Astronomical Weather Forecast

Planning for observation of the sky @ night? Weather is probably the most important factor. Search for local weather forecast sites to plan your event. The one I most use is the one from the Astronomy Website Urania.
See linkage : Astronimical Weather Forecast

Orion in the evening sky

Picture made using Nikon D60 - Lens Nikkor DX 35-55 f/3.5-5.6 - 38mm - 10 pictures 30s stacked with Deepskystacker and edited using Photoshop CS4  dd20/12/2009

Ice spikes or stalagmite of Ice

A perfect stalagmite of Ice. The world of physics shaped ice into a spike resulting in a sharp stalagmite. This very rare natural phenomenon is currrently known as the Bally-Dorsey mechanism.

Meteorite above Russia

Today a meteorite exploded above Russia creating a chockwave resulting in huge material damage and injured hundreds of people. This meteorite is seen by many people and taped on video. See linkage below. Just to inform that the difference between a meteorite and a meteor : a meteorite finally touches ground, a meteor evaporates completely in our atmosphere (eg. meteor perseid showers in august)


Video Link

Upcoming Bright Comets 2013

For those who want to see comets with the naked eye it could be this year 2013.
Comets Panstarrs and ISON are predicted to become bright at the evening sky. Comet Panstarrs mid March and comet Ison end of November at Northern hemisphere.
See also webpages Heavens-Above and http://www.aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html - see also interesting links via my blog.
Current observations show Panstarrs magnitude around 8 and expecting to get as bright as magnitude 3.

Halo around the full moon

A nice optical phenomenon, called 22° Halo,  around the Full Moon in Averbode. 

Universal Time

Universal time UT for Belgium :

Wintertime equals Universal time UT + 1h
Summertime equals Universal time UT + 2h ( as from March 31 till October 26)