Moon Venus Jupiter

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Fog at home but 10km driving into Langdorp, a clear sky.
Unfortunately no Nikon with me and thus trying to put the scene with my iPhone.

Total Lunar Eclipse - Occultation and reappearance of SAO97590

During the Total Lunar Eclipse of January 21,2019 the star SAO 97590 (HD67424) of magnitude 8.5 was eclipsed by the moon. The occultation started at UT4h42 and the star reappeared at UT5h36.

Lunar Eclipse - a compilation

I made a compilation of the Lunar Eclipse of January 21, 2019. I took 9 pictures to make the compilation. All pictures made with Nikon D7500 and TLAPO 80/480 f/6. Nikon RAW was converted to DNG in view of editing in CS4.

I'm happy and proud of this result as this is my first Total Lunar Eclipse I was able to photograph completely from beginning till the end.

Jupiter Venus Close Conjunction 20-23 January

Past week, Jupiter and Venus could be observed at the morning sky. The close conjuction and the way the planets move across the sky is seen easily on below two pictures.

Total Lunar Eclipse and SAO97590

Reappearance of SAO97590 during Total Lunar Eclipse. Raw format convertion to DNG and editing with CS4.

Lunar Eclipse - a compilation

A total of 212 pictures were taken of the Lunar Eclipse last monday, Jan 21, 2019. I made a selection of 7 pictures to make a small compilation. It's a first trial and I'm not 100% satisfied of the result... but it's time consuming so I will try later once more :)

Lecture by Sir Roger Penrose

Selfie with Sir Roger Penrose

The auditorium of the University of Maastricht was fully loaded for the lecture of Sir Roger Penrose on "Can we see Hawking Points in the CMB sky?"

A dedicated search of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from Planck satellite data, driven by implications of Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC), has revealed a remarkably strong signal (of confidence level greater than 99.98%), previously unobserved, of numerous anomalous highly energetic small regions in the CMB sky.

CCC proposes that our Big Bang was the (conformal) continuation of the remote future of a previous cosmic ‘aeon’ and that these anomalous regions would appear to be the result of individual points on CCC's crossover 3-surface from that previous aeon. They can be readily interpreted as the conformally compressed Hawking radiation from supermassive black holes in that aeon, but seem impossible to explain on the basis of the conventional inflationary picture of our very early universe.

My Mindmap of the Lecture

Total Lunar Eclipse and reappearance of SAO97570

A clear bright sky and a temperature of -10,4°C were the perfect condition for the Total Lunar Eclipse. Pictures still need to be edited but the one below is for sure one of my favorites. It's showing totality and the reappearance of star SAO97570 at 100°

Sun in H-alfa and prominences

The Sun is out! For the first time this new year it was possible to observe the Sun. Obervations done using my SolarMaxIII 70/400 DS BF15 both visually and photographic. Pictures were taken with ASI224MC and Nikon D7500. Visually one promince could be observed having the shape of an irrugular arche.

Close Conjunction between Venus and Jupiter

The Temperature this morning is as low as -9°C and we have a cloud free sky. Both Venus and Jupiter are above the south-eastern horizon in close conjunction. In the morning of Jan 22nd, both planets will be even "closer".

Moon 97% - 1 Day before Total Lunar Eclipse

With one day to go before the total lunar eclipse I took the time to try out some settings. As the configuration is f/6, shutter speed is between 1/500 and 1/1000 when using ISO100.

Total Lunar Eclipse : 40 hours to go

On January 21, 2019, 3h34UT (4h34 local Belgium time) we can observe a total Lunar Eclipse. Weather forecast seem to be very promising, so be prepared to watch to moon getting dark. Be warned that temperature will be around -5°C and a perfect relative humidity below 80%.

See also my pictures of the Total Lunar Eclipse of Sept 28, 2015. 
See also Lunar Eclipse Exposure Guide 

Lunar and Solar Eclipse Exposure Guides - ISO f/number Shutter Speed

How to photograph lunar and solar eclipses and more specific what are DSLR exposure settings? With the upcoming lunar eclipse next monday, Jan 21, 2019 I was looking on the intranet for some information. As I was satisfied with the solar eclipse exposure guide from Fred Espenak, which I used during the great american eclipse, I will try out the lunar eclipse exposure guide which is also provided by Fred Espenak.


Exposure guide for Solar Eclipse (credit Fred Espenak)

Fix the date : 23 January Sir Roger Penrose

On Jan 23, 2019, Sir Roger Penrose (8/8/1931) will give a lecture as part of Studium Generale at Maastricht University. This is unique moment listening to a English mathematical physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science.

Supermoon. Blood Moon. Total Lunar Eclipse

Save the date : the morning of January 21, 2019 we can observe a total lunar eclipse.

Belgium's lost Solar System : A tour around Belgium

Did you know that Belgium covers one of the largest permanent scale model of our Solar System. Space for Muco was the project that was realized between May and October 2004 on behalf of the Belgian Association for Fight against Mucoviscidosis.

The scale is 1:40 000 000; The Sun as the center of our Solar System is located in Oudergem near Brussels, Pluto is located in Florenville at a distance of 147.8km from the Sun (Oudergem).

Last year I made a tour to find this "forgotten" Solar System of Belgium.

The Sun in Oudergem :

Construction of the Sun's radius of 17.6m was build 

Helios Greek God of the Sun with Horses

Planet Mercury in Oudergem :

Planet Venus in Watermaal-Bosvoorde :

Selfie with Venus in the Park

Planet Earth with our Moon in Ukkel (Royal Observatory) :

Earth - 31.8 cm

The Moon - 8.6cm

Planet Mars in Hoeilaart :

Planet Jupiter in Kampenhout :

Planet Saturn in Gembloux :

Selfie with Saturn in the Park

Planet Uranus in Tongeren :

Selfie with Uranus in front of the City Hall

Planet Neptune in Oostende :

Unfortunately, the statue was removed from it's location. I'm still trying since september 2018 untill today to understand what happened with the statue. I have contact with a member of the city staff but it seems difficult to get the answers.

Dwarf Planet Pluto in Florenville (near the French Border) :

Pluto - 5.8 cm

Selfie with Dwarf Planet Pluto in a little town close to the French Border

Weather Summary 2018

The year 2018 was warmer and dryer then average. I registrated a max. temperature of 41.2°C on July 26.

Weather Summary Dec 2018

December was warmer and wetter then average.

Happy New Year 2019

Happy New Astronomical Year 2019 with lots of Astronomical Highlights and don't miss the Lunar eclipse of Jan 21st, 2019 and the Mercury Transit on November 11th.