Rendering the Heywhatsthat.com horizon in Stellarium

Rendering Heywhatsthat.com horizon in Stellarium

I am very excited to announce to you a brand new tool, which has been developed just after the newest Stellarium edition was released. I mean the Stellarium version 0.2 onwards, which is the reach of new features. One of them is the possibility of loading the polygonal type of horizon, known by many of … Read more

Astrophotography with Sigma 150-600mm DG OS Contemporary and dedicated teleconverters

Moon Sigma 150-600 Contemporary Nikon

The summary of my amateur test with a Sigma 150-600mm DG OS Contemporary lens and two teleconverters TC-1401 and TC-2001 includes the astrophotography section. I wanted to check this lens in terms of its ability to capture celestial objects. The fundamental difference between celestial objects and terrestrial objects is, that these first are in motion, … Read more

The visibility of Venus before the 2020 inferior conjunction

Inferior Venus conjunstion 2020

The inferior conjunction of Venus with the Sun happens almost every year.  Almost, because in about the 8-year cycle of our neighbor planet she passes the Sun-Earth line 5 times (the synodic cycle counts 854 days exactly), making a peculiar pentagram, comprised of 5 petals.  Every petal corresponds to the individual character of the inferior … Read more

Teleconverter 2x (TC-2001) for the 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Contemporary and other Sigma lenses

Sigma teleconverter TC-2001

The Sigma 150-600mm DG OS HSM f/5 – 6.3 + teleconverter kit TC-1401 bundle wasn’t enough for me. I just wanted to see, what the world looks like through the maximum telephoto lens, affordable for many of us at once. The difference in price between the 150-600mm C  (or 150-600mm S) + TC-2001 combination and … Read more

The foliage fall mystery

Foliage fall Chorkówka

Have you ever wondered what factors determine the leaves falling from trees in the autumn?  Or maybe you noticed, that the period, when leaves fall on the ground varies every year. This article is an answer to these two basic questions because the foliage fall phenomenon isn’t so simple as thriving leaves from buds during … Read more

Teleconverter 1.4x (TC-1401) for the 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Contemporary and other Sigma lenses

Sigma 150-600 contemporaty and TC-1401

The TC1401 teleconverter is a good magnifier for some Sigma lenses, bringing your object by 1.4x closer than Sigma focal length can for you. If you are buying the Sigma 150-600mm f/5 – 6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens, it comes quite often with it as a bundle (Pic. 1). It’s a quite good bargain … Read more

Creating your own speed limit map in QGIS and showing it interactively in Google Maps

Recently I showed you how to collect the speed limit data about the specified section of the road. It’s obviously a huge step toward the speed limit map preparation.  Reading the last article you got to know some examples of beautiful and very useful speed limit maps. In this reading, you will get knowledge about … Read more

Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary – a fantastic choice for distant landscape photography

Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary for Nikon

My dream about a long telephoto lens finally came through. After a few weeks’s consideration, I bought the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens for my Nikon D5300 camera, which also included the TC1401 1.4x teleconverter, especially for this lens. Before I start the presentation on this teleconverter as well as the other … Read more

The costless way to geocoding addresses in Excel – part 3, bulk data geocoding with Nominatim and other geocoding tools

Nominatim address geocodinmg Excel

The 3rd part of this vast article about geocoding is slated for discussion about another free geocoding tool for MS Excel, namely the OpenStreetMap Nominatim geocoding and other remaining tools, which could be worth attention. NOMINATIM GEOCODING TOOL The usage of this small tool is very simple, even simpler than Bing Maps API geocoding, however, … Read more

The costless way to geocoding addresses in Excel – part 2, via Bing Maps API

Bing geocoding addresses in excel

It’s been a while since the previous part of this article when I showed you the way of geocoding the addresses via Google Sheets.  Here you will get the knowledge of geocoding straight from the Excel sheet, without launching external platforms. A front of your eyes you have another two options. These ways were mentioned … Read more

Good solution to georeferencing the AutoCAD DWG drawing in QGIS 3x

Georeference DWG files in QGIS

Today I would like to demonstrate how to georeference the AutoCad .dwg file in QGIS. The .dwg extension keeps layers, colours, line thickness etc. in other words all information included in the drawing file. This is the biggest advantage of drawing files over another AutoCad extension – the .dxf. This format, on the other hand, … Read more

Digitizing administrative maps in Google Earth

Google Earth digitizing maps

The digitizing process is needed when we want to transform our map into vector data. This process is aimed at tracing the map features, which later appear as coordinates in either point, line, or polygon format. Digitizing is essential in the case where our data cannot be instantly integrated with the other GIS data. In … Read more

The weather-based long range plans for your astronomical expedition

Cloud fraction global map NASA

If you are an astronomer, astrophotographer, or even amateur tourist, you have some dreams about long-haul trips for sure.  Quite often these trips are such long-range plans, because of our financial situation or spare time available in the foreseeable future.  In astronomy or astrophotography, these plans are mostly determined by rare celestial events, which often … Read more

Tokina 11-16mm AT-X PRO f2/8 DX II – one of the best wide-angle options for DSLR camera

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 for Nikon

Finally, I decided to buy this lens after a very long contemplation. It was the longest deal with my DSLR purchase ever, which lasted more than 2 years frankly. The reason, why this optic was so desired by myself was driven by the common problem in DSLR photography – “the lack of field”. The majority … Read more

Venus near Antares – understanding the great Venus orbit cycle, part 2

Venus near Antares every 8 years

This is the second part of the article, explaining the great Venus orbit cycle, which repeats on average every 3159-3160 years. Reminding the basic mechanism it’s exactly 395 8-year cycles, where the planet back pretty much to the same place at the same time in the Sky, except the situation, where this moment in its … Read more

Venus and the Pleiades together on the sky – understanding the great Venus orbit cycle, part 1

Venus and Pleiades every 8 years

The biggest celestial event in April 2020 was definitely the meeting between our closest planet Venus and one of the most renowned open star clusters – the Pleiades. The phenomenon was interesting due to its rarity. Throughout our life it will happen every 8 years, but what’s next? This article brings you not only the … Read more

Travelling & Sightseeing from home

Google Trekker

Now is not the best time for traveling around the world, because it’s restricted due to the coronavirus outbreak worldwide. Nevertheless, if our life is affected by a pandemic or not, this type of sightseeing always has pros. 1. REASONS FOR TRAVELLING & SIGHTSEEING FROM HOME The rudimental reason for it is the preparation for … Read more