Nightscape with Venus & Mercury Alignment

This evening, both planets Venus and Mercury were visible low above the Western horizon. Around 19h15m local time clouds disappeard and Mercury showed up north of bright Venus.

Nightscape Startrail

Startrail above Maagdentoren in Zichem. In total 143 pictures taken, each 25s. and stacked using Startrails v2.3. Limited editing using CS4.

Nightscape Moon Jupiter

Beautiful view of the Moon and Jupiter (west of the Moon) this morning.

VIP PASS, I'm on the Mission to Touch the Sun

My name is on the hottest ticket, a ticket on the Mission to Touch the Sun, a ticket with my name on a chip aboard the Parker Solar Probe. 

The NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names online to be placed on a microchip aboard NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission launching in summer 2018. The mission will travel through the Sun’s atmosphere, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and your name will go along for the ride.

Submissions will be accepted until April 27, 2018. Learn more and add your name to the mission here: http://go.nasa.gov/HotTicket

Moon & Jupiter in the Morning Sky

This morning and also tomorrow morning, the Moon and Jupiter can be seen at the Southern horizon. The Moon is currently 71% illuminated.

Earliest stars born 180 million years after the Universe began.

After 12 years of experimental effort, a team of scientists, led by Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration astronomer Judd Bowman, has detected indications of the earliest stars in the universe. Using radio signals, the detection provides the first evidence for the oldest ancestors in our cosmic family tree, born a mere 180 million years after the universe began.

An observation profile centred around 78Mhz in the sky-averaged spectrum was discovered. “What’s happening in this period is that some of the radiation from the very first stars is starting to allow hydrogen to be seen," said Rogers. "It’s causing hydrogen to start absorbing the background radiation, so you start seeing it in silhouette, at particular radio frequencies. This is the first real signal that stars are starting to form, and starting to affect the medium around them.”

For more information here.

SIDC Series on Lectures on Solar Physics Basics

Lectures 8 & 9 are now available on the Youtube channel from the Royal Observatory of Belgium. See this link here.

The lectures are part of the SIDC series on Solar Physics Basics which I really recommend listening too.