An original point of view
Recently we have entered the new decade 2021-2030. This is a good time to take a look at what major astronomical events will occur throughout this time. I don’t mean typical celestial events, as known from a vast majority of astronomical calendars issued usually on a yearly basis. I would like to take a deep … Read more
It’s still quite a lot of time to the 2026 total solar eclipse event, which has been already considered by me in terms of the possibility of seeing its impact on the atmosphere when the phenomenon happens below the horizon. However, the character of this path of totality requires attention far earlier than normal, as … Read more
If you are interested in long-distance observations or simply panoramic views from some location, mainly mountain peaks or hills, you should have heard about the Ulrich Deuschle panorama generator. This is the web-based tool, which in 2010 successfully superseded its predecessor – Kashmir 3D software, which was based on simple digital elevation model (DEM) files … Read more
There are a few nice tools, which help you to get your map larger than the screen of your desktop. However, all of them are predominantly focused on Google Maps, which is the most popular interactive map platform. If you want to have your Google Map bigger than your screen, even up to 12000x12000Px resolution … Read more
Google Earth is a handy tool, which includes much information. Most of this information can be shown as the layer overlaid on the satellite imagery covering our virtual globe. These layers can be displayed along with our own .kml files plotted into our area. The layers built into Google Earth are not sole. The user … Read more
In this thread, I would like to describe a swift method, which allowed us to make some changes within the .kml files. I am focusing on the names of columns inherited from the .shp files, although the described method can be applied to other texts and even some values too. What is most important, we … Read more
This article is aimed at the recommendation and substantial guideline for apparently the best screenshot application available on the market, which is the PicPick application. Probably you have been wondering how can I create arrows or some weird elements in my screenshots from time to time. All of them have a common source – the … Read more
I would like to introduce the new tool, whose goal is to extract the ephemeris data from the Astropixels.com service. Before I start to describe the major features of my program I would express a big thanks to Fred Espenak the author of this platform. Fred Espenak is already a retired American astrophysicist, whom we … Read more
In the last article about the OpenLayers output from the QGIS2Web plugin, I would like to give up the time for labelling issues, which I believe is another important element of our map, without which it can’t be displayed properly. Sometimes labelling is of the same importance as key, when we want to see where … Read more
When you work with any Excel data, probably you experienced sometimes, that the spreadsheet input looks messy. I personally deal with the address data predominantly, which you could notice by reading my previous articles about geocoding and reverse geocoding. What is the most fun here, even the reverse geocoding results can bring confusion to our … Read more
The total solar eclipse on December 14, 2020, was the last one in the 2nd decade and obviously the first “Twenty Years Solar Eclipse Path Tables” of the XXI century. Most people call this eclipse the COVID eclipse, due to omnipresent travel restrictions, which kept a lot of eclipse chasers in their homes. They could … Read more
Legend and scale besides the pop-up window and labeling is another important map element, which everyone wants to have clean and tidy. In this shorter (I hope) article I want to explain to you how to customize the legend for your OpenLayers map generated by the QGIS2web plugin and add some relevant elements like a … Read more
Another year is coming now. The year will open the 3rd decade of the XXIth century. Time flies. It looks like it’s already 5th time when I am wishing you a Happy New Year! As usual, I would like to share with you the memories from this special night, which is already around the corner … Read more
Continuing the explanation of the ways, where we can upgrade the QGIS2web plugin manually, I would like to explain how to expand the search range in this plugin for more than 1 layer. The plugin supports the option for 1 layer only, but if you need more, coding is required. My goal is to show … Read more
The previous 3 articles concentrated on the geocoding process in Excel for free. I considered the Google Sheets option and also the VBA Excel tools applicable to Bing, Nominatim, and others. Now it’s the best time to explain the process from another way around. Sometimes we have a situation when reverse geocoding is more needed … Read more
QGIS2web plugin is very handy because it is somewhat of a gateway between your QGIS project and its presence outside in the interactive version. The plugin is able to render as much as it can from our project in three types of interactive maps: Leaflet, OpenLayers, and Mapbox GL JS. The most important thing is, … Read more
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
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 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
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