Search Member Reports

Tag:
Keywords:
Sort:

Post a Member Report

Share your own activities, experiences, and thoughts about astronomy with the rest of the worldwide AWB community.

Member Reports from Raoul Lannoy

Mar 09
2012

The Night of Darkness in Belgium october 15 2011

The Night of Darkness in 2011 october 15 https://picasaweb.google.com/108584325990837650927/2011NO Last year in october, Belgium organized the Night of Darkness al over the country and we were lucky because the weather was finally cooperating ! The Astrovega club was split between Brussels and Gembloux and in both places, there were lots of visitors ! Even though we were divided, it worked because we organized it early enough in time. It was very damp, however, and soon we had to take measures to correct this, if we could. Nevertheless, it was a success all over the country. In Brussels alone, 700 persons... Read More...

Apr 18
2011

GAM 2011 from Belgium

Global Starparty On saturday 9th, I went to a village called Forville, not too far from Namur, in Belgium. The Astronamur astronomy club had its Global Stargazing night organized right around the corner from their premisses, on a football field. Very good weather, a bit cold and a great crescent Moon. We tried our various equipment, listened to advices, saw the occultation of a magnitude 7 star , by the Moon, observed Saturn and Messier objects. I used my Dobson Orion SkyQuest xx12. What is very useful is the proximity between a room and a field. We didn't have much... Read More...

Feb 10
2011

Man and Space expo at Saint Gerard, Belgium, at the Brogne Abbey

Hello, I'm guide , show the sun with the PST and have helped organize a 6 weeks long space fair in a 10th century abbey, south of Belgium. Schools are visiting the place during the week days(an interesting mix of modern technology in a very old building) and others during the week-ends. It's from january 14th till february 27th. There are meteorites exposed, more than 50 models of european spacecrafts. We had the visit of our astronaut Frank De Winne. We had debates too. https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StGer2 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011STG3 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011STG4 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011STG5 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StG6 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StG7 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StG8 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StG9 #... Read More...

Oct 17
2010

Night of darkness & Beauty without borders

Last night was a long ago programmed belgian Night of Darkness, to bring awareness of the Light Pollution to the public. As it happened at the same time as "Beauty Without Borders", it was easy to combine both events. This time, they took place saturday 16 in Brussels, capital of Belgium at a park, called the Red Cloister at Auderghem. http://www.virtourist.com/europe/brussels/48.htm One thing we needed, was a clear sky.....Well, we got it before the visitors would leave the place! We had conferences about the light pollution issue, two of my club were giving astronomy lectures on astronomy and my "Beast",... Read More...

Oct 05
2010

A study on how to show stars at Vierves-sur-Viroin

During the first week-end of october 2010, the frenchspeaking amateur astronomers federation organized a study about various ways to show stars for educational purposes. It happened in a very beautiful Walloon village, near the french border, at Vierves-sur Viroin. We learned how to create, with paper, scissors and glue a planisphere, an animated zodiac (showing the difference between the astrological and the astronomical zodiacs). We also leanrned how to build a star counter (we cut a 12 cm wide hole in a paper, attach a 26 cm long thread to it, put the other end in our mouth and close... Read More...

Sep 19
2010

International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) 2010

Hello all, Yesterday september started earlier in the late afternoon ; I went to Dinant in the Ardennes to join a Moon party! The Cercle Astronomique Mosan organized a Moon observation Night, thanks to its most Moon fan member, Albert De Bruijn, called "Moonwalker" ! He had planned a game for visitors using their refractor in the observatory and an eyepiece with graduation. The purpose was to measure a distance within Crater Ptolemaeus; they found 88 km when the real distance is 96 km which was quite a feat! http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/astroraoul/2010CAMInOMN # Movies: http://www.youtube.com/user/Astroraoul?gl=FR&hl=fr#p/a/u/2/GkBIx1NXaKk http://www.youtube.com/user/Astroraoul?gl=FR&hl=fr#p/a/u/1/5-2zfkF8V7c http://www.youtube.com/user/Astroraoul?gl=FR&hl=fr#p/a/u/0/FF_R9_hRnvU The observatory doesn't have internet... Read More...

Aug 09
2010

Night of the Shooting Stars

Let me tell you a bit about the Nuit des Etoiles Filantes (Night of the Shooting Stars) and , no, it is not an Italian movie, it's a real 20 year old astronomy event!!! http://www.afanet.fr/nuits/pdf/NDE_2010_DP.pdf I can't find anything in English, so I'm going to describe it as much as I can. The public TV channel Antenne 2 (now called France2) in august 1990 (the Friday night nearest the Perseid maximum) , organized a live public event, outside, in an arena south of France, a 4 hour long astronomy night, together with well known astronomers and youth science associations. The... Read More...

Aug 07
2010

Nights of the shooting stars ! Nuits des Etoiles Filantes

This year is the 20th year of the Nights of the Shooting Stars, started in France as "Nuits des étoiles filantes" back in 1990, with a live TV show at Antenne2 for 13 years around the time of the Perseids shower ! On Friday 6th, I went to help friends at MIRA (popular observatory, north of Brussels) entertain the public and show the heavens from the roof of their premises. We had about 2 hours of good sky after darkness fell to explain telescopes, show stars, Jupiter (the planetary trio was hidden by clouds, so no joy there). Philippe from... Read More...

Jul 23
2010

Improvized Sidewalk Astronomy in Antwerp, Belgium

On july 15th, as the sky was great (but of course, next day is a work day), I took the bike, went to the port carrying a Manfrotto tripod and the 90mm Apex Orion telescope, assembled the whole thing on a bridge (above hangars) along the river Scheld and sure enough, several groups of people came along and I proposed they had a look at the crescent Moon, Venus and Saturn....They seemed delighted! Read More...

Jun 17
2010

The Reunion Island

Hi, Last month, I was for 12 days at the Reunion Island in The Indian Ocean, 21 degrees below the equator and 800 km east of Madagascar....My first trip in the Southern Hemisphere , with 5 other friends, among which 3 other members of the Astroclub Vega ! It was the southern heaven that was the main purpose of the trip ! Read More...