cassini Spacecraft Grand Finale

Cassini spacecraft makes its final approach to planet Saturn and will dive with a speed of 117.000 km/h  into Saturn's atmosphere on Friday September 15, 2017.

Sagittarius Area in Arches National Park

Milky Way in Sagittarius area in Arches National Park. Picture taken at Balanced Rock. At the horizon city lights from Moab are visible.

International Dark Sky Parks

Startrail with meteor in Arches National Park - Balanced Rock

Last month I visited some International dark sky parks and in one word, it was fantastic. Now I understand why we call our galaxy the Milky Way and how much one light/lamp can influence an entire dark sky.

Some of the dark sky parks and communities I visited are :

* Death Valley National Park

* Grand Canyon both North and South Rim

* Walnut Canyon National Park

* Canyonsland Park

* Dark Sky Communities Flagstaff 

* Dark Sky Communities Kaibab

As these visits were part of my trip in the West of the US, I was looking for dark sky parks in Europe. Currently the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) approved places in the Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, UK and one in Germany (Eifel National Park). I'm wondering of those have the same "dark skies".

Flare X9.3 X10.0 generating blackout and CME

Today a major flare was produced on the sun by active sunspot AR2673. For sure this was the most powerfull one since the last 15 years. According the SIDC the X-ray flare Is classified as class X9.3 up to class X10.0. Earlier today, this region was responsable for a strong flare class X2.2
The strongest class X9.3 (X10.0) flare also generated a short blackout (region short wave and within Europe, Asia and Africa) and generated a CME which is heading Earth.