Saturday, April 22, 2023

Venus-Mercury in the evening sky

 


Clear skies in April 17 and 18 with the planets Venus and Mercury in the evening sky. Mercury is getting fainter everyday and moving towards the Sun. The apparent distance between Venus and the Pleiades is also increasing when comparing with my previous observations earlies this month.

Setting: Nikon D7500 f/5.6, 40mm, ISO800, 3s exposure time. Editing using CS4.








Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Fireball on Monday April 17 19h32UT

During twilight UT19h32 of April 17 a very bright fireball was observed which went from 45° North towards NW uptill the horizon.
In total 250 reports were send in via amsmeteors and the meteor was also captured by MIRA (see this link)


Link to my report: https://amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/report/308827


Sunday, April 16, 2023

Venus and Mercury 2,5° above horizon

 


Venus and Mercury low above the western horizon. At UT20h20 (local time 22h20), Mercury was about 2,5° above the horizon. Unfortunately the location was badly light pollutioned, but still the Pleiades, some stars from constellation Taurus and of course Mercury could be captured.

Setting: Nikon D7500 f/5.6 38mm, ISO3200, 3s exposure time
Editing using CS4.



Friday, April 14, 2023

Venus, Pleiades and Mercury

 



Venus near Pleiades and Mercury about 1,5h after sunset. Mercury can be seen low above the horizon (about 4° above the horizon)  and 2 days after greatest elongation.

Setting: Nikon D7500 f/4.5 28mm ISO1600 3s
Limited editing using CS4.

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Needle Galaxy NGC4565

The Needle galaxy (NGC4565, Caldwell38) is located in constellation Coma Berenices and about 40 lightyears away from Earth. It's an edge-on spiral galaxy and a member of the Coma I group.

Image was taken on April 3 with the Moon 95% illuminated. These condiations were not ideal and next time I will not take images near the full moon.

Setting: TAL200K f/8.5, ASI2600MC, Guidingscope 50x229 with ASI224MC on EQ8R-Pro
Lights: 31x300s (bin2x2 , -10°C), Flats, Darks and Bias
Software: ASIair Plus, APP, CS4, DeNoise AI




1 Year to go: Total Solar Eclipse April 8 2024

 One year from now, on April 8, 2024, the next total solar eclipse in northern America will be visible. 

See also this link to Total Solar Eclipse 

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Full "Pink" Moon

 



Image of the April full moon on April 5; April full moon is also called the "Pink" moon. 

Setting: TAL200K f/8.5, ASI2600MC, Guidingscope 50x229/ with ASI224MC
Software: ASIair Plus, CS4