Storm 6.3 Beaufort

Are we sure it's spring. With this storm you would guess it's rather fall!
At home wind high gust up to 48km/h (13,33m/s) and thus 6.3 Beaufort!

Milestone 5000

I want to thank all 5000 people who visited my blog so far. http:\\www.orionxt12.blogspot.be

Cloudy Starparty

A total of 5 members from "Helios" were present in Langdorp for the annual national starparty. Although the sky was completely covert with clouds we welcomed  3 "die hard" visitors!

Starparty - Sterrenkijkdagen

March 27 & 28 Belgium National Starparty. See also http://www.sterrenkijkdagen.be/
Helios will be in Langdorp - Aarschot on March 28, 2015.

Moon 16% at the evening sky

The moon, illuminated 16%. Picture taken with my travelscope D70/400mm and edited using CS4.
In the center you recognize Mare Crisium or Sea of Crises - 418km wide in which Luna 24 landed on August 18, 1976, and north of this Cleomedes crater - 125km

The moon 45h after the sun eclips

Only 45h after the sun eclips the moon is about 8%. A couple of degrees north, Venus shows up very bright at the evening sky.

Partial Sun Eclips - Enlarged Picture

The sun 9 minutes before max of the partial eclips. The picture is made of 6 frames each taken via my telescope OrionXT12 with barlow x2 and my camera Nikon D60. The opening of the telescope was foreseen with a Baader filter.
Location : Malmedy - Belgium

Partial Sun Eclips Progress

Start of Spring

Exactly 23h45 the spring starts. This is called equinox and happens when the middle of the sun crosses the equator line.

Partial Suneclips Succesfull

This morning weather was still cloudy and this would last untill 10am according meteoblue. Looking at the different options, I took the decission to drive 150km east towards Malmedy. I did arrive just before the first contact and there was still some fog but every minute the weather became better.
The view was fantastic while unloading the material and setting up my camera and telescoop.

The picture above was taken with a normal camera and using ocular projection from my telescope orionxt12.

Partial Sun Eclips One day to go

Weather forecast changed towards partial cloudy. After fog in the morning the (partial) sun will be showing up. So, be prepared and have your sunglasses ready :)
See for more info on weather forecast meteoblue using my blog's Usefull links

Partial Sun Eclips 3 days to go

The small moon (15%) above the horizon, only 3 days before the partial sun eclips next friday.
Weather forecast for friday still predict cloudy and even "zero" sunshine :(

Partial Sun Eclips 5 days to go

Weather forecast for friday : cloudy with rain :(

Hopefully this forecast changes so we can observe this fantanstic event.

See also more information via http://eclips2015.be/nl/

Third Quarter Moon

Third Quarter Moon. This pictures was taken with my Nikon D60 and 200mm lens, modified and enlarged using CS4. In the center and top,  crater Copernicus and the mountain "Montes Apenninus" can easily be observed. The mountains have a diameter of 400km. Copernicus is about 90km in diameter.

Venus - Mars : positions february and march

Venus and Mars at the evening sky - Mach 13th. The angular distance is now more than 3°. Big difference in comparison with 0,28' mid February. Below pictures show nicely the orbit from both planets and how their position changes between each other. The first picture shows Venus "below" Mars. The last one shows Mars 3° "below" venus.

Uranus should be as close to 0.17' from Mars but could not be observed due to cloud formation - unfortunately.

One week to partial suneclips

The waning crescent moon (68%) one week before the partial sun eclips on March 20th, 2015.

Venus and Mars

Every day Venus is climbing higher and shows up at the west, about 25°above the horizon. Almost 3h after sunset is the time Venus takes to go below the horizon. Mars is very faint and is seen below Venus. This week Mars will be seen near Uranus, reaching each other within 27'. Uranus however is about magninute 6 and needs to be watched using a small telescope.