The Day the Earth Smiled

• Print
• Email

Jul 22

2013

by Raoul Lannoy

Saturn from Europe

Hello,
We had clear skies, for once, in Belgium! It's been quite successful
with
other clubs, too.
We had two clubs together near Gembloux, not far
from the geographical
center of the country. The Astroclub Vega and the Club
d'Astronomie
d'Ottignies Louvain-la-Neuve. (We used two Dobsons (12 inches) and various
other telescopes. The Moon was very bright (we couldn't see the Milky Way).
Saturn was right there, even before it became dark . Actually,
at our
latitude (50°), july 19th is the first night when we finally get some completely dark skies as for the two last months, the Sun never went lower than 18° below the horizon. We even had a flag (well, two days later, we have our national day and this year, we get a new king ).
I explained to newcomers what this evening was about. In Europe, we were
kind of lucky:
During those minutes, we could see Saturn as we were in
darkness and the planet had not set yet.....and the weather was very
favourable!
We first had a look at Venus which setting in a wood, far away.
When the time came, I
asked everyone to point to Saturn, then to wave,
shout...We looked through our telescopes....We didn't take pictures of the
planet through a telescope,
though.  We took all kinds of pictures of the event on the field, with a Fisheye, with flashes sometimes, and a movie with nightshot. The bright
object in the dark sky is the Moon. I wonder how the
Moon would show up in the Cassini picture.
Then, later on, we looked at the Moon and other Messier
objects.
Here are the pictures and a movie:
https://plus.google.com/photos/108584325990837650927/albums/5901681501926521553?banner=pwa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVrJrPxX654

I was quite satisfied to have mobilized two astronomy clubs in spite of the

short time from decision to the actual event and even though a number of our

members are away on vacation.
Regards!