Observation Session – 27 June 2015

Location: Mont Ventoux area, France

Session duration: 2 nights

Sky conditions: Cold and stable atmosphere, seeing ~8/10

Instruments:

  • 150mm Newtonian telescope
  • 100mm apochromatic refractor
  • 200mm Newtonian reflector

Targets:

  • Jupiter
  • M57 (Ring Nebula)
  • Albireo
  • Betelgeuse

Observation notes:

The observation session felt unusually focused, with repeated returns to the same fields and repeated instrument checks despite stable conditions.

Several members remarked that familiar regions of the sky appeared difficult to describe in ordinary observational terms.

A slow dark form seemed to pass near the Orion region, too deliberate in motion to resemble an ordinary satellite track.

Ayoub Berrabeh noted that the silence of the site felt disproportionate to the open terrain, as if sound were being absorbed above the group.

Members present: Maxime Dallois, Ayoub Berrabeh, Adama Traoré, Lucille Godefert, Marc Lefèvre

Observation Session – 13 June 2015

Location: Namib Desert, Namibia

Session duration: 2 nights

Sky conditions: Moderate turbulence, seeing ~6/10

Instruments:

  • 80mm refractor
  • 7×50 binoculars
  • 100mm apochromatic refractor

Targets:

  • Double Cluster (NGC 869/884)
  • Perseus star field
  • M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)
  • Jupiter

Observation notes:

The observation session felt unusually focused, with repeated returns to the same fields and repeated instrument checks despite stable conditions.

Several members remarked that familiar regions of the sky appeared difficult to describe in ordinary observational terms.

Members present: Ayoub Berrabeh, Lucille Godefert, Adama Traoré, Maxime Dallois, Claire Dumont