Rare Ice Spike or staligmite of ice

For the second time (first time February 19, 2013) I was able to spot the rare Ice Spike and this in my own garden. Temperatures dropped below freezing point (-2.5°C) and this created a Ice Spike. 

Ice Spikes can only formed when all circumstances are perfect. Circumstances are influenced by the purity of the water, amount of water, shape of the "container", surrounding temperature, temperature gradient and probably the air circulation and humitidy of the surrounding area.

Jupiter-Saturn Close Approach December 2020

I'm looking back at the close approach of Jupiter with Saturn. The closest approach or conjuntion took place at december 21st 2020, but due to bad weather nothing could be seen. However the days before and the days after I was able to make some pictures. An overview is presented.

Happy New Astromical Year 2021

 

ISS ARISS SSTV Collection Finalised

ARISS (Amateur Radio on the ISS (International Space Station)) is celebrating 20years of service. To celebrate this, the Russian radio on board of the ISS is transmitting between X-mas and New year. In total 12 pictures can be downloaded each 1minute transmitting time. I'm using webSDR located in Nürnberg (Germany) and Noordwijk (Netherlands) each time the ISS is flying over. 

The images were send to ARISS, Indonesian Space Explorer and Russian R4UAB which responded all by sending back Award Certificates. Really Cool

In total 13 times (24/12 till 31/12, all during early morning) I was able to make contact with the ISS.  During those 13 ISS passes I could decode 25 images of which 11 out of 12 unique pictures; image 11 was very difficult to get. But even without this one, it's amazing to get this done and it's for sure addicting. 

Out of the 13 ISS passes, I had twice visual which were also photographed. At those moments I was both listening and watching the ISS :)

NOAA18 30/12/2020 UT9h26 Weather Image

Today's weather image downloaded from NOAA18 UT9h26 using webSDR Nurnberg. Picture was stacked and edited using CS4 and DeNoise AI.

NOAA18 Weather image 28122020 UT09h50

Today's Weather image from NOAA18 UT09h50

My Astronomical Highlights 2020

A rather stange year due to the Covid-19 pandemic but still, I was able to got out and watched the sky. Some of my astronomical hightlights in 2020 and astronomical "wow" moments are listed below :

#1 Attending live the launch of Space-X Falcon 9 (CRS-20) from Cape Canaveral SLC40
#2 Comet Neowise C/2020 F3 visible with the naked eye and I could capture both dust as plasma tails
#3 Planet Saturn was observed a couple of days after opposition in almost perfect conditions. Also Mars and Jupiter were observed.
#4 In the evening of July 5th, an impressive sky with NLC covering the sky up to 40°
#5 Making progress in Deepsky photography with M31, M51 and Horsehead nebula in H-alpha


Worth mentioning :

#6 Supernova SN2020jfo in M61. My first supernova which I could track (100days) and making detailed pictures.
#7 My fartest Deepsky objects so far: 3 quasars of which HS 0624+6907 is located at distance of 4.56 billion ly away from Earth.
#8 Communication with NOAA weather satellites and ISS station (ARISS SSTV)
#9 The Sun is awakening with some big sunspots at the end of the year. I was able to see the sunspots with the naked eye... first time ever and remember: don't do this at home
#10 Finishing my Moon sequence from full moon till new moon