My Sol'Ex picture of the Sun on the Cover of Magazine "Heelal"

 

WOW! My Sol'Ex picture of the Sun of July 15 is published in magazine "Heelal". How cool is this getting this acknowledgement.

See also this link https://pascalhilkensastropage.blogspot.com/2026/07/sun-july-15-different-wavelengts.html

Adapt a Pixel Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

 

Claim your pixel on one of the first images from NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope! When Roman captures its first images, each pixel will represent a piece of the cosmos never seen before at this resolution. Claim your pixel and be part of this historic moment!

So I did and my unique number is 32307. When posting this message, 286500 pixels are claimed. 

La Palma Telescopes

Last summer I visited the Canary Island, La Palma and nicknamed La Isla Bonita (after the song from Madonna). 

We spend an afternoon around all the telescopes... very impressive and with the clouds below, it was a fantastic view.

Some telescopes: 

- William Herschel

- Isaac Newton

- Gran Telescopia Canaries

- Mercator telescope

- MAGIC & Cherenkov

- DOT or Dutch Open Telescope

- and of course Swedisch 1m Telescope

All of them are located at La Roque de los Muchachos at 2400m above sealevel. 

Launch of Roman Space Telescope

Great launch of Falcon Heavy Rocket with Roman Space Telescope. Let's see what future will bring scientifcally:

- Search for exoplanets

- Understanding the fabric of the cosmos

- Supernova

- Black holes

As a virtual guest of the launch, I received aswell my stamp.

My picture of Noctilucent Clouds published in Heelal

 

My picture of noctilucent clouds is published in national magazine of astronomy "Heelal"

500.000 Visitors on my Blog. Big Thank You

Today my Blog reached 500.000 visitors. Wow half a million visitors. Thank you all for reading my blogposts.

Solar Observation Day

On July 5th, the Belgian astronomy association VVS organized its annual National Solar Observation Day. Our local astronomy club, Helios, was proud to take part in this nationwide event. The activities were held at Het Moment, located on the beautiful grounds of Averbode Abbey, providing a wonderful setting for a day dedicated to astronomy.

Despite the less-than-ideal weather, we were delighted to welcome around 200 visitors throughout the day. Many came hoping to observe the Sun through our specially equipped solar telescopes and to learn more about our nearest star.

Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. Thick clouds covered the sky from morning until evening, preventing us from showing the Sun to our visitors. While this was disappointing for both the public and our volunteers, the enthusiasm of those who attended never faded.

Instead, we spent the day explaining how solar observations are carried out safely, discussing the features that can normally be seen on the Sun—such as sunspots and prominences—and answering many questions about astronomy and our observing equipment. Although the Sun remained hidden behind the clouds, it was still a rewarding day filled with interesting conversations and a shared passion for astronomy.

We hope for clearer skies next year so we can give our visitors the spectacular solar views they came to see.


Written by Pascal and rewritten by AI

Near occultation of ZC797 by Helios is published in magazine Heelal

The observation by Helios (Bart, Lieven and Myself) of the near occultation of SAO77121 by the Moon is published in Magazine Heelal of July 2026.The description of this observation can be found in my blog via this link 

 https://pascalhilkensastropage.blogspot.com/2026/03/near-occultation-of-sao77121-by-moon-on.html

Supernova SN2026fvx published in magazine Heelal

My observation of Supernova SN2026fvx is published in Magazine Heelal of July 2026
See my blog: https://pascalhilkensastropage.blogspot.com/2026/04/sipernova-sn2026fvx-in-ngc4205.html

300.000 Visitors on my Blog. Thank You

 

Today my blog reached 300.000 visitors. Thank you for keep reading my blogposts.

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!

250.000 Visitors on my Blog - Thank You

Today, my blog reached 250K visitors. Thanks for reading my blogposts.

Happy New Year 2026

 Happy Astronomical New Year 2026 with lots of clear skies.

My Astronomical & Blog statistics

My astronomical and blog statistics.

- Same blogposts as the last two years

- Increase visits and now above 240.000 visits

- My project "Herschel 400" is not progressing

- A total of 16 observation nights, which much better then last year and comparable with 2023. The focus is on a couple of objects and long exposure images made over more days; eg. Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon and Bernard's Loop.

13 Years Blogging

My blog started on December 23, 2012 ... already 13 years blogging :)

200.000 visitors on my Blog

 

Reaching 200.000 visitors on my blog. Thank you all for reading my blogposts. 

Happy New Year 2025

Happy Astronomical New Year 2025 with many many clear skies.

 

My Blog Statistics 2024

My Blog Statistics 2024:

A total of 134 blogposts and more then 45.000 visitors this year. This brings the total blogposts to almost 2150 and total visitors to 188.000.

180.000 Visitors

Reaching 180.000 visitors since the start of my blog. Thank you all for visiting and reading my blogposts.

150.000 Visitors and Comet 12P/Pons Brooks

 

Celebrating 150.000 visitors since the start of my blog and I'm doing this with my picture I took this evening of Comet 12P/Pons Brooks.

Setting: TLAPO80/480 f/6 with Nikon D7500

Filter:Optolong L-Pro

Mount: Manfrotto

Exposure : ISO16000, 2x2s

Software: DNG converter and CS4