Les Granges, Sunstar France

[Jiggy 67]

Hi all,

Couple of weeks ago I returned from a week's stay at Les Grange in the South of France and I would just like to write a few lines about the experiance. I'm no expert as an astronomer so I'm only going to write in general terms, plus if I was to write in detail, this would be a very long post!!

I'm sure you all know Olly, he is a regular contributer to the forums, particurlay when it comes to imaging and I can now add that he is a thoroughly nice bloke who is extremely lucky to live where he does and I would like to take the opportunity to thank him and his partner, Monique, for a fantastic week.

Right, Les Granges is located in the South of France, about 5km from the climbing mecca, Orpierre (handy if you want to kill two birds...). Olly's place is a farmhouse, close to a very small village, at about 3,000m above sea level. We drove from the Northwest of England, using my car.....taking the Eurotunnel. Once in Calais, its a 9hr drive to Olly's (assuming you don't avoid the toll roads) so we stopped over halfway and the same on the return leg. The motorways are completely empty so its a pleasant drive, just set the cruise control to 80mph and you won't change gear for three hours!

We arrived at Les Granges around mid afternoon on the Thursday (the tom tom took us straight there) and we were immediately impressed with the setting. Les Granges is set in stunning hillsides with amazing views, so much so that my wife spent the next 5 or 6 days sat out with the binos watching deer and wild boar and loved every minute of it. The farmhouse itself is comfortable with everything you need, dishwasher, washing machine etc. We hired the whole house, so Olly and Monique were in a flat attached, it was ideal really.

Within an hour of arriving, whilst my wife unpacked, I was observing the sun through Olly's Lunt FS60/B1200 H alpha scope. This was the first time I've had a good look at the sun and could clearly see a sunspot in the Southern hemisphere aswell as activity at the edges of the disc, a really good start and we had only been there an hour. Olly's enthusiasm was obvious and he is very knowledgeable.....you can see the ex teacher in him!!

That evening, Monique cooked a great meal and we layed into the wine. We felt immediately at home and Olly can deliver a great story (make sure he tells you about the local mayor, its like Allo Allo).

That night I got my first look at the local skies......wow, they blew me away. Despite the time of year, Les Granges gets really dark, there is no light pollution and the skies are completely cloud free, The last time I saw anything like it was in Alberta many years ago. By midnight the skies were awash with stars and the Milky Way lookes liked a crowded M6 tearing its way through the sky!! Olly was already out when I joined him, as he was every night, and he unveilled his toys, all kept in roll back sheds. The first one we used, and my favourite was his 20 inch F4.1 Dob, nicknamed Sir Isaac. We spent the night using this and Olly showed me round the skies with great skill and knowledge. Using his 26mm TeleVue Nagler with optional Baader O111 filter, 19mm Panoptic and 10mm Radian, we resolved some double stars before we observed M13 with stunning clarity, with these skies and perfect collimation, it was the most beautifull sight I have ever seen. Olly took his time, showing me how to find objects in what were crowded skies and we viewed a number of dso's, some of which would be virtualy impossible in my light polluted skies including the Cocoon and Eagle nebulas.....I fell into bed, in the early hours, thoroughly satisfied.

Over the following five or six nights we were both out till the early hours, Olly has no limits and it was always me that gave up first. His observing site is perfect with plenty of room. He has three scopes permenently set up with another couple of sites ready for anyone who wants to bring their own kit. Olly also has a couple of reflectors set up for imaging and, over two nights he showed me how he imaged the Swan Nebula, a painstaking process which resulted in a stunning image, though Olly said it was only ok!?!?....he is a bit of a perfectionist.

Over the week we observed numrous objects including the Atares region, the double cluster in Perseus, the Lagoon Nebula, M27, M17, M31, M101 and the Triffid Nebula plus a lot more.

During the day, there's plenty to do, though you do need a car. We went walking in the local area and the cycling would be spectacular, Olly himself is a keen cyclist and can give you routes. The weather was great, averaging about 32c every day and we had clear skies every night.

Monique is an artist with her own studio attached to the house and is more that willing to give a budding artist a bit of coaching.

Well I could go on for ever but I'll stop now, needless to say we had a great time, theres something for everyone, my wife is not into stargazing, but she had a great time. Thanks again Olly and to everyone else I would recommend you give Les Granges a go, you won't regret it.

Darren