A visit to Les Granges

[Trikeflyer]

I need of dark skies and good weather I decided last year to book to stay for the whitsun bank holiday week this year at Olly Penrice’s place - Les Granges in France.  We were there last week for the week.  I took my wife and daughter, although they are not into observing, we thought it’d be a nice family holiday, whilst at the same time, allowing me to get an observing fix.  

We arrived on Saturday after flying to Marseille from Manchester and driving a couple of hours North into the high alps.  as we arrived late ish, as well as needing to find somewhere to eat, we needed to settle in and get oriented so for that night, after settling in etc, I found some 6x30 bins that Olly keeps for guests to use and as the sky was clear, I thought i’d nip out and have a look.  The skies weren’t clear as there was a decent amount of cloud to contend with.  Despite this, I picked off a few targets, notably M44 which was stunning and sadly just setting so I only got a brief view.  Mel 111 in Coma Berenices was exquisite in the bins but was an easy naked eye target in these skies.  Spent quite a bit of time on this one and also the famous coat hanger - Col 399 which was just lovely.  The cloud defeated me after this and after an hour, i decided to call it a night.  

The next day Olly introduced me to the 14 inch Alan Longstaff Meade SCT, which was to be the weapon of choice for most of the week.  Olly has a range of other scopes including a 10 inch meade SCT and a televue pronto.  Olly is known for his imaging and its fair to say that there are some quality imaging rigs there.  For me as a visual observer though, the mouth watering kit was the Meade 14 inch.  Olly told me that most people who stay at Les Granges are astrophotographers, I would urge any visual observers out there who are looking for nice weather and dark skies to consider a visit to Les Granges, you will not be disappointed, in fact you’ll be awestruck at the quality of the views (Olly measured the SQM of the skies and 21.6 to 22 were true values whilst I was there). 

Sunday night arrived and the sky was clear.  It got dark enough to align the scope by about 10pm so I met Olly at the scope and we proceeded to align.  The scope has GPS and as we started to set up, it was clear there were issues with alignment. Several attempts later we couldnt work out what was happening, then we checked the GPS data and found the date was completely out?  Then I remembered the post on this forum a few weeks ago about problems with the GPS date rollover.  We decided to set the 10inch sct up whilst we worked out how to fix the light bucket 14 inch.  It took a while to set up because Olly had to set up a mount as well.  Once set up, I was keen to take advantage of the skies and selected targets I couldn’t see from my back garden in suburbia (that’ll be a long list then!).  Anyway, the first target was M51, OMG what a view.  It surpassed my expectations and I could see lots of structure and the light bridge to the ‘adjoining’ NGC 5195 companion.  Next was M97, the owl nebula, wow. it filled the eyepiece! Finally for this night was M108, located very near to M97, it was only a short hop and this galaxy is seen edge on and looks needle like.  I could easily separate the core from the extended surrounding. The final target for tonight was M101 and even in these skies it was faint! No wonder I’ve never found it! Going to bed, I was like a cat that got the cream, i was smiling to myself inside and couldn’t believe the views of galaxies and nebula that i’d just experienced.

Monday, the weather was a bit rubbish for this region, it was cool and cloudy.  We were hoping for clear skies but this didnt happen.  Same for Tuesday.  My spirits were dampened to say the least and i was starting to wonder if we’d ever get clear skies again! Olly said this weather was untypical for this time of year- surprisingly this didn’t make me feel that much better!

Wednesday though and the weather gods were playing ball.  Beautiful day.  Olly had worked out how to disable the GPS system on the Alan Longstaff and 10pm arrived.  Alignment was flawless. OMG we were ready. The skies were clear and the scope was aligned.  I saw so many galaxies and globs that night.  It was like shooting fish in a barrel, the views were just amazing.  I had never experienced skies like this and it was a joy to be here.  The standout targets for me were Globs - M4 - the cats eye in Scorpio’s so called as the central line of stars gives the impression that you are looking at a cats eye! So many other globs in orphiucus and Sagittarius.  M3 in Canes Venatici is not bad from my back garden - from this site it was just like being there! Of course M13 and M92 were also beautiful.    

I have never seen so many galaxies in my life - I’m normally glad to see M81 and M82! The standout ones are the ones most off you will have seen, but for me, who has little galaxy observing experience, the Whale - NGC 4631 in Canes Venatici was just standout.  Then the sunflower M63, Sombrero, M104 , of course M51.  Also went for NGC 5353 - part of the hickson 68 cluster mentioned on this site as the once with a SN. This was great because O could pick out 4 and almost 5 galaxies in the eyepiece all at once! So I’ve gone from struggling to see a galaxy to getting 4 or 5 at a time! 

Next we’re Nebulae - M27 filled the eyepiece and looked 3d in the 13mm ethos at about 260X mag - unheard of in my part of the world.  M20 the Triffid, M8 the lagoon, M57 the ring - again filled the eyepiece wow! The highlight for me though was the swan nebula M17 - I could see the dark dust lanes that formed the swans neck - very black and clearly different to the ‘space’ in other parts of the nebula.  

The only disappointing objects on this night were Jupiter and Saturn as the seeing at the relatively low altitude made any detail hard to pick out.  I’m not complaining though! Ending a session like this - without doubt the best I’ve ever experienced and one that will stay with me forever with relatively poor views of the planets is hardly an issue! 

The next tw nights were similar weather and Olly assured me that this is how it normally is.  Naked eye, the Milky Way dark lanes and nebulae popped.  With bins they were amazing - Olly lent me his Leica trinovid 8 x 42 and now I want some!! The stand out objects on subsequent nights were the veil nebulae which is enormous and I could follow its path by moving the scope .  NGC 4490 the cocoon galaxy - two galaxies nestled next to each other - easy to see why they are called this.  NGC 4565 the needle galaxy, NGC 4631 the whale NGC 5907 the cat scratch galaxy.  The faint intergalactic wanderer NGC2419 which was setting when it got dark but we could clearly see it as an object.  

If anyone has chance to visit Les granges, I can assure you, you are in for a treat.  It was like a feast of intergalactic wonder.  My eyes and memories are so full now I can’t begin to tell you.  Now back to the UK and suburbia.  Well they say you need the bad times to make the good times feel even better! 

Thanks Olly for being such a great host and for looking after us so well.

Steve 

[Ags]

Sounds great!

[Trikeflyer]

It was awesome

[RobertI]

Great report Steve, your enthusiasm makes it a fun read, it must have been amazing. The globs must have been spectacular, I know things start to get interesting when I move up the aperture range to my 8”, so 14” must have been something else. Some of the galaxies sounded spectacular too, most of them are just blobs in my scopes. Glad you enjoyed it, hope I can visit Les Granges one day.

 

[Whistlin Bob]

Brilliant report Steve. Need to have a word with my wife about next year's holidays...

[Trikeflyer]

13 minutes ago, Whistlin Bob said:

Brilliant report Steve. Need to have a word with my wife about next year's holidays...

I’ll tell you about it at the next RAG meeting I get to. 

Steve 

[Star101]

Great report Steve.

Took me back there.

My wife and I spent a week at Olly's around April last year so I know what you mean. We were very lucky and had clear skies every night. Although I was there for the Astrophotography, mainly M51. Olly did break out the Meade 14" for my wife and I to view through. We checked out some globular clusters and a few galaxies. The skies there are phenomenal.

I'm glad you and your family enjoyed your time there too.

[ollypenrice]

Thank you, Steve, for this very kind review. It was a huge pleasure to meet you and your family. I must say that I was mortified when the 14 inch wouldn't play on night one but, shortly afterwards, I received an automated email telling me about the effects of the date rollover on my elderly TomTom satnav. I must also thank SGL's Freddie for his quick response to my plea for help. He told me about disabling the GPS, something the Meade manual does not mention! Quite honestly I'll just leave it disabled because it's quicker and easier to type in the time and date manually, after which the alignment routine is unaffected.

Steve, you didn't mention the sun! (Steve brought his Herschel wedge and I finished making a Baader foil filter for the 14 inch) but the sun decided to present all the variety of a hard boiled egg for the duration. 'Move along, there, nothing to see...' 

It's nice to have a visual week for a change. Tomorrow night I'll be in visual mode as well but using what might be the most exotic amateur telescope ever made. Variable focal length primary mirror, anybody? Our old friend Ralf Ottow will be swinging by to demonstrate his new baby... Alas, he'll be taking it away with him as well.

Again, thanks for the kind comments, Steve. 

Olly

[Merlin66]

Variable focal length primary = vacuum actuated thin plate mirror ????

[Ags]

Spinning Mercury bath? ( But you've got to like looking straight up)

[Trikeflyer]

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Thank you, Steve, for this very kind review. It was a huge pleasure to meet you and your family. I must say that I was mortified when the 14 inch wouldn't play on night one but, shortly afterwards, I received an automated email telling me about the effects of the date rollover on my elderly TomTom satnav. I must also thank SGL's Freddie for his quick response to my plea for help. He told me about disabling the GPS, something the Meade manual does not mention! Quite honestly I'll just leave it disabled because it's quicker and easier to type in the time and date manually, after which the alignment routine is unaffected.

Steve, you didn't mention the sun! (Steve brought his Herschel wedge and I finished making a Baader foil filter for the 14 inch) but the sun decided to present all the variety of a hard boiled egg for the duration. 'Move along, there, nothing to see...' 

It's nice to have a visual week for a change. Tomorrow night I'll be in visual mode as well but using what might be the most exotic amateur telescope ever made. Variable focal length primary mirror, anybody? Our old friend Ralf Ottow will be swinging by to demonstrate his new baby... Alas, he'll be taking it away with him as well.

Again, thanks for the kind comments, Steve. 

Olly

We had great time Olly and I’ll remember it for a long time.

Steve 

[ollypenrice]

11 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

Variable focal length primary = vacuum actuated thin plate mirror ????

Indeed so. Plus a choice of secondary mirrors and a variable length baffle tube.

Olly

[Tom OD]

Great report, and I m glad you got to check out the Alan Longstaff.

We sometimes break it out and do some visual work if the scopes are imaging. Its always a joy to see those objects yourself instead of letting the camera do the work.

I was not aware of M4 being known as the Cats Eye.

Tom.

[Ags]

Variable focal length OTAs are not that unusual actually. The focal length of a Mak or SCT changes depending on whether you are using a 1.25" or 2"diagonal, and whether it is a mirror or prism diagonal.

[JamesF]

2 minutes ago, Ags said:

Variable focal length OTAs are not that unusual actually. The focal length of a Mak or SCT changes depending on whether you are using a 1.25" or 2"diagonal, and whether it is a mirror or prism diagonal.

More specifically, my understanding is that it changes whenever you move the primary mirror to focus it, the effective focal length being dependent on the distance between the optical components.  So, if you put a camera on the visual back and find focus, then add, for example, a 10mm spacer in front of the camera and find focus again, the effective focal lengths will be different in each case.

James

[Ags]

Yes because the secondary is like a barlow, and by moving the primary you are adjusting the spacing.

[ollypenrice]

My favourite observation was the Galactic Wanderer despite the fact that it was very hard to discern. It was setting in the west just as the sky was reaching astronomical darkness so the more you could see it the less you could see it! Doh!

I was also surprised by how large and bright the Hockeystick was. Images reveal a bright part and then a much fainter extension but this, too, was visible with care.

Olly

[niallk]

Sounds wonderful

[Trikeflyer]

10 minutes ago, niallk said:

Sounds wonderful

It was amazing. Best star gazing I’ve ever done. 

[kirkster501]

Would love to go down and meet Olly in person and learn some new stuff, meet some new people and do some biking around there.  One day soon hopefully! :)

[Trikeflyer]

6 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

Would love to go down and meet Olly in person and learn some new stuff, meet some new people and do some biking around there.  One day soon hopefully!

You’d be in your element, cycling is big around there and the skies are to die for

Steve 

[kirkster501]

1 hour ago, Trikeflyer said:

You’d be in your element, cycling is big around there and the skies are to die for

Steve 

Very familiar with the roads around there from the cycling times when I was younger. Some steeps bits alright....    !

[Trikeflyer]

You are right. Even I a car they were pretty steep!