The early bird catches the worm, or as we say in Dutch 'De morgenstond heeft goud in de mond' [The dawn has gold in its mouth].

Setting up the astronomy equipment at the start of the starparty weekend in Wateren.

LBN 777, Vulture Head Nebula a.k.a. Baby Eagle Nebula. First Luminance-Red-Green-Blue Deep Sky image from my home in De Kiel. mauricetoet.nl/DeepSky/i-sRfW…

Misty morning in Étoile. These photographs capture what's key for me in astronomy: being outside in the depths of night where the silence is broken only by the voice of an owl. In the image with Orion in the sky, the mist in the valley is lit from above by the crescent moon.

Another beautiful, colourful dawn in Étoile-Saint-Cyrice with a very old moon (one day before new moon) just above the hills.

The Epsilon-180ED tracks the sky while running an imaging sequence. If you look closely at the background of the time-lapse, you can see that there was a lot of air glow in the second half of the night (green structures moving around).

The end of 2024 is near, so here's an overview of astronomy activities and sightings I was happy to witness and observe: - P12/Pons-Brooks - Spectacular Aurora displays - C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS - Attending the starparties in Wateren & Grandpré - My yearly visit to Étoile

Beautiful #conjunction of #Venus and the #Moon this evening. Tomorrow evening, #Saturn will be occulted by the Moon. Fingers crossed for clear skies...

Saturn, 3 minutes prior to #lunar #occultation. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to witness the egress (third contact) of #Saturn on the lit side of the #moon.

Dusted off this 11-year-old image of Orion's Belt which was shortlisted in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2014 competition by the Royal Observatory at Royal Museums Greenwich.

This one never gets old… The Horsehead Nebula in Orion. Automated sequence running with the ZWO ASIair Pro + 📷 ASI2600MM Pro + 🔭 Takahashi ε-180ED @ 500 mm f/2.8 + 🔴 Baader Planetarium Hα f/3 Ultra-Highspeed filter (3.5nm).

A dive into an ocean of hydrogen clouds: the well-known area around the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) in Hα only mauricetoet.nl/DeepSky/i-CPbS…

mauricetoet.nl/DeepSky/i-4vQt… #horseheadnebula #astrophotography #astronomy #orion #b33

NGC 2264, Christmas Tree Cluster & Surrounding Field mauricetoet.nl/DeepSky/i-pWCK…

Exactly 19 years after the total solar #eclipse I observed in Libya, a partial solar eclipse was visible in the Netherlands today. Fortunately, it was clear around the maximum to capture an image ★ govertschilling Helga van Leur ☀ NOS RTL Nieuws

Amateur Astronomer’s Starter Pack: - Nerd shirt ✅ - Cargo pants ✅ - Sandals ✅ - Goat-wool socks ❌ (too warm) - Expensive telescope rig ✅ - Losing track of time while observing ✅ - Looking up when exiting a building ✅ First light with the Baader Planetarium Herschel Wedge.