Hello! I’m Peter and I’ve been an astronomy-buff for over thirty years. The first ten years of those I was a member of the Urania Royal Obervatory, near Antwerp, Belgium, first as a member of the youth group, later as a tutor of the Deep-Sky department. Indeed, the “faint fuzzies” have always been my great passion, as you can tell from my drawings. From the early start I’ve made hundreds of them, also because my mentors encouraged me to make as many as I could because it’s one of the best ways to learn how to truly observe an object. It’s only when you spend a long time at the eyepiece, exploring every little detail, that your eyes adjust themselves properly and that you start to perceive those faint details which otherwise would remain hidden to you.
Strangely enough I’ve only taken up drawing again many years later and since I’ve rediscovered the taste of it, it won’t let go of me. So you may expect regular updates of my portfolio!
Strangely enough I’ve only taken up drawing again many years later and since I’ve rediscovered the taste of it, it won’t let go of me. So you may expect regular updates of my portfolio!
In 2010 I moved to the Emilian Apennines and for me it wasn’t just a question of dramatically changing my life, but also finding a reasonably unspoilt sky. In Flanders it’s become impossible to find a spot where the night’s sky is still an impressive sight. Many thousands of useless streetlights not only make the roads less secure, but also make life for us astronomers quite impossible. Here, in the Italian mountains at an altitude of almost 550m, the sky is still reasonably pure and observing under these conditions is a real joy. So in that respect I consider myself very fortunate.
In any case, I hope that my drawings show you how many beautiful things there are to see up there and perhaps even incite you to take up astronomy too. The advantage of these drawings is that they show you as well as possible what you can truly expect to see in a (fairly large) telescope, whereas most people whose only references are the incredible astronomy photos often remain disappointed when they only see a faint, greyish blob in stead of a spectacular nebula in thousands of colours. It’s a question of perspective. These photos have been made with many hours of exposure time and a lot of skill in rendering them perfect. Our eye can never compete with a camera, not even with a big telescope at our disposition. But once one realises this, the shear joy of seeing something with your own eyes, so “real” that you could almost touch it, makes the visual experience unsurpassable. Well, to me anyway. So please, enjoy my drawings and perhaps we’ll see each other here in Italy under a starry sky.
In any case, I hope that my drawings show you how many beautiful things there are to see up there and perhaps even incite you to take up astronomy too. The advantage of these drawings is that they show you as well as possible what you can truly expect to see in a (fairly large) telescope, whereas most people whose only references are the incredible astronomy photos often remain disappointed when they only see a faint, greyish blob in stead of a spectacular nebula in thousands of colours. It’s a question of perspective. These photos have been made with many hours of exposure time and a lot of skill in rendering them perfect. Our eye can never compete with a camera, not even with a big telescope at our disposition. But once one realises this, the shear joy of seeing something with your own eyes, so “real” that you could almost touch it, makes the visual experience unsurpassable. Well, to me anyway. So please, enjoy my drawings and perhaps we’ll see each other here in Italy under a starry sky.