Venus, Mars and the Moon all at less then 0,5°

Watch this week the sky after sunset in the west - southwest. As from Tuesday Feb 17, Mars and Venus will be close with each other (at the sky of cours) and within 2° for the next week.

On Friday 20/2 and Saterday 21/2 evening,  Mars and Venus will be even as close as 0,25° and the moon will be close to about 0,5°.

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 in Andromeda

Comet Lovejoy arrives in constellation Andromeda, near gamma Andromeda Almaak. Observation within OrionXT12 shows the comet appearing collered blue and faint. As the moon was not yet above the horizon it was easy to spot the comet.

Jupiter at evening sky

Start Trail Winter Constellations

Using Startrails software (see usefull links in this blog) winter constellations Orion & Taurus are stacked into a beautifull star trail.
Total of 29 pictures each 30s taken by Nikon D60 f/4 18mm ISO200.

Winter Constellations Orion & Taurus

Last night winter constellations Orion & Taurus observed. Weather conditions -4°C with low humidity and 1031hPa.
Orion Nebula could be well observed using OrionXT12 with OIII filter.

Details modified using CS4

Limited midification using CS4

Snow @ Averbode

Waking up this morning with 5cm snow resulting in a beautifull view of the garden.

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 in Taurus

Comet Lovejoy C/2014 Q2 is currently in constellation Taurus near star 5 Tauri (mag 4.1).
The comet is difficult to see with the naked eye and with a small telescoop it's seen as a blue colored blur.