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Observation of Venus and Mercury Transits from the Pic-du-Midi Observatory
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Aspaas, Petrus Pippinus |
| Copyright Year | 2013 |
| Abstract | The Pic-du-Midi, on the French side of the Pyrénées, became a state observatory in the summer of 1882. The first major astronomical event to be observed was the Venus transit of 6 December 1882. Unfortunately this attempt by the well-known Henry brothers was unsuccessful due to bad weather conditions. During the twentieth century, the Pic-du-Midi became famous for the quality of its solar and planetary observations. In the sixties, Jean Rösch decided to use this experience to monitor the transits of Mercury. The objective was not to measure the parallax, but to determine the diameter of the planet in order to confirm its high density. Observations were made using a photometric method – the Hertzsprung method – during the transits of 1960, 1970 and 1973. The pioneer work of Ch. Boyer on the rotation of the Venus atmosphere as well as some experiments involving Lyot coronographs are also noteworthy. A Venus transit was finally observed on 8 June 2004 with a new CCD camera, providing a significant contribution to the model of the Venus mesosphere. This opened the field for new observations in 2012. 1. Early days of the Pic-du-Midi Observatory The site of the “Pic-du-Midi de Bigorre”, on the forefront of the Pyrénées, has been known since ages as an ideal location to carry out astronomical observations. François de Plantade (1670–1741), a lawyer from Montpellier, who met JeanDominique Cassini in 1693 in Paris, showed early interest in astronomical observations. He died at the Sencours pass (elevation 2378 m) at the age of 71 during a mapping mission. At this very location, Dr. Costallat built in 1852 a “Hostellerie”, with the intention to attract tourists and scientists. In fact, it is from this “Hostellerie Plantade” that the famous photographer, Maxwell-Lyte, successfully recorded his first photographic images of a solar eclipse, on 18 July 1860. Thanks to the “Société Ramond” and the enthusiasm of the co-founders Général de Nansouty and C.-X. Vaussenat, there was a growing interest in the scientific community to build an observatory at the Pic-du-Midi. As a trial, it was decided to start regular meteorological observations during the 1873 summer season, from the Plantade station. In view of the success of this first experience, the Général de Nansouty decided in 1874 to perform regular observations, also during winter time. During the 1706 solar eclipse, he was the very first to give a description of the solar corona. In 1736, observing the transit of Mercury from Montpellier, he claimed to have detected a possible bright ring around the planet. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.vub.ac.be/STER/JAD/JAD19/jad19_1/jad19_1r.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
