Thursday, March 30, 2017

3RD HISTORICAL TELESCOPE EXHIBITION IN 2018


This is the prototype of the Model 1 Zeiss Planetarium ca. 1924. We working now on a plan to bring this Planetarium to live again in 2018, with the 3rd historical Telescope exhibition in a 10 meter Dome of Gernot Meiser.


Campussternwarte in Schöppingen Germany is planning their 3rd historical Telescope exhibition in 2018.



Primeur, een nog nooit eerder vertoonde foto van het Model 1 planetarium Zeiss Planetarium voor Den Haag. Fotocollectie: Museon.






Hier sta ik bij de gedeeltelijk gerestaureerde Zeiss Model 1 planetarium van het voormalige Zeiss planetarium in Den Haag. Foto: medewerker van Museon.




De planeten techniek in detail, links Saturnus, dan Jupiter enz.




Onze derde historische telescoop tentoonstelling plannen we in 2018. Daarvoor zijn we in overleg met het museon in Den Haag om het het Zeiss Planetarium model 1 weer operationeel te maken en die te presenteren in een mobiel planetarium. Gernot Meiser (documentaire maker voor o.a. ZDF) zal een mobiele planetarium van 10 meter en 6 meter hoog beschikbaar stellen en dit proces filmisch documenteren.






MOON AND MERCURY Taken by Sven Melchert on March 29, 2017 @ Stuttgart, Germany



The young Moon and nearby Mercury setting near Feuersee Church in Stuttgart, Germany. (You have to enlarge the image to see Mercury.)


THIN CRESCENT MOON SETTING Taken by Peter Lowenstein on March 29, 2017 @ Mutare, Zimbabwe






This evening (29 March) the waxing New Moon first appeared over Christmas Pass about half an hour after sunset (second and third photographs). The lead animation, produced from a video recorded at 18.52 LT when it was almost dark, shows the thin bright crescent descending through some trees on a hillside adjacent to the Pass. In the last photograph captured at twilight, bright Earthshine is still visible on the dark side of the Moon. The photographs and video were taken using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 compact camera in sunset and night scenery modes.

110 YEARS EXPANSION OF CRAB NEBULA Taken by Peter Rosén on March 29, 2017 @ Centra Stockholm, Sweden



The Crab Nebula, or M1, is the expanding remains of a supernova that exploded in the year 1054.
I have assembled 5 images that span at least 110 years, possibly more. I have then adjusted the luminosity and contrast so that the images would match as closely as possible and I have used the Hubble image for the color component of all 5 images in the animation.
It is interesting to note the bright star up to the right that has moved by quite a distance. Its proper motion is about 0.25 arc seconds/year.

*Image 1 was taken at the Lick observatory at the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century.

* Image 2 was taken with the 200-inch Hale telescope in 1950

* Image 3 is a POSSII-Red plate from 1990

* Image 4 is the renowned Hubble image photographed in the year 2000.

* Image 5 was take by Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona with a 32-inch telescope in 2012.


All images used by fair-use permission


ZAP! Taken by Markus Varik on March 29, 2017 @ Tromsø, Norway.



Zap!

Little knows fact, Auroras are made out of electrons, which is basically flying electricity from the sun. So getting zapped by Auroras as youd normally get zapped by lightning, would not necessarily be as unbelievable as it sounds.

NEBULA WITH LASER BEAMS Image Credit & Copyright: Stéphane Guisard (Los Cielos de America, TWAN)



Four laser beams cut across this startling image of the Orion Nebula, as seen from ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama desert on planet Earth. Not part of an interstellar conflict, the lasers are being used for an observation of Orion by UT4, one of the observatory's very large telescopes, in a technical test of an image-sharpening adaptive optics system. This view of the nebula with laser beams was captured by a small telescope from outside the UT4 enclosure. The beams are visible from that perspective because in the first few kilometers above the observatory the Earth's dense lower atmosphere scatters the laser light. The four small segments appearing beyond the beams are emission from an atmospheric layer of sodium atoms excited by the laser light at higher altitudes of 80-90 kilometers. Seen from the perspective of the UT4, those segments form bright spots or artificial guide stars. Their fluctuations are used in real-time to correct for atmospheric blurring along the line-of-sight by controlling a deformable mirror in the telescope's optical path.


SUNSPOT IN H-ALPHA Taken by jean-pierre brahic on March 29, 2017 @ Uzès ( France)






AR2644 ( 2017.03.29) Réfractor Special H-Alpha 230mm F/D 11.2 , Ech : 0.14/Pix PST MOD 1A° , Basler ACA1920-155 (155fps) GENIKA 2.13.2,Seeing ( 6/10 )

41P, 45P 2017 E4 Taken by michael jäger on March 28, 2017 @ Weißenkirchen Austria





2017 E4 march 28 3.09 UT 20x60
41P march 27 UT 22.57 20x20sec
45P march 27 UT 21.54 20x300

12/4 SXV-H9


SUPERNOVA NGC 5643 Taken by Ray Pickard on March 29, 2017 @ Bathurst Observatory Research Facility, Bathurst NSW, Australia



After getting the alert about the supernova in galaxy NGC 5643, I was able to image it at about 10:20 U.T 29/3/2017. I marked the supernova with red tick marks. It is a composite of 12, 35s using C14 at F2 (hyperstar), DSLR iso2500



SUPERNOVA SN2017CJB IN THE GALAXY NGC4779 Taken by Pierre PONSARD on March 27, 2017 @ La Fosse (Manhay-Belgium)




Discovered the 23 March 2017, this supernova is very bright (supernova type II) in this galaxy of Virgo.
I have taken an image of it the 27 March 2017 with a 12 inches telescope. Its one hour exposure (20 x 3 minutes) at 800ISO with a Canon 60Da.


Tuesday, March 28, 2017

HALE-BOPP AND AURORA Taken by Geir Bye on March 26, 2000 @ Kattfjordeidet, Tromsø



20th anniversary these days for Hale-Bopp, Picture from Kattfjordeidet (Tromsø), March 26th 1997, using Kodak 100 vs (positive), Nikkor 60mm 2.8, exposure time 15 sec.. Miss those days...
(Auto-fill-in does not accept date from last millennium :))


SPOTLESS SUN



The sun has been virtually spotless, as in no sunspots, over the past 11 days, a spotless stretch that we have not seen since the last solar minimum many years ago. This video shows the past four days (Mar. 14-17, 2017) with a combination of an extreme ultraviolet image blended with just the filtered sun. If we just showed the filtered sun with no spots for reference points, any viewer would have a hard time telling that the sun was even rotating.

The sun is trending again towards the solar minimum period of its 11 year cycle, which is predicted to be around 2020 (See monthly prediction chart here:










ZODIACAL LIGHT Taken by Bob Fisher on March 22, 2017 @ Minerva, NY




On a cold, windy, exceptionally clear evening in the central Adirondacks of NY, I took this shot of the zodiacal light over St. Marys church in Minerva NY. Canon 6D, 1000 ASA, 24mm lens for 30 seconds. Time: 8:25 PM EDT