Venus, Uranus & Pleiades

Venus, Uranus with Pleiades.

Venus, Moon and Pleiades

During my vacation in Nieuwpoort I could capture Venus, the Moon with Pleiades. I used my Nikon D7500 with Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens.

Jef Ongena lecture on Georgens Lemaître

Jef Ongena's lecture on Georges Lemaître sheds a clear light on the origins of the Big Bang theory. He explains how the Belgian priest and astronomer was the first to realize that the universe is not static, but constantly expanding from a primeval atom. In doing so, Ongena corrects the historical narrative in which Edwin Hubble often receives all the credit for this discovery. During his presentation, he clarifies how Lemaître kept science and faith strictly separate to protect the integrity of both fields. The speaker further connects these historical insights with modern astronomical observations of cosmic background radiation. The result is a compelling account of intellectual courage and the Belgian contribution to our fundamental knowledge of the cosmos. Thanks to Ongena's accessible style, this complex subject becomes understandable for a broad audience. This ensures that Lemaître's legacy remains alive in contemporary scientific discussions about the beginning of everything.

Selfie with Jef Ongena

Some references:

The difference between f/1.8 and f/3.5

Since a couple of months I own a Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens. I know this lens captures more light but how much more and what about comparing with my Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.

I captured the same scene with same settings:

- Nikon D7500

- Exposure time 1.3s

- ISO 800

The difference, which is significantly can be seen in the picture below.

The Sigma lens f/1.8 captures 4 time more light as my Nikon 18-200mm lens on 18mm f/3.5.

So f/numbers do matter :)

Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS)

It was a very early start this morning. I got up at 4:30 AM and hopped on my bike, heading inland in search of darker skies. About 4 km from the Nieuwpoort coast, I found a clear view of the eastern horizon. After setting up my gear, the waiting game for the comet to rise began. By 5:30 AM, an orange-red glow started to creep over the horizon.

I couldn't spot the comet with the naked eye, or even on my camera screen, so it was a bit of a gamble whether I’d captured it—especially with those high clouds lingering near the horizon. Back at the apartment, after some post-processing, I finally saw it: Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS). There’s even a small tail visible!

At the moment of capturing, the Comet was about 7° above the horizon.

Venus - Moon

Venus and Moon at Nieuwpoort (B) with Nikon D7500 and 18-35mm Sigma f/1.8 lens.

Venus during blue hour

Image of Venus above the North sea @ Nieuwpoort at the end of the Blue hour. When editing my picture I found a couple of issues. First, the aperture was still set on the Sun (f/29) and my lens is really dirty.

Belgium's Lost Solar System: a tour around Belgoum and now completed with Neptune

See my previous blogpost back in January 4th 2019.
In this blogpost I gave an overview of the sun and planets located in Belgium at a scale of  1 to 40 million.

I found the entire solarsystem around Belgium: 

- Sun in Oudergem

- Mercury in Oudergem

- Venus in Watermaal Bosvoorde

- Earth and Moon in Uccle

- Mars in Hoeiilaart

- Jupiter in Kempenhout

- Saturn in Gembloux

- Uranus in Tongeren

- Neptune was missing in Oostende

- Pluto in Florenville

Finally this year, the statue of Neptune showed up again. Before it was installad at the seashore of Oosternde, now it is installed at Astropolis, Space Science Center of Oostende.

This morning I was in Oostende and made a detour to visit the statue. And finally, yes, I could finish my Belgium tour around the sun and planets.

H-alpha and FeI(c) with Solex

Two images using my Sol'Ex of H-alpha and FeI(c).

Reworked Prominence April 7

I reworked my images of April 7 using IMPPG, DeNoise AI and CS4. Images were taken using Sol'Ex.

Averbode abbey after dark - facebook coverpage

After our meeting with astronmical club "Helios" I took the time to image the abbey of Averbode. Even though it was late, the darkness offered a unique opportunity. The abbey was beautifully lit, and because the air was completely still, the large pool transformed into a black mirror. Not a single ripple in sight. It felt like a technical tribute to our club meeting: the perfect interplay of light and architecture.

The image was taken with my iPhone 16 and edited using CS4.

It was posted on facebook "Passie voor fotografie" and within 24hours more then 100likes were received and my picture was put as the coverpage of the facebook page. Nice recognition!

Supernova SN2026fvx in NGC4205

 

On March 17, 2026, a remarkable celestial event was recorded with the discovery of supernova SN2026fvx in the galaxy NGC 4205. Located in the constellation Draco at a distance of approximately 57 to 75 million light-years, this supernova initially appeared with a faint magnitude of 19.3. Scientific analysis quickly classified it as a Type Ia supernova, a catastrophic explosion occurring in binary star systems. In such a system, a white dwarf accretes matter from its companion star until it reaches the critical Chandrasekhar limit. At that precise moment, a runaway thermonuclear reaction is triggered, completely tearing the star apart in a brilliant flash of light.

By early April, the supernova’s brightness had increased significantly to magnitude 12.3. Given its high altitude in the sky, it provided a perfect opportunity for observation. This session was particularly meaningful as it marked my first deep sky object since April 2025, requiring a period of re-learning the technical workflows. The process began with polar alignment using SharpCap and an ASI224MC camera, followed by a three-star alignment. The SynScan was then connected with an ASIAIR Plus controller, and the TAL200K f/8.5 telescope, mounted on a Skywatcher AZEQ6 GT, was moved into position. To capture the event, I used a cooled ASI2600MC camera to take 13 300-second exposures, opting to work without guiding or the use of a Bahtinov mask for this session.

The technical journey was not without its challenges, particularly regarding data management. I encountered a frustrating problem getting the data out of the ASIAIR Plus, as Windows 11 did not support the direct PC connection. Several troubleshooting ideas from the ZWO network were attempted without success, and even using a card reader resulted in errors within the fit files. Ultimately, an ordinary USB stick proved to be the solution that worked.

Although some tracking errors occurred during the session, I was able to retain 8 high-quality light frames. These were stacked together with darks, flats, and bias frames using Astro Pixel Processor to create the final image. The resulting view clearly features the supernova, and its observed brightness was further validated by performing photometry within ASTAP software, confirming the magnitude of 12.3 as reported by Rochester Astronomy. It remains a staggering thought that the light captured in this image traveled through the vacuum of space for tens of millions of years before finally reaching my sensor.

Sun in different wavelengths

 

Sun on March 29, 2026 imaged with Sol'Ex by James R, TS/TLAPO80/480 and ASI678MM.
Editing using Inti and CS4.