Pic du Midi de Bigorre - Pyrénées Mts. (France)
N 42° 56.183 E 000° 08.540
31T E 266829 N 4757712
Panoramic web camera on the roof of famous Pic du Midi Observatory on the summit of Pic du Midi de Bigorre Mt. (altitude 2 877 m) in the French Pyrenees.
Waymark Code: WMV5T5
Location: Occitanie, France
Date Posted: 02/28/2017
Views: 9
Panoramic web camera on the roof of famous Pic du Midi Observatory on the summit of Pic du Midi de Bigorre Mt. (altitude 2 877 m) in the French Pyrenees.
Construction of the Pic du Midi Observatory (In French: Observatoire du Pic du Midi de Bigorre) 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 and 60 cm, 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. A 60-centimetre telescope (the Gentilly's T60 telescope) is also implemented at the top of the Pic du Midi. Since 1982 this T60 is dedicated to amateur astronomy and managed by a group of amateurs, called association T60.