Saturn almost at Opposition

Saturn will be at opposition on Aug 14th. This evening the planet was captured using my TAL200K f/8.5 and ASI224MC.

Setting: TAL200K f/8.5, ASI224MC

Specs:  ADC, Barlow x2  

Software: SharpCap 4, AS3!(20% best frames), CS4 and DeNoise AI

First light with TS Guiding Scope 50x180

In May this year I bought a second hand TS Guiding scope 50x180 @ ATT Essen for my TAL200K f/8.5 replacing the ZWO mini guide scope 30x120. Yesterday I did some testing with following set up:

TAL200K f/8.5 with ASI2600MC

Guide Scope 50x180 with ASI290MM

Setting: binning 2x2 for ASI2600MC; 180s exposure time

Imaging Software : N.I.N.A and PHD2

Picture edited using CS4.

Results : 

Guide scope gives good field of view and sharp stars which makes it easy to select stars. No issue with calibration and guiding assistance used for guiding settings; adjustment time 1,5-3s and set to 1,5s.

ASI2600MC set to 2x2 binning; start are bright and circular. 

I did have some issues with guiding itself and not sure what the rootcause was. I made 11 pictures of which 4 without "startrails".

Learnings:

N.I.N.A. image settings to be changed to FITS in stead if TIFF. It would be good to have more PHD2 profiles as I have multiple guide scopes. Next I will be testing "multiple stars" guiding.

Space - The Human Quest @ Antwerp Expo

Untill October 16th 2022 you can visit the Space Expo - The Human Quest in Atwerp. I visited the expo last week. The tour took about 90min and I liked the anecdotes from Lieven Scheire. 

The expo gives a good historical overview of the space race between Russia and USA. There are some original pieces and 1:1 replica’s: Spoetnik, Vostok, Mercury, Apollo capsule, Moon Lander cockpit,... historical documents and objects: letter from Armstrong and personel object from our first Belgium astronauts Dirk Frimout and Frank de Winne. There are four "audio guides" to make it interesting for all ages.  

Interesting was also the Mars area explaining how the first Mars crew will "settle" on Mars. 

My picture of Comet C/2017 K2 (Panstarrs) published in Magazine Heelal

My picture of Comet C/2017 K2(Panstarrs) (see blog article) is published in the August edition of magazine Heelal.

Follow up on Sunspot AR3062 - Eruption Confirmed

As a follow on the eruption of Sunspot AR3062 - see this link - I used data from SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory - https://www.poollicht.be/nl/zonneactiviteit/zonnebeelden/sdo.html).

On the images from AIA 193, 211 and 304 the eruption is very easily to see (UT17h17). This confirms and verifies my picture. Cool!

Sunspot AR3062 Eruption

 

This evening Sunspot AR3062 near the south-western limb was observed during an eruption (UT17h17). Not sure what kind of eruption and will investigate further. 

Sun H-Alpha

The Sun in H-Alpha this evening. At the center of the disk sunspotgroup AR3068 is still growing and near the eastern limb the active region AR3070 can be observed with prominences. 

Picture taken using SharpCap 4, with flats and seeingmonitor. Stacking done by keeping 5% of the best frames.

Setting: SolarMaxIII 70/400 f/5.7 DS BF15 with ASI290MM

Software: SharpCap4, AS3!, IMPPG, CS4