The Pic du Midi de Bigorre

MIDI PYRENEES - The Pic du Midi de Bigorre

The Pic du Midi de Bigorre or simply Pic du Midi (altitude 2,877 m (9,439 ft)) is a mountain in the French Pyrenees famous for its astronomical observatory, the Observatoire du Pic du Midi de Bigorre Construction of the observatory began in 1878, and the 8 meter dome was completed in 1908. It housed a mechanical equatorial reflector. In 1946 Mr. Gentilli funded a dome of 60cm, and in 1958 a spectrograph was installed. A 106-centimetre (42-inch) telescope was installed in 1963 funded by NASA, and was used to take detailed photographs of the surface of the Moon in preparation for the Apollo missions. A new 2 meter telescope, known as the Bernard Lyot Telescope was placed at the observatory in 1980 on top of 28 meter column built off to the side to avoid wind turbulence affecting the seeing of the other telescopes. It is the largest telescope in France. The observatory also has a coronograph, which is used to study the solar corona.

Photo: Malcolm Reynard