Who Am I?

My name is Sebastien Leboutte, I'm a young amateur astronomer and I live in the Brussels region of Belgium.

I've always been interested in astronomy, but my passion for this discipline has grown stronger in the past few years.

I started with a small 6cm (2.3") refracting telescope. With it, I've been able to observe the Moon, the Galilean satellites and Jupiter's globe, as well as Saturn's rings. In February 2005, I bought a Meade LX200 10" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, which has really opened my eyes to the universe (although my wallet is still traumatized!). Using various webcams, I've taken pictures of the brightest planets of our solar system and the encouraging results become more and more frequent! In the future, I plan on attempting deep-sky astrophotography.

A few years ago, I joined an astronomy club. I learned a lot there and the atmosphere is really user friendly. Usually, I watch the sky in my garden surrounded by street lights. I'm able to observe deep-sky objects thanks to the size of my telescope, but it isn't easy to distinguish a galaxy in these conditions.

I also have the opportunity to watch the stars under a country sky (but, unfortunately, not all the time), one of the rare locations in Belgium still spared from bright highway and city lights...