These picture record my visit to the Pic du Midi observatory in southern France. The site is still used for reserach, including solar observing, but much of it has been converted into a tourist destination. On the day I was there the clouds were very low, and indeed soon after we arrived the whole site was enveloped in fog, so we did not see much of what would otherwise have been a fine view of the mountains. Please do not reproduce these pictures commercially without my permission.

You go up to the observatory by cable car, two in fact as you change cars halfway up. This is the bottom station of the first section

Photo: John Davies.

Here is aview form the car as the observatory comes into view. It is right at the peak, partly hidden behind the cables.

Photo John Davies

This space-age addition to the site houses a TV transmission centre.

At the left is the cable car station. The building in the foreground is now a café for visitors. Behind it are some small telescope domes .

John Keith Davies
Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ
j.davies@roe.ac.uk
tel: (44) 0131 668 8348 / fax: (44) 0131 662 1668/

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