2021-10-09, Moon and Venus
2021-10-08, comets
2021-09-27, Centaur deorbit burn
De-orbit burn and fuel dump of the Centaur rocket that launched Landsat 9.
2021-08-11/12/13, Perseids and Jupiter
Conditions were not very favorable but we managed to see a number of Perseids on the night of August 11/12. When cirrus took over we had a look at Jupiter and Saturn with the Celestron C14. Although very low in the sky (max. 25°) both planets looked awesome. Took a 30s movie with a Canon EOS R dslr. The best 20% of frames was used for the image below.
The following night (12/13) conditions were better and we saw more meteors than the previous night. However, no fireballs were seen. Comparing the number of meteors to last year, we found the activity disappointing. A few days later (14/8, between 06-09UT) an outburst was seen in the USA and Canada with a ZHR of 130 ±20.
NLC outbreak
Following some fierce thunderstorms, the skies cleared and a nice NLC display became visible. Silvery clouds from west to north-east up to a height of 60 degrees.
Partial Solar Eclipse, june 10, 2021.
A small group of volunteers gathered at Public Observatory Bussloo to observe the partial solar eclipse under near perfect conditions.
First NLC’s of the season
After checking the north-western horizon every night, noctilucent clouds finally appear.
Rosette nebula from the balcony
Still in lockdown and not allowed to go out at night (curfew). My balcony has only limited views to the south, so there’s not much choice in objects to image. And with unusual amounts of snow on the ground the skies are even worse than the usual Bortle 8/9, but the Optolong L-eXtreme filter is a powerful tool.
California nebula from city center
I tried something new. I drilled holes in the wooden deck of my balcony so that the legs of a photo tripod stand stable on the underlying concrete. The Rainbow Astro RST-135 mount with a William Optics WhiteCat telescope placed on the photo tripod. The polar-alignment routine of the Staraid autoguider used to align the mount (the balcony is positioned on the south side of the building). I could only see the planet Mars (thanks to Bortle 9 scale and a lot of direct illumination) but through plate solving (also via the Staraid) the California nebula could be found. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and after only 5 shots it started to rain.
2020-12-20, Jupiter and Saturn.
