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I spend this website many hours each week to share my knowledge and experience from the areas of Astronomy, Cars and Travels. Most pages are written in English that is not my own native language, so do not judge me too hard if you find grammatical errors and more.

Highlights!

(these pages could be a mix of Swedish and English)

Contents:

• NewsMostly highlights on Astrofriend's homepage, see also left column Latest News
• New linksInteresting information
• Must do stuffWhat makes your life valuable
• Speech nature science, Föredrag naturvetenskap(most speeches in Swedish)

News:

Here I have collected news I found interesting.

Technology, Astronomy, Cars, Travels etc.

April 3, 2020 Astronomy: Comet

• Big news ! In the coming weeks there is a comet, C/2019 Y4 Atlas, it could be very bright if we are lucky. Normal comets I try to take photos of are of magnitude 5 to 10, this comet can reach magnitude 2 in the Northern hemisphere or at Southern -1 which is very very bright to be a comet.

  I have two tutorials you can use if you want to draw your own maps or maybe a tutorial how to take a photo of a comet:

• astronomy/ tutorials/ tutorial-comet-photography-planning/ tutorial-comet-photography-planning.html
  (Comet photography planning)
• astronomy/ tutorials/ tutorial-find-comets/ tutorial-find-comets.html
  (How to find comets)

Here are two maps with the comets position from April 1, 2020, the time is 10 pm, earlier it isn't very dark. You can print them to bring with you. The location is Sweden.

Or the Black & White version which is better in the dark if you print it out.

Maybe middle of April will be best, but people are already taken photos if it now. Later the comet will be very low to the horizon and it's not dark enough. You should have a clear view to the Northern direction (in Sweden). Bring warm clothes with you !

More links with information about comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas:

http://www.aerith.net/ comet/ catalog/ 2019Y4/ 2019Y4.html (Seiichi Yoshida's homepage)

https://skyandtelescope.org/ astronomy-news/ comet-atlas-will-it-become-a-naked-eye-object/ (Sky and Telescope)

April 3, 2020 Astronomy: Tutorial

• I have updated my macros to AstroImageJ, now they support export of Fits files. Not tested fully:

  astronomy/ tutorials/ tutorial-astroimagej/ tutorial-aij-01-introduction.html
  (How to use Gimp for editing astrophotos)

Update:
Fits file support.

Other astronomy tutorials:

April 3, 2020 Astronomy, project

• Get higher resolution from the images with Drizzle or Super resolution:

  astronomy/ projects/ project-get-higher-resolution/ 01-get-higher-resolution.html
  (Get higher resolution)

Other astronomy projects:

April 3, 2020 Astronomy: Tutorial

• I have used the free image processing software Gimp earlier to processing my astrophotos. Didn't work very well with 32 bit floating point image files. But now with the latest ver 2.10 something has happened. Here is a tutorial for the first step, how to load the 32-bit images in Gimp:

  astronomy/ tutorials/ tutorial-gimp-astrophotography/ 01-tutorial-gimp-astrophotography-introduction.html
  (How to use Gimp for editing astrophotos)

Update:
Subtraction of background.
Added align R, G, B layer.

Other astronomy tutorials:

Mars 22, 2020 Astronomy, photography

Last time I found there are a lot of galaxies in Southern direction. Tonight I once again aim the telescope in that direction:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ galaxies/ ngc4435-m84-m86-m87/ ngc4435-m84-m86-m87-galaxy.html
  (NGC 4435, M84, M86, M87 galaxies)

Other galaxies:

Mars 20, 2020 Astronomy, photography

The Globular Cluster M53:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ globular-clusters/ m53/ m53-globular-cluster.html
  (Messier 53, Globular Cluster, 2020)

Other Globular clusters:

See also galaxy clusters Leo Triplet, Leo I group and the galaxy M87:

Mars 20, 2020 Astronomi, min nattbok

• Fantastiska tider, det är en klar natt igen. Ut med telekopet på balkongen, trimmar in justering och fokus. Denna natt tar jag bilder i riktningen söderut. Passar också på att berätta lite om ett av de nya projektet som går framåt och nu är i det stadiet jag kan testköra:

  .. lars-karlsson-night-balcony-work-20200320-se.html
  (Min nattbok om mina vedermödor ute i kylan)

Andra astronomi historier:

Mars 19, 2020 Astronomy, photography

The open cluster Trumpler 37:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ open-clusters/ trumpler37/ trumpler37-open-cluster.html
  (Trumpler 37, 2016 and 2020)

Other Globular clusters:

Mars 18, 2020 Astronomy, photography

The galaxy UGC 10822 is very weak, but big as the Moon, once again I try to get a glimpse of it:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ galaxies/ ugc10822/ ugc10822-galaxy.html
  (UGC 10822 galaxy)

Other galaxies:

Mars 16, 2020 Astronomi, min nattbok

• Tredje natten på kor tid med en klar himmel. Säsongen går ju mot sitt slut så det är verkligen uppmuntrande. Några bilder och funderingar över astronomi projekten och dess framtid:

  .. lars-karlsson-night-balcony-work-20200316-se.html
  (Min nattbok om mina vedermödor ute i kylan)

Andra astronomi historier:

Mars 14, 2020 Astronomy, photography

One of the most beautiful objects on the sky is the planetary nebula M57, here is my photo of it:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ planetary-nebulas/ m57/ m57-planetary-nebula.html
  (Messier 57, 2020)

Other Planetary nebulas:

11 mars, 2019 Historia, Slussen

• Idag händee något spännande, Guldbron leveras från Kina till Stockholm med ett mycket underligt fartyg:

  history/ sverige stockholm slussen/ sverige stockholm slussen 20200311.html
  (Guldbron anländer till Stockholm, 2020)

Other history related:

Mars 8, 2020 Astronomy: Tutorial

• Excel sheet how to find parameters to a synthetic flat image. This is the preparation for a new function in AstroImageJ. I have some old photos left from earlier owned cameras and telescopes. The flat frame images to these were not perfect and I can't take any new. There are other advantages of making synthetic flat also and some disadvantages:

  astronomy/ tutorials/ tutorial-flat-synthetic/ 01-tutorial-flat-syntethic.html
  (Calculating the parameters for a synthetic flat image)

Update of Excel sheet and the new plugin Flatfield for AstroImageJ.

Other astronomy tutorials:

February 23, 2020 Astronomy: Tutorial

• The last month has been intensive. I have updated my macros which I use in AstroImageJ to be more user friendly. Now there is menus, you don't have to write the parameters direct into the text in the macro. I also have added more functions:

  astronomy/ tutorials/ tutorial-astroimagej/ tutorial-aij-01-introduction.html
  (How to rotate raw-files)

I have added a function to stack aligned images.

Other astronomy tutorials:

February 210, 2020 Travel

• Once again we travel to the Canary Islands, this time the island Lanzarote:

  travel/ europe/ spain-lanzarote-2020/ 01-puerto-del-carmen.html
  (Lanzarote, Spain 2020)

Other travels in Europe:

February 13, 2020 Astronomy, photography

First time I use my 5 Inch APO refractor to take a photo of the Moon:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ solar-system/ moon/ moon-2020-ts130/ moon-telescopets-2020.html
  (Moon 2020)

Other Solar system objects (very uggly):

January 20, 2020 Astronomy, photography

One of few chances to get a photo of the Orion Nebula from our balcony, it's normally hidden behind the houses:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ comets/ atlas-c2017-m4/ atlas-c2017-m4.html
  (M42, Orion Nebula)

Other nebulas:

January 13, 2020 Astronomy, calculation

• Calculate the minimum diameter of your filter without causing vignetting. Even the minimum distance off-axis adapter prism to optical axis:

  astronomy/ astronomy-calculations/ minimum-vignetting/ minimize-vignetting.html
  (Minimize vignetting calculator)

Other astronomy calculations:

January 11, 2020 Astronomy, photography

When looking through my old data I found this unprocessed photo, a comet. Very weak and hard to see:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ comets/ atlas-c2017-m4/ atlas-c2017-m4.html
  (Comet C/2017 M4)

Other comets:

January 10, 2020 Astronomy, photography

In Southern direction at night from where I live there is an Open Star Cluster, M44:

• astronomy/ astronomy-photo/ open-clusters/ m44/ m44-open-cluster.html
  (M44 Open Star Cluster)

Other open star clusters:

January 10, 2020 Astronomy: Tutorial

• If you by mistake let the camera's auto rotation be enabled it cause you problem when doing astrophotography:

  astronomy/ tutorials/ tutorial-rotate-raw-files/ tutorial-rotate-raw-files.html
  (How to rotate raw-files)

Have you ever got the experience that your raw astrophotos are in portrait orientation and your software needs them to be in landscape orientation ? This tutorial is about a fix to that problem.

Other astronomy tutorials:

January 2, 2020 Astronomy

• With no dark nights during the summer it's time to do some work on the equipment. My old EQ6 mount needs some, I disassembling the mount and rebuilt it partly:

  astronomy/ projects/ project-eq6-dismantling-rebuilding/ 17-eq6-dismantling-rebuilding.html
  (EQ6 mount rebuilt)

  Update:
  After 3 months of bad weather I now had a clear sky. I could do more test of my rebuilt EQ6 mount and got good results. Look at the page 18 !

Other astronomy projects:

January 1, 2020 Astronomy

• What is it with our weather ? Clouds and rain every night. The motivation for all amateur astronomers go deep in the ground.

  The last days I have spent on the Gaia space satellite. It's a astrometry observatory with extremely high precision. Could it be used to do something interesting ? I have collected some information here and a simple test by me to start with:

  astronomy/ science-data/ science-data-gaia.html
  (Gaia data archive)

  You can use it as a tutorial how to use the Gaia data.

  Update:
  New calculations of histogram over the positions of nearby stars.

Other astronomy science data archives:

30 december, 2019 Resor till sjöss

Min fars äventyr som sjöman under åren 1937 till 1945:

Uppdateringar om fartygen som Skepparen tjänstgjorde på, se sid 18.

• Vem har inte drömt om att göra en jorden runt resa någon gång i sitt liv. Min pappa Evert gjorde det redan innan han var 20 år fyllda. Han mönstrade på handelsfartyg och hamnade ända borta i Kina och andra länder i Asien. Det här skedde delvis under Andra Världskriget, det var många fartyg som gick under från minor och torpeder, även svenska fartyg. Tre av fartygen han var på förliste pga detta, dock något efter att han mönstrat av. Trevligt nog har jag en hel del bilder till pappas alla berättelser om de här 7 åren till sjöss. Denna spännande historia kan ni följa här:

  travel/ world/ evert-at-sea-1937-1945/ 01-evert-at-sea-start-sv.html
  (My father's adventures at sea, 1937 - 1945)

Other history related:

December 19, 2019 Sound & Image

• I was a teenager in the 1970s and listened a lot to Disco music and still like it. There are a lot of other music I like as well. I have collected them in a list to share to you::

  sound-image/ song-music-favorites/ favorite-music-list.html
  (My favorite music list)

Other Sound & Image:

December 12, 2019 Astronomy, calculation

• Try my calculator based on Frank Drake's Equation:

  How many intelligent civilizations are out there in Milky Way ?

  astronomy/ astronomy-calculations/ drakes-equation/ drakes-equation.html
  (Frank Drake's Equation calculator)

Other astronomy calculations:

December 11, 2019 Travel

• This travel was different compare what we are used to, between the cities we travel by trains and ferry on the river:

  travel/ europe/ krakow-bratislava-budapest/ 01-stockholm-krakow.html
  (12 days in Eastern Europe, visiting the cities Krakow, Bratislava, Budapest, 2010)

Other travels in Europe:

December 6, 2019 Home Theatre

• It's dark and winter now. I can't use my summer car and most days are cloudy so can't do my astronomy hobby either. What to do ? Restart my old hobby Home Theatre, of course !

  sound-image/ home-theatre-resurrection/ home-theatre-resurrection.html
  (Home Theatre resurrection, 2019)

  Update:
  More details about HTPC setup and MPC.

Other Sound and Image:

November 28, 2019 Astronomy

• Photos from an evening walk at Stockholm's Observatory:

  Read more:

  astronomy/ observatory-sites/ stockholms-observatory/ stockholm-observatory.html
  (Stockholm's Observatory, 2009)

Other observatory sites:

November 23, 2019 Travel

• 14 years ago it was an exiting day, I had read about a steam train. This day it will start from where I lived at that time and go to Katrineholm. Wonderful !

  travel/ sweden/ katrineholm-steam-train-2005/ 01-katrineholm-steam-train.html
  (Steam train from Stockholm to Katrineholm, 2005)

Other travels in Sweden:

November 8, 2019 Astronomy / seminar

• Seminars "The ALMA Fornax Cluster Survey" by Nikki Zabel.

  How does the galaxy cluster environment affect molecular gas and star formation? 2019
  (Institution of Astronomy, Stockholm's University)

Other speech, seminar and articles:

October 6, 2019 Astronomy: Tutorial

• An off-axis adapter could be tricky to setup correctly first time. Here is a tutorial I have done to help:

  astronomy/ tutorials/ tutorial-setup-off-axis-adapter/ 01-tutorial-setup-off-axis-adapter.html
  (Setup off-axis adapter)

Other astronomy tutorials:

October 15, 2019 Astronomy, 3D printer

• It's time for me to adapt to new technology, 3D printing:

  3d-printing/ 3d-printer-setup/ 01-3d-printer-setup.html
  (3D Printer, assembling and setup)

Update:
Printer calibration
Update 3D printer software

Other astronomy projects:

September 30, 2019 Astronomy

• My EQ6 mount is good but there are some weak point in the construction. One of them is the Altitude polar align adjustment. When living at 60 degree latitude as I do it doesn't work very well. Here I starting a study of what others have done and what equipment there are to buy to solve this problem:

  astronomy/ projects/ project-eq6-wedge-rebuilding/ 01-eq6-wedge-rebuilding.html
  (EQ6 wedge rebuilding)

Other astronomy projects:

July 27, 2019 Cars

• A visit at the junkyard in Osby:

  vehicles/ osby-scrapped-cars-2019/ osby-scrapped-cars-2019.html
  (Osby USA bildelar, 2019)

Other ships, cars and aircrafts:

July 14, 2019 Travels / Sweden

• One place I always have found beautiful in books is Norrköping and its river Motala Ström. We have travel by car through Norrköping many times but never stopped at the old town center. This day my girlfriend had to visit the archive of Norrköping in her research and I follow to walk in the old city of Norrköping and take some photos:

  travel/ sweden/ motala-strom-norrkoping-2019/ motala-strom-norrkoping-2019.html
  (Walking along Motala Ström in old town of Norrköping, 2019)

Other travels in Sweden:

July 9, 2019 Ships

• A visit on the Swedish icebreaker Atle:

  vehicles/ icebreaker-atle-2019/ icebreaker-atle-frihamnen-2019.html
  (Icebreaker Atle in Frihamnen 2019)

Other ships, cars and aircrafts:

July 3, 2019 Travel, walks with old and new photos

• One old idea I have is to take old photos and then take new ones from the same place and compare. I have started with the island Riddarholmen in Stockholm. The old photography is from the 19th century. Much more complicated then I first thought, it will take long time, here is the beginning of the work:

  travel/ sweden/ old-and-new-photographs/ introduction-old-and-new-photographs.html
  (Old and new photography from Stockholm)

Other things about Swedish history:

June 7, 2019 Boats / Monalisa

• Big news! The anchor that belonged to Monalisa:

  vehicles/ everts-cruiser-monalisa/ everts-cruiser-monalisa-03.html
  (Photos of the anchor)

Other ships and boats:

May 19, 2019 Sound / Image

• Biograf (Cinema) Sländan Museum:

  sound-image/ cinema-slandan-museum/ cinema-slandan-museum.html
  (Biograf Sländan Museum)
• We had a visit to a camera flee market today, we was a bit early and found this when we waiting, a cinema machine museum.

Other things about sound and cinema:

April 14, 2019 Astronomy

• At our last vacation at Rhodes we visited the observatory Astronomy Cafe in Faliraki. This is a place where you can stay and rent astronomy equipment.

  Read more:

  astronomy/ observatory-sites/ rhodes-faliraki-astronomy-cafe/ rhodes-faliraki-astronomy-cafe.html
  (A visit to the Astronomy Cafe observatory in Rhodes, April 2019)

Other observatory sites:

27 januari, 2019

Nya kartor över fornlämningar: Fornhistoria

• Kartor för fornfynd, det är för dig som gillar att vara ute i naturen och leta efter vår spännande historia.

• Här finner du de nya kartorna:

  history/ sverige-fornlamningar-kartor/ fornlamningar-kartor-sv.html
  (Fornlämningskartor, Sverige)

Other history related in Sweden:

All other news: News.

New links:

Here I have collected new links that I found interesting.

Technology, Astronomy, Cars, Travels etc.

September 29, 2019 Astronomy

• New links about telescope mounts:

  links/ links-astronomy-mount.html
  (Information about mounts)

DIY and tweaks.

August 20, 2019 Physics

• 3D printing links:

  links/ links-astronomy-3d-printing.html
  (3D printing info files)

3D printing can be useful in astronomy, I have collected some links with info and 3D drawings.

August 20, 2019 Physics

• Funny Physics related to Gravity:

  links/ links-others.html #funny-physhics-gravity
  (Funny Physics, link collection from Youtube)

I think you will find it interesting too (but don't believe everything).

April 18, 2019 Travel and Astronomy

Astro-tourism, a growing tourist travel area.

• Astro Tourism:

  links/ links-astronomy-astrotourism.html
  (Astro Tourism, link collection)

I have primarily chosen places that I can reach from Sweden within 6 hours by air. Most of them are in Spain.

You find above links later on the link page:

• Links

Must do stuff:

Technology, Astronomy, Cars, Travels etc.

(look carefully that it has not been canceled or has a changed date)

April - May, 2020 Astronomy

• Comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas visit us:

  http://www.aerith.net/ comet/ catalog/ 2019Y4/ 2019Y4.html
  (C/2019 Y4 Atlas, Seiichi Yoshida)

• Comet ATLAS: Will it Become a Naked-Eye Object?

  https://skyandtelescope.org/ astronomy-news/ comet-atlas-will-it-become-a-naked-eye-object/
  (C/2019 Y4 Atlas, Sky and Telescope)

• Look at your local star map where it is and its orbit, you can use CdC or Skychart:

  CdC or Skychart (Free to download)

It could be as bright as magnitude -1.

Föredrag: (Stockholm, Sverige)

This is only for you who live in Stockholm, Sweden or want to travel and make a visit here.

De flesta av de här föredragen hålls i Stockholm. Vanligtvis är de på svenska men ibland på engelska. Läs noga på deras hemsida så att det inte blivit inställt eller flyttat.

Området är naturvetenskap.

9 december 2019 till 5 januari 2020 Utställning (OBS ! Flyttad till Lidingö stadshus !)

För er som gillar gamla båtar.
På Lidingö Stadsmuseum kommer under december till januari pågå en utställning om Boghammar Marin. Mina minnen från min pappas berättelser är att han hade hört från den tidigare ägaren av hans Petterssonbåt Monalisa att den var byggd på Lidingö. Mina efterforskningar om Monalisa leder till varvet Gustafsson & Andersson på Lidingö som idag heter Boghammar:

• https://www.upplev lidingo.com/ sv/ 290727/ Utstallning-Boghammar-Marin/
  (Utstallning Boghammar Marin, Upplev Lidingö)
• https://www.lidingo nyheter.se/ boghammar i stadshuset/
  (Boghammar i stadshuset, Lidingö Nyheter)
• everts-cruiser-monalisa/ pdf/ boghammar-flyer.pdf
  (Boghammar Marin – en varvsepok över 100 år, PDF-fil)

Se även min berättlase om min fars Pettersson kryssare Monalisa.

2020 Visning / Föredrag

• Visningar av Alba Nova teleskopet:

  http://www.astro.su.se/ om-oss/ evenemang/ teleskopvisningar
  (Alba Nova teleskopet, Stockholms universitet)

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