• Mercury transit (7 May 2003)

• Comet Ikeya-Zhang C/2002 C1 photographied from OHP (March 2002)
• Sunset in the Pacific Ocean, seen from ESO Paranal Observatory (January 2002)
• Results from 9 nights in the Alps, mid-September 2001 (M42 etc.)
• A Sun pilar observed at dusk, from the OHP 193cm telescope dome (November 1999)
•   Results from the 9-10 October 1999 run  in the Alps (Comet C/1999 H1 Lee, C/1999 J3 Linear, Pleaides...)

• Results from 9 nights in the Alps from 3rd to 12th September 1999 (Comet C/1999H1 Lee, Moon rise, ashen light, etc...)

• Leonid meteors trapped November 17th 1998, at Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire, near OHP, between 3h50TU and 5h10TU (Olympus OM1N + Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 + Kodak Gold 400ISO)
A bright one near Orion (image1), a short, bright and colorfull Leonid (image2), another one (image3 ).

• Supernova! 1997 dp: an amateur-discovered SN in NGC 969 (November 1997)

• Comet Hale-Bopp (March 1997)
Drawings of the comet at OHP 80cm telescope (dessins de la comète observée au T80 de l'OHP),

Images obtained at l'OHP
 
• Comet 1990c Levy from the Rossberg (Vosges), Newtonian diameter 205mm f/5.5 primary focus images (August 1990)
9008002; 1990c near M15 globular cluster (9008003, enlarged version of the image in the above right corner), 9008005 and 9008010

My homemade telescope: a 205mm diameter f/5.5 fork-mounted equatorial Newtonian, PV-powered. The telescope tracks the stars with the solar energy accumulated during the day... A 53 Watts MQ36D module from A.S.E. is now used, filling a standard12V 30Ah DC car battery. In 1990, a smaller 11 Watts  BPX 47-101-A from Photowatt solar panel was used, but its power was a little weak to fill the car battery in one day.

The telescope in 1989 (Rossberg), in 1998 (Alpes), in 1999 (Alpes).

Solar cells are very efficient to provide energy for my telescope! Other pictures are here and here. Solar energy is a quiet energy! a good point when you want (or try) to sleep after a night of observation !
 
 Le télescope fonctionne avec une batterie de 12V, rechargée pendant la journée avec un panneau solaire. Un limiteur de charge empêche la batterie de bouillir. Le panneau est un 53W A.S.E. MQ36D, couplé à une batterie de voiture de 12V. En 1990, j'utilisais un petit panneau PhotoWatt de 11W (BPX 47-101-A), qui etait un peu faible pour recharger la batterie correctement. L'énergie solaire est silencieuse! un bon point quand on veut dormir après une nuit d'observation!








Jean-Pierre Brahic, thank you for this picture!

• A lake in the Southern French Alpes

• An example of polymer decoration: this polyethylene crystal is covered by an epitaxial growth of small cristals from polyethylene vapour (molecules close to paraffin C18). The short paraffin molecules are oriented by the polyethylene 'loops' on crystal surface, showing the crystal 'four-quadrant' structure. I obtained this picture (as well as the cristal itself!) in april 1990 at the Institut Charles Sadron, Strasbourg, during a practical course on polymer, crystal and transmission electron microscopy with the group of Bernard Lotz. It has nothing to do with astronomy... but it's beautiful and very exciting science too !

Return to my homepage

Last update January 5th 2006