Obscure Passages

LP166/CO059

The "Pic du Midi" observatory

Localization:
Pic du Midi de Bigorre (Pyrenean) - France.

Destination:
The Michelson mountain.

Discovered by:
S�bastien Rouquette.

Ferryman: No.

Status: Destroyed.

Means: Passage.

   The "Pic du Midi de Bigorre" observatory is a mythical place of the astronomy which was set up at the end of XIXth century thanks to the courage and the obstinacy of two men: The General De Nansouty and engineer Vaussenat. It seems well indeed that the influence of these two men was of a primary importance for the construction of the observatory which was from this fact equipped with observation and exceptionally advanced measuring instruments for this time.

   One of these fantastic instruments was the Coelestat or polar Siderostat which by a set of three large mobile mirrors from 30 to 80 cm in diameter, allow to project an enlarged image of the Sun on a fixed screen. Engines and gears imposing actuated the mirrors in a same dance as that of the Sun around the Earth. Thanks to this instrument, one could with leisure and without danger to contemplate but also study the Sun for for example detecting there the presence of tasks on its surface, signs of its activity.

   It was almost obvious that such an instrument, at the same time antiquated and brilliant, worthy of the most famous Obscure sphere armillaire, was to have some links with the world of the Obscure Cities and more particularly with the Michelson Mount, this high-place of obscure astronomical search. It is besides strange to note that the destiny of these two places was influenced by a General and an engineer: De Nansouty and Vaussenat in our Clearl World, Morgan and Wappendorf on the Obscure Continent. Without any doubt, it is somewhere around the Coelestat, or perhaps by actuating this one that the Passage was possible.

   It seems unfortunately that once more, some authorities, again eager to mask some truths, made so that the Passage cannot be discovered. At the end of XXth century, for vague reasons of public utility, the Coelestat was destroyed in an explosion which devastated it definitively, sweeping any possibility of Passage to this place.