Observing Mars from Mars
No need to be a rover to go for a stroll on the red planet. You can really spend several days in Mars without taking off from Earth. A very small village in the centre of France, Mars has hosted an astronomy festival every summer for over ten years now.
From 2-3 August 2018, amateur astronomers and researchers welcomed an enthusiastic audience for sky observations and conferences given by highly qualified physicists.
In the afternoon, adults attended talks on various subjects such as gravitational waves by Frédérique Marion (from the Virgo team), the Cassini-Huygens mission by Jean-Pierre Lebreton (former mission manager of the Huygens probe) or the interstellar space by Eric Josselin (director of the Pic du Midi Station in France). Visits to the recently built observatory were also organised, underlining the collaboration between the amateurs of the local astronomy club and professional astronomers.
Meanwhile, children could make a sophisticated water rocket, they could explore the Solar System through an installation in the field welcoming the festival and look at the Sun with a protected telescope. “Mini-conferences” explained the measurement of time, the history of astronomy or the observation of exoplanets.
At nightfall, participants were invited to identify the main summer constellations with the naked eye. They also observed planets (Mars, Saturn and Jupiter) directly with telescopes and on a screen connected to a computer-driven telescope. The International Space Station crossing the sky was easily recognisable. No light pollution disturbed the observations at this 1,000 metre altitude spot.
For two days and two nights, adults and children spent hours watching the sky and discovering the latest research in astronomy. This was made possible thanks to devoted volunteers from the local astronomy club and passionate researchers willing to share their knowledge.
