Astronomy at Les Granges in southern France
Les Granges has 2 main bedrooms with twin beds plus a sofabed in the lounge and the option of a third bed in bedroom one.
There is a large lounge, large dining-kitchen, laundry room, shower-room/WC and bathroom/WC. The house is let as a self-contained self catering unit but evening meals can usually be provided at a very fair price. Please ask.
We have a very dark site at 900 metres altitude located at longitude 5 degrees 38 East and latitude 44 degrees 19 North.
It is available all year round and is equally well suited to absolute beginners or diehard experts. Winter heating is provided by three woodburning stoves and electric radiators.
If you book the house with astronomy here’s what you get;
- The house as usual, plus…
- A night assistant to help set up and run the gear and to provide beginners with tours and explanations of the night sky.
- The exclusive hands-on use of the four telescopes described in detail below.
1) 20 inch aperture (0.5 metre) f 4.1 Dobsonian reflector. Huge! Telrad finder and 80mm correct image finderscope. Roll-off shed.
2) 10 inch (0.25 metre) aperture Meade LX 200 Schmidt-Cassegrain. Motorized and computerized with SLR adapters (piggyback and through the scope) guidescope, f6.3 reducer and digital camera adapter. Bring your own imaging gear to use on this if you wish. Roll-off shed.
3) 4 inch f5 fluorite TeleVue Genesis refractor on Gibraltar alt-az mount.
4) 6 inch Helios ‘big refractor’ on undriven pier equatorial.
5) Great eyepieces (including 4 TeleVue), books, charts, slideshows and sundries.
Self catering prices, Saturday to Saturday.
House with astronomy, £600 per week. (Yes, that really could mean less than £100 per person!).
House with astronomy and 10 hour taught course for beginners, £750 per week. (Details below)
House only, £450 per week.
Booking and info; E-mail or phone UK 01629 826193.
Cheap flights recommended to Nimes, Grenoble, Nice or Marseille.
The Introduction to Astronomy Course at Les Granges involves five two-hour classroom sessions and nightly observing.
Aims
This course is for complete beginners and assumes no prior knowledge. It is non-mathematical but the text book will take you into this area if you wish. It takes an overview of astronomical theories and of the practical side of setting out in amateur astronomy.
Content
Theory
The layout of the Universe; where things are. From the nearby moon to the furthest known galaxies we try to picture the big 3D map. Astronomical charts.
What is out there? We clarify our understanding of what a moon is, a planet, a star, a black hole, a galaxy…
How these things change over time; the birth, life and death of stars.
How stars work.
Cosmology: the history, structure and fate of the Universe as a whole.
How astronomers have developed these theories, why they believe them and which areas are most controversial. Their tools, the telescope, the radio telescope, the spectroscope…
Practical
Recognizing constellations…finding your way with star charts…using different telescopes manually and with computers…discovering what different scopes can and can’t do…taking night sky photos…choosing a telescope…sitting down with a beer and staring upwards…
How to book; The total cost of self-catering house and course is £750. This is suited to a small group of friends of, say, four to seven in number. The cost would be shared between them. The timing of classroom sessions would be tailored to their convenience and there would be plenty of time for a holiday as well!
The Tutor. Olly Penrice is an amateur astronomer with a first degree in English and over 22 years’ teaching experience of adults and children. As a distance learning student he has studied (and continues to study) astronomy with the Jodrell Bank/UCLAN/Liverpool John Moore’s consortium. He has taught this course as an adult evening class at Sutton Centre Community College but does not claim to be an infallible astronomer!