Saturday, 29 November 2008

Space Shuttle STS-126

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After a very long period of poor weather, this evening was clear enough to see some stars and...Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-126 . The sky qu...
Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Asteroid (142014) Neirinck

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Today, it was my pleasure to announce to Pierre Neirinck that the IAU has approved this new asteroid name: (142014) Neirinck The naming cita...
Monday, 3 November 2008

A decaying tank that is not shot down

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Somewhere today, the Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS) will plunge into our atmosphere and decay. The EAS is a large refridgerator-sized tank fi...
Monday, 29 September 2008

Goodbye ATV-1

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The ATV-1 "Jules Verne", Europe's first cargo craft to the ISS, was de-orbited over the Pacific today. The past weeks it flew ...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 24 September 2008

Short observing break (partly due to camera defect)

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Short observing break here. Several reasons: apart from it being overcast the past three days, it includes that; - I am working on a double ...
Sunday, 14 September 2008

Rich batch of objects

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The night of 13-14 September was a very clear one. The near-full moon was low in the sky and the sky very transparent. I hauled a rich batch...
Monday, 8 September 2008

Andromeda Galaxy

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Finally came to process some images I made after my satellite observing session of September 1st. Stacking 58 images with an exposure time o...
Saturday, 6 September 2008

Flares, strays and spy sats

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The evenings of September 1st and 3rd saw a nice catch of satellites. My new camera system (Canon EOS 450D + EF 50/2.5 Macro) really is a sa...
Sunday, 31 August 2008

Purple volcanic twilights, and KeyHole satellites

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Last Friday evening was clear again. Looking outside in twilight, I noted the sky was amazingly purple, due to volcanic aerosols spewn by th...
Sunday, 24 August 2008

Asteroid 183294 Langbroek!

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This weekend, I got notified of the fact that the Committee on mall Body Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has de...
3 comments:

Lacrosses and a very fine USA 161 flare

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Coming back from a date shortly after midnight of August 23-24, I noted it was very clear, with only occasional small cloud fields passing. ...
Friday, 22 August 2008

More on the USA 193 shootdown

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The online Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published an essay by Harvard astrophysicist Yousaf Butt with a very critical view of the...
Wednesday, 20 August 2008

IGS 1B and NOSS 3-2 amidst flying clouds

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Yesterday evening the atmosphere was very dynamic, with flying clouds. I did manage to capture the NOSS 3-2 pair (03-054A & C) in twil...
Sunday, 17 August 2008

Keyhole USA 186 manoeuvred at Aug 14.6, and imaging a NOSS duo (REVISED)

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A late report on my August 14 observations and associated topics. August 14 featured a nice clear evening. I captured the Keyhole USA 186 (...
Wednesday, 13 August 2008

IGS 1B flare, no Perseids

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Yesterday was a strange evening. The day had been very clear, but with very strong wind (with gusts up to 100 km/h). In twilight, some clou...
Tuesday, 12 August 2008

Oberg on the USA 193 shootdown

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The renowned veteran space journalist and former mission control engineer James Oberg has published another article about the reasons for ...
1 comment:
Saturday, 2 August 2008

Milky Way photograph, and a tale of lens covers...

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Yesterday was one of those occasions... The evening was beautifully clear here. The passes of KH's USA 129 and 186 were too much in twil...
1 comment:
Friday, 1 August 2008

Results on the partial solar eclipse (UPDATED TWICE)

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I could follow the entire partial solar eclipse this morning: the sky was clear, but with periodic fields of cumuli passing. I made a series...
Wednesday, 30 July 2008

USA 186 and ISS

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After a strange day with clouds in the morning, thunderstorm and pouring rain in the afternoon, and sun but cirrus in the late afternoon and...
Monday, 28 July 2008

A 3D view of Cospar 4353

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It is a bit frustrating: it is warm and sunny weather here but : the nighttime sky suffers from cirrus or thunderstorms. Hence, little obser...