Pic du Midi T1M planets observation
campaigns workshop
An international amateur
workshop supported by Europlanet 2020-RI
This workshop follows one topic discussed during the
international amateur workshop supported by Europlanet 2020-RI “Juno
Ground-Based Support from Amateurs: Science and Public Impact” in
Nice, May
2016
Since 15 years, amateurs have proven their high skills and potentials
in planetary
imaging, which proved useful to support planetary science research or
missions,
and even lead regularly to discovery (impacts, atmospheric features,
etc.). Pic
du Midi T1M, dedicated to solar system study, is a top instrument
which can
deliver some of the best planetary high resolution images
and could be operated
by amateurs to maximize the observational coverage.
Aim of the
workshop is
to build an amateur team which will be using the professional OMP-Pic
du Midi
observatory’s one meter telescope (T1M) infrastructure
The participation to
observational campaigns made possible by this workshop are
international
campaigns led by the professionals leading the planets’ atmosphere’s
studies, mostly from US and Europe.
The (limited) number of
participants are leading amateurs in planetary imaging, from
different European countries (UK, Netherlands, Romania, France).
All observational
results obtained during the workshop and later in the following
observational
campaigns will be shared through the PVOL database, linked to the VESPA
program. The results of the
observational campaigns made at Pic du Midi will be used by the
Bilbao's
research on planets’ atmosphere, and in the long term could potentially
support
ESA’s Mars 2020 and Juice mission.
Workshop
Team (SOC/LOC):
-
Marc Delcroix
(SAF planetary observation commission president, amateur
astronomer, planetary imager, user of the T1M, collaborator with
professionnals on planetary science studies)
- François Colas
(IMCCE/OMP/S2P, professional responsible PI of the instrument, solar system planets and objects
expert)
Workshop participants :
- Emil Kraaikamp
(Netherlands, amateur astronomer, planets imager, author of Autostakkert planetary image
processing software)
- Damian Peach (UK, amateur astronomer, planetary imager)
- Constantin Sprianu (Romania, amateur astronomer, planetary imager)
- Gérard
Thérin (France, amateur astronomer, planetary imager)
- Ricardo Hueso (Spain, professional astronomer, planetary scientist lead)
Venue: Pic du Midi de Bigorre observatory
T1M lab, France - access from La Mongie cabin
Accommodation: at Pic du
Midi (Scientific rooms).
Date: arrival at
Pic du Midi June 9th 2017, departure June 12th 2017 (3 nights)
Departure from Toulouse airport
(2 cars) on June 9th around noon, return to Toulouse airport on June
12th around 4pm
Content:
- training
by Marc & François of a small advanced amateurs team (5p) for using
one meter telescope (“T1M”)
Pic du Midi telescope for planetary imaging during three observation
nights, depending on the weather conditions (see 1 & 2).
(Guide available in French, to be
translated in English)
- targets for 3 nights of observation:
Jupiter at beginning of night (meridian transit at
43° elevation around 19:30 UT, 20° elevation at 23:30UT)
Saturn (meridian transit at 25° elevation around 00:30 UT, 20°
elevation at 02:30UT)
Neptune possibly at the end of
night (27° elevation around 03:00UT)
Moon (around full moon, visible all
night long)
- definition of organization to follow planetary science programs and
observation campaigns:
- Juno ground based support
- Jupiter/Saturn impacts tracking
- Uranus/Neptune activity tracking
- other events of interest
following professionals’ alerts
Results (planetary images and pictures of the workshop
will be updated here) :
- Over 3 nights, we got 2 Venus, 3 Jupiter, 3 Saturn, 2
Neptune, 1 Uranus observation sessions. Venus, Jupiter and Saturn
images are of excellent high resolution, very valuable for future work.
- Scientific work will be done to get fine analysis of wind speeds on
Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, and will support probes missions (Juno,
Cassini, Akatsuki)
- First Neptune atmospheric activity of this apparition was detected
- Venus images (in work, continuously updated in june/july)
- Jupiter
images (in work, continuously updated in june/july)
- Saturn
images (in work, continuously updated in june/july)
- Uranus
images
- Neptune
images
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Acknowledgements:
This workshop is supported by Europlanet 2020 RI Work Package
NA1 -
Innovation through Science Networking, Task 5. The EU-project
Europlanet 2020 RI has received funding from the European Union's
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No
654208.
Additional support from the IMCCE (Institut de Mécanique
Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides) / S2P (Station de
Planétologie des Pyrénées) / OMP (Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées)
is also acknowledged.