While
in France, photographing the Austrian Team at the 1998 World
Cup, I took the chance and visited the Observatoire Jolimont,
located in the City of Toulouse in Southern France.
Here I met Pierre Olivier Pujat. He is a member of the Societe
Astronomique Populaire (SAP). He took the time and showed
me around the observatory. Instruments include a 19cm Refractor,
which was used for the Carte de Ciel project, and nowadays
Pierre Olivier uses it for high-resolution CCD-imaging of
the moon and the planets. The refractor is a double instrument,
it has a photograhic and visual objective. When imaging the
moon Pierre Olivier Pujat uses the visual instrument with
a Hisis22 CCD camera, because of color abberations he has
to add a dark green filter.The
biggest instrument of SAP is a 83cm Newton-Coude reflector.
When the Observatory was built 100 years age, the sky was
dark above the site, but nowadays the spreading City of Toulouse
(Pop. 500.000) has engulfed the Observatory. While not suited
for deep-sky imaging the sky is quite steady and delivers
fine views of the moon and the planets. The 83cm Telescope
has one weakness: Though the mirror is very good, the
mirror-mount is very simple, so the image quality depends
on the orientation of the telescope. SAP is also active on
the internet, their website is: http://www.astrosurf.org
On this site you can find an image archive of astronomical
images taken by the members of the Societe Astronomique Populaire.
They also offer free webspace for astronomical web-sites!
While
in France, photographing the Austrian Team at the 1998 World
Cup, I took the chance and visited the Observatoire Jolimont,
located in the City of Toulouse in Southern France. 
Here I met Pierre Olivier Pujat. He is a member of the Societe
Astronomique Populaire (SAP). He took the time and showed
me around the observatory. Instruments include a 19cm Refractor,
which was used for the Carte de Ciel project, and nowadays
Pierre Olivier uses it for high-resolution CCD-imaging of
the moon and the planets. The refractor is a double instrument,
it has a photograhic and visual objective. When imaging the
moon Pierre Olivier Pujat uses the visual instrument with
a Hisis22 CCD camera, because of color abberations he has
to add a dark green filter.
The
biggest instrument of SAP is a 83cm Newton-Coude reflector.
When the Observatory was built 100 years age, the sky was
dark above the site, but nowadays the spreading City of Toulouse
(Pop. 500.000) has engulfed the Observatory. While not suited
for deep-sky imaging the sky is quite steady and delivers
fine views of the moon and the planets. The 83cm Telescope
has one weakness: Though the mirror is very good, 
the
mirror-mount is very simple, so the image quality depends
on the orientation of the telescope. SAP is also active on
the internet, their website is: