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.

Near occultation of SAO77121 by the Moon on March 24, 2026

Last Monday (March 24), I was located just north of the graze line for the lunar occultation of star SAO77121. My colleague Bart from Helios had alerted us, allowing me to track the event. As Bart predicted, I was in the area where the star was not occulted. My colleague Lieven also observed the event; he was positioned just south of the graze line and saw the star narrowly escape occultation as well.

Timing UT21h34

Setting: Star Adventurer GTI with Nikon D7500 and 200mm lens

Conditions: Transparency good and Seeing moderate. 

MoonSwatch - Omega Speedmaster Mission to Earthphase Moonshine Gold

Not only I was interesested in the Speedmaster as a Moonwactch but also the fact the MoonSwatch shows the phases of the Moon. And in the case of the MoonSwatch Mission to Earthphase, the watch shows aswell the phase ot the Earth from the Moon. At the 10 o’clock position, the earth phase indicator shows the Earth with oceans that glow blue under UV light. Beneath the earth phase indicator is an illustration of Snoopy and Woodstock on the Moon, marveling at the enchanting spectacle of Earth. The illustration showcases a phrase that appears only under UV light. At the 2 o’clock subdial, is a moon phase indicator with two radiant full moons, both coated with OMEGA’s Moonshine™ Gold. One of the moons is designed in the distinctive style of the world of Snoopy, while the other features a unique snowflake design. The design is unique for every model, ensuring that, just like snowflakes in nature, no two timepieces are ever the same.

I bought the watch last week in Brussels, together with my daughter.

MoonSwatch - Omega Speedmaster Mission to the Sun

Since a couple of years I want to buy the Speedmaster of Omega. The Speedmaster is the only watch qualified by NASA. Just three weeks after receiving NASA’s official qualification, the Speedmaster ST 105.003 made its space debut on March 23, 1965. It was worn by astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young during the Gemini 3 mission. 

Following Gemini 3, the Speedmaster— and its subsequent evolutions— became an essential piece of equipment for every crewed NASA mission. It gained legendary status when astronaut Ed White wore it during the first American spacewalk later that same year, and again during Apollo 8 in 1968, when its crew became the first humans to witness "the far side of the Moon."As the missions advanced, so did the importance of the Speedmaster. On July 20, 1969, NASA achieved its ultimate goal: Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Moon. As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface, the Speedmaster became the first watch worn on the Moon— a milestone in both space exploration and horological history.

From that moment forward, the Speedmaster continued to accompany astronauts on every Moon landing and remained a trusted tool throughout the Apollo program and beyond.

When a couple of year ago the MoonSwatch was launched, it was my chance to buy this historical watch. But it was only recently when I bought one. I choose the MoonSwatch, a Sun Yellow dial "Mission to the Sun" Speedmaster with Dot over 90!

Saturn November 17

Imaging Saturn on November 17, 2025 with ring tilt of 0,38°.

Editing was done using the newest version of AstroSurface W3.

Setting: TAL200K, ADC, Barlowx2, ASI715MC

Filter: IR/UV Cut

Software: SharpCap, AstroSurface, CS4, DeNoise AI, WinJupos.

Saturn with new ASI715MC Camera

First time this year capturing Saturn. The tilt of the rings are almost zero with 0,45°, a Saturn with edge on rings is not the Saturn we typically know from the books. But still interesting view.

I used my new camera ASI715MC with small pixels. I forget to keep an eye on the whitebalance on sharpcap. I made image both with and without IR/UC cut filter.

Compared with my ASI224MC

Setting is same as previous year; it was difficult to get blue/red out even when using my ADC.

Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Moon at sunrise

 At UT3h21 this morning I was able to capture Mercury which was only 3° above the horizon. The sky was special with Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and the Moon and a golden hour background.

Venus-Jupiter Conjuction

Venus passes south of planet Jupiter this morning. I got up very early and went to Schaffen to get a free eastern horizon. Images mad with my Nikon D7500.

Moon and Pleiades

 

Moon and Pleiades.
Set up: TLAPO80/489 f/6 on EQ8 and Nikon D7500

Bracketing and HDR using CS4

Moon Venus Mercury

Nightscape of Venus, Moon and Mercury.

Mars Profiler - Mars Map - Mars Mapper

When observing Mars, this website can be used which structures you imaged or drawed. 

Mars Profiler 

Mars Feb 3, 2025

 

Image of Mars on Feb 3, 2025. The polar cap is clearly visible aswell other structures on the disk.

Setting

TAL 200K @f/26 using Barlow X3

ASI224MC camera and IR/UV blocking filter

Sofware: SharpCap 4, AstroSurface and CS4

Jupiter and Transit of Io with Shadow and outbreak in NTrZ

 

Transit of Io on Jupiter with shadow. Moon Ganymede can be seen left on above picture. Also visibel is the "outbreak" in the Northern Tropical Zone (NTrZ).

The ADC with my Barlow x2 was replace with a Celestron Barlow X3 (on loan from Helios colleague).

Mars

Image of planet Mars. It's the first time I could image Mars since the last opposition of 2022.

Setting:

- TAL200K with ASI224MC

- IR/UV cut and Barlow x3

- SharpCap, AstroSurface and CS4

Jupiter and Shadow transit of Ganymede

 

Temperature dropped to -5°C when shadow transit of Ganymede started.

Setting: TAL200K @f/26 with ASI224MC
ADC and IR/UC Cut
Exposure tim 27ms and 30.000 frames of which 3000 stacked.
Software: SharpCap 4, AstroSurface and CS4

Jupiter Jan 9, 2025 with GRS

I reworked by image by applying derotation using Winjupos. All in all, no huge improvements.

Jupiter and GRS

This evening some clear skies with 2 inches of snow and 0,5°C. Time to capture Jupiter with Great Red Spot. 

Setting
TAL200K f/23 with ADC and Barlow x2

IR/OV Cut filter

ASI224MC

16bit, 127fps, 30.000 frames of which 3000 withhold

Software : SharpCap 4, AstroSurface V3 Volcano, CS4

Moon-Venus Conjunction

My first observation of 2025 with a nice Moon-Venus conjuction.

Setting :

Nikon D7500 with 18-200mm lens set on 90mm

Bracketing and HDR combining using CS4. Final editing with DeNoise AI.