This post is a little bit off topic (no RIA) but I had to write it down.

Early this year we went on a trip to Puimichel in France. My father has been living there a long time and is passionated by the stars and optics.

Puimichel :
Grotere kaart weergeven

On his site you can see some of his work he’s done over the years.

When we were staying there early this year, we did an interference test which was way cool. In short, such an interference test looks how good the optics are. In this stadium there was still work to do which you can see by the circular lines in the test. Basically you see the surface of the optics (parabola) and where there are mountains and valleys (you have to think in lengts of light waves, very small… ;-) ).

Later on, with the 1 meter telescope, we looked at the moon. Incredible how you could almost walk the moon… During the day Venus was nice to watch at, but not like looking at the moon.

Some more pictures:

That’s about it. If you ever get a change to go to Puimichel, certainly do. The view is incredible, surrounded by the Verdon, the Alpes, the Lubéron, the Mont Ventoux, …

Cheers