DeepskyWim

Today we could witness a solar eclipse in Belgium.  Although only partial, this eclipse would be big enough to result in a noticeable change in light intensity and a small (but noticeable) drop in temperature, as the sun was covered for 83%.  However, persistent fog was predicted for the whole country, so we could only hope to be lucky. While the other members of  VVS Capella  were going to the east of Belgium to have a greater possibility to see anything at all, we organized an observing session at work. The weather looked terrible indeed and we missed the first contact.  But we were lucky, because 20 minutes before the maximum of the eclipse, the sun became visible through the fog.  Nevertheless the fog was still very thick and most of the time our eclipse glasses were too strong to see anything through them.  The thick layer of fog acted as a sort of natural filter, enabling us to enjoy the spectacle without protective glasses, till about 20 minutes after the maximum.  From then

Today, my drawing of NGC 2158 , the Eskimo Nebula, was selected as Astronomy Sketch Of the Day . Very nice to have one of my first drawings selected as Sketch of the Day! This is very motivating to make more drawings during my observations.

Since the end of last year, there is a new firmware for the Argo Navis Digital Telescope Computer available. I'm using an old laptop running on Linux with a serial port to connect the Argo Navis. As I couldn't find a lot of information on how to do the upgrade using Linux on the Internet, I wrote down the procedure I followed to do the upgrade. The upgrade to version 3.0.1 offers a lot of interesting new features: Support for multiple telescope setups. The moon is added to the list of objects, including lunar phase and time of phases. Horizon filter added. Updated object catalogs. Updated ServoCAT protocol. I don't own a ServoCAT, so for me, this is not really useful. ... Steps to upgrade the Argo Navis firmware to version 3.0.1. Download the new firmware from http://www.wilcard-innovations.com.au/firmware.html Note down the settings of your Argo Navis in the SETUP tab. Put the serial cable in the 'Serial 1' port. Start up your Argo Navis while pr

During the observing weekend in Grandpré last year in November, I took the time to make a sketch of NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula. It took a lot longer than expected, but today I can finally present the finished drawing. It was a very humid night. The paper I was drawing on became very wet already after a few minutes. Because of the weather circumstances, higher magnifications were not possible. The Eskimo Nebula is clearly blue and has a bright central star. Around the central star, the nebula is darker. Further away, there is a bright ring. The outer parts of the nebula disappear in the background. I made the drawing in Krita , a free digital painting and illustration application. Because I am not used to drawing, it took a while before I could finish a drawing I'm happy with. Things to keep in mind: It was not possible to use higher magnifications this night, but planetary nebulae really need more magnification. I am happy with the stars I have drawn. They are more or le

After the observation of comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) last week, the weather stayed very bad and cloudy. Today, it rained the largest part of the day, but in the evening it suddenly became very clear. So, we went outside to observe the comet. Using the Vixen 20x80 binoculars, it took a short time to find the comet. Lovejoy was visible as a really nice comet in the binoculars: bright, large, with the tail weakly visible in the direction of Taurus. After the observation with the binoculars, we tried to see the comet with the naked eye. And indeed, Lovejoy was weak, but unmistakably visible with the naked eye. If you haven't seen comet Lovejoy yet, you should really try to spot this nice comet as you can not see a naked-eye comet every year! Check my observations of comet Lovejoy in DeepskyLog . More news on the comet and some finder charts can be found on the website of Sky & Telescope .

Yesterday was a cold but clear day. So before going to bed, we tried to spot comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2). The sky conditions were not good at all: the moon was full and we had to stand on the street to see Lovejoy. This means that a lot of straylight made seeing the comet even more difficult. At a magnitude of 4 to 5, the comet should be easy to find using small binoculars at the moment. First, I tried to find the comet with 10x50 binoculars. Without a real star chart, I could already spot Lovejoy very soon. I was amazed by the brightness of the comet. Lovejoy looked like a bright deep-sky object, even under these terrible sky conditions. I went back inside to get my 20x80 binoculars and mount. It was a bit more difficult to find the comet because of the smaller field of view. The comet was quite large and brighter than expected. Lovejoy appeared round, with a brighter center, a bit like a bright unresolved globular cluster. A tail could not be seen. More news on the comet