OHP 2011 - Spectroscopy Workshop
The workshop took place at Observatoire de Haute-Provence from 31-07 to 05-08-2011. It was dedicated to practical spectroscopy, including
measurement of spectra from stars, nebulae, etc during all night and their processing the following day. There were training sessions on some key free softwares
like ISIS or Visual Spec.
Hopefully there was also a time dedicated to sleep such that daytime activities were starting at 3:00 PM with a coffee break at 4:00 PM.
The stage was nicely organised by Olivier Thizy, from Shelyak Instruments.
It was an interesting mixtures of amateurs (with also a few professionals) with various levels. There were complete beginners, many people taking their first
ever spectra or coming without equipment, but also confirmed amateurs some of them doing discoveries (Be stars) and even a world premiere during the workshop
(live spectroscopic observation of a nova outburst !). There were a few foreigners (from US, Denmark, Spain and Germany) and the
training sessions and presentations were all translated to English.
I came with my telescope and CCD camera but without any spectrometer. I borrowed an old LHIRES spectrometer to Shelyak for the first nights, and then I
teamed up with another guy having a LISA for the last night so that we made observations together.
There was a true atmosphere of confidence and in case of difficulties people were ready to share spontaneously their hardware.
I borrowed a guiding camera for a few days, and also a laptop for half an hour - the time to fix some driver problems !
Finally the weather was fantastic and I observed all 5 nights from dusk to dawn. Some nights the sky was really impressive. The 2 meters telescope was observing
exoplanets at the same time (I has the opportunity to visit the control room). There was also, some nights, a thin green laser beam (probably at 532 nm) of a Lidar
pointing somewhere above our heads. On second night (morning of 02-08) we observed a very bright meteor in the West direction, that was casting moving shadows of
trees on the ground! Later it was reported at -12 magnitude (here).
Some interesting links:
