Abstract

St-Veran Observatory - an Astronomical Station for Amateurs

Jean Bourgeois

Das im Jahr 1974 erbaute und im Jahr 1982 geschlossene professionelle Observatorium auf dem Pic du Château-Renard wurde 1990 für die Benutzung durch Amateurastronomen freigegeben. Die Instrumente, der Zugang und die Benutzungsbedingungen werden beschrieben.

St-Veran is situated in the Hautes-Alpes, South-East of France, at the Italian Border. The commune is the highest inhabited village in Europe, at 2000 m. The mountain range around it is called Queyras, one of its summits called Pic du Château-Renard. This site was selected after 10 years of research to finding on the French territory the best place for a 4 m telescope, which was finally erected in Hawaï.

A professional observatory was built on this summit in 1974, at an altitude of 2930 m, for solar corono-graphy. Due to the difficult access and other reasons, the station was closed in 1982 and stayed unused.

In 1990, some professionals from the Paris Observatory met the leaders of an amateur association named Astroqueyras, which was active in this region with Summer schools. It was decided to open the station for the amateur community and occasionally for the public. This professional - amateur collaboration allowed to refurbish the station. A superb 62 cm Cassegrain telescope was installed in the old dome built by Eiffel. Several years of hard benevolent work were needed to put the station to a good level of habitability and efficiency. The telescope is equipped with an automatic pointing control, a Hisis-22 CCD camera, a photometer and a focal reductor reducing the main focal length from 9 to 2 meters. Three computers control the positioning, the image acquisition and the reference cartography.

The St-Veran astronomical station is accessible to amateurs all the year. A rough route allows an access by cars only during the Summer months, from July to October. In Winter, observers reach the station with skis under the guidance of a professional guide paid for by the association.

Every candidate to staying one week at the station needs to be a member of the Astroqueyras association

(110 FF/year). Newcomers need to be accompanied by an experienced observer designated by the association's staff, and will be able to conduct a team under their own guidance after this first experience. Individual cost is 100 FF per night. Teams of 6 persons are encouraged.

Observers from every part of Europe and outside are welcome. As an example, let us tell what happened after the call the Belgian astronomer Patrick Vanouplines addressed to potential observers during the last ESOP meeting in De Haan. He was asking for accurate light curves of Chiron in order to establish its rotation period variability. The Dutchman Kim Jansen and myself went up three times, in September 1998, and in April and June 1999. We obtained excellent photometric observations on every stay.

All kinds of projects can be chosen by the selection committee, even if they are not truly scientific. Vulgarisation, teaching or simply touring are encouraged. Besides the exceptional astronomical experience, a stay at the St-Veran observatory is unique; living at the top af a 3000 meter mountain during one week, sharing this emotion with good friends under an exceptionally clear sky, is an unforgetable experience.

Jean Bourgeois, Reux Astronomical Station
Address: Le Pavillon de Reux, 5590 Ciney, Belgium
Telephone: +32 83 212591 Fax: +32 83 212591

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