Perched at an altitude of 2000 m at Saint-Véran, the highest municipality in Europe (Hautes-Alpes), the "Maison du Soleil" will be open to the general public from Monday, June 14th.
This centre for scientifric culture and information is situated in the vicinity of the astronomical observatory of Saint-Véran on the Pic de Château-Renard, well known to amateur astronomers.
Claude Catala, President of the Observatory, came in person for the June 9th 2016 inauguration, together with many other personalities, such as Thierry Mandon, Secretary of State responsible for higher education and research.
The "Maison du Soleil" was created thanks to the participation of many partners, and in particular that of the Paris Observatory.
And in the first instance thanks to the determination of an astrophysicist of the Paris Observatory, Paul Felenbok, now retired, who invested considerable energy and his professional for the success of the project.
Thanks to him, the Maison du Soleil was able to obtain on loan from the Paris Observatory of equipment to the value of over 20 000 euros: a cœlostat and a very high resolution spectrograph which had been used by researchers, thereby putting the Sun within reach of amateur astronomers.
This equipment renders the site quite unique, enabling the light of the Sun to be channeled to various laboratories.
In effect, the sunlight is first picked up by the cœlostat, and then channeled to the inside by a set of mirrors, thereby enabling many physical, chemical and biological experiments to be carried out, on over 300 m2, spread over 3 floors.
Thanks to its excellent situation above the village of Saint-Véran, the meteorological conditions of the Maison du Soleil will be exceptional, with up to 300 days of sunlight per year. Which will surely appeal to amateur astronomers, in search of professional level scientific experimentation.
For Paris’ Observatory, participated in this project:
• Xavier Campi
• Norbert Champion
• Paul Felenbok
• Jean Guérin
• Jacques Léorat