DeepskyWim

Today, I received the Howie Glatter laser collimator I ordered in the US on the 10th of March.  I ordered the 635nm 2" Laser Collimator, with the square grid pattern and a TuBlug to be able to collimate using the barlowed laser technique  as described by Nils Olof Carlson. The 2" Howie Glatter Laser Collimator The 635nm laser is better visible at day-time than the 650nm laser.  This makes it possible to start collimation already when it is not dark yet.  The Howie Glatter laser itself is very precisely aligned to 15 arc-seconds, so I can be sure that the collimation using this tool will be the best collimation that is possible.  The Howie Glatter laser collimator is also very sturdy.  Apparently you can drop the laser from a ladder and everything will still be perfectly aligned.  Good to know, but I'm not planning to test this in real life.  The TuBlug The TuBlug can be inserted into the focuser and the laser collimator can be inserted in the TuBlug.  Inside the TuBlug i

On April 24, 2021, we could enjoy a nice halo display.  No pictures this time on my blog, but a timelapse movie showing how the halo changes during 1 hour and 15 minutes, starting at 12:08 and taking a picture every 10 seconds.  I used the Canon EOS 80D, using the Sigma 10mm F/2.8 EX DC Fisheye HSM lens.  The timelapse was made using LRTimelapse and Adobe Lightroom.

Apparently, the weather conditions are very good to see atmospheric phenomena.  Today, a very bright halo could be seen.  The upper part was really bright.  The upper tangent arc is only visible when the altitude of the sun is below 29 degrees, which was not the case.  When the sun is higher than 29 degrees above the horizon, the upper and lower tangent arcs join to become a circumscribed halo.  The upper part of the circumscribed halo was visible.

This evening, a very bright and spectacular sundog could be seen at home.  Next to the sundog, a very bright part was visible in the clouds.