Location: Quercy Dark Sky Reserve, France

Session duration: 2 nights

Sky conditions: Very dark sky (Bortle 2–3), light wind

Instruments:

• 200mm Newtonian reflector
• 100mm apochromatic refractor
• 7×50 binoculars

Targets:

• M57 (Ring Nebula)
• Polaris
• Perseus star field
• M45 (Pleiades)

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.

In the desert air, several members noticed a distinct perfume of flowers seeming to fall from above, despite the absence of vegetation in the surrounding area.

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