Mission 24 September - 2 October 2005

On this page we will give you a daily logging of our mission.

Monday, 17 Sept. 2005
The last days before our departure to the observatory of Saint-Véran. We have to gather all the material needed for the mission : software, observation data, most recent ephemerides for currently active comets and astronomical data on supernovae, and of course our clothes and the food.
It's the typical hectic period before a mission. Our observing program consists of :

  • photometric observations of variable stars
  • photometric observations of some minor planets to determine theirs rotational period
  • Mars (of course)
  • Some deepsky astrophotography, using different instruments

We will go to the observatory on Saturday the 24th of September. From then on, you can daily follow the course of our mission.

Saturday, 24S Sept. 2005
In the early morning hours, we leave Belgium. Without any problems we arrive in Saint Véran, the home town of the "observatoire de Pic de Chateau Renard". A visit to 'Jo', one of the original builders of the observatory, is needed to buy some local honey.


The last 13km, brings us 1000 meter higher to the observatory. The local sheep are not used to the passing astronomers,

but nevertheless we reached our goal.

After we have unloaded our luggage,

we take our desert, outside in the sun!

Our mission is started!

Sunday, 25 Sept. 2005
The weather is not that good. A lot of clouds cover the sun. We got a visit of the local marmot.


The big moment of today, was to open the Champagne to celebrate the birthday of Tom.

Now it is snowing, but we are still hoping to do some observations.

Monday, 26 Sept. 2005
And indeed, the clouds disappeared and we could start the observations. Because of the bad seeing and some humidity, we could only do some visual observations (astro-tourism).


The planet Mars shines high in the sky.

A day with a sky full of clouds ends with a nice sunset

and a almost clear sky.

But one hour after sunset, again some clouds cover the sky…

Thursday, 29 Sept. 2005
Although we are fully prepared for the observations


And each day it is nice weather during the daytime, we could even have dinner outside,

the clouds come during the night, and prevent us to do observations...

Sunday Thursday, 2 Oct. 2005
A part of the original log-book has been lost due to some problems with by the astrosurf-provider, but essentially it turns out that the weather did not have improved, so we returned home without astronomical results! Although we are fully prepared for the observations

go to start page

Last updated on 20th of September, 2006
Homepage made by AstroDuvel. Email:mailto:Dominique.Suys@pandora.be. Comments and suggestions are welcome!
Copyright © Dominique Suys 2005
Images and texts are property of the authors and may not be reproduced and used without consent.
Site counter: