Pic du Midi de Bigorre
| Pic du Midi de Bigorre | ||
|---|---|---|
 Pic du Midi de Bigorre, view from Monné |
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| height | 2877 m | |
| location | France | |
| Mountains | Pyrenees | |
| Coordinates | 42 ° 56 '11 " N , 0 ° 8' 34" E | |
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| First ascent | documented since the 16th century | |
| Normal way | Cable car | |
The Pic du Midi de Bigorre (or simply Pic du Midi , "tip of the south " or "Bigorrer Mittagsspitze") is a 2877 m high mountain in the French Pyrenees . There is an important astronomical observatory and a television station on its summit .
The Pic du Midi is a popular destination. Every year 110,000 guests visit the summit, the daily record is 3,300 people. Since the reopening in 2000, the tourist offer has been expanded considerably, including evenings with astronomical observations. Overnight stays are also possible.
Location and access routes
The Pic du Midi de Bigorre is located in the French department of Hautes-Pyrénées . Due to its location north of the main ridge of the Pyrenees, its summit offers an exceptional panorama. In the south you can see the entire 300 km long chain of the Pyrenees with more than 25 three-thousand-meter peaks. To the north, on a clear day, the view extends to the Plomb du Cantal in the Massif Central and to the west to the Biarritz lighthouse . Altogether one sixth of the area of France can be surveyed.
You can easily walk to the summit in two hours from the Col du Tourmalet . The 5.5 km long graveled Route du Pic du Midi , closed to public traffic, leads from the top of the pass to the point les Laquets at 2,645 m - the highest accessible point in the Pyrenees. From there, a hiking trail overcomes the last 200 meters in altitude, which are free of snow in summer.
The ascent from Artigues-Campan on the Tourmalet route between Campan and La Mongie over the Col de Sencours takes about five hours.
A cable car has been running all year round from La Mongie to the Pic du Midi since 2001 . It was built by the Swiss manufacturer Garaventa and consists of two sections that are set up as aerial tramways with two cabins each:
- The first section from La Mongie (1800 m) to the Relais Le Taoulet (2300 m) leads over two supports.
- The second section from Le Taoulet to the Pic du Midi has only one support just before the summit station. The free section is about 2.5 km long.
history
The peak of the Pic du Midi, which is easy to climb, has probably been visited by people since early history. General de Nansouty discovered a prehistoric arrowhead near the Col de Sencours at an altitude of 2,400 m. It is documented that the scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger observed the summit in 1540. In the 17th century the botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort climbed the Pic du Midi. François de Plantade climbed the summit several times: during the solar eclipse of 1706 he was the first scientist to study the solar corona . In 1741 he returned to take measurements to create a map of the dioceses of Languedoc. He died on August 26 of the same year on the Col de Sencours. In 1774, the mathematician Gaspard Monge and the chemist Jean d'Arcet climbed the summit to measure the air pressure. Between 1787 and 1810, the geologist and founder of Pyrenees exploration, Louis Ramond de Carbonnières , climbed the Pic du Midi no less than 35 times.
observatory
The founding of the observatory goes back to two people: the retired General Charles de Nansouty and the engineer Célestin-Xavier Vaussenat . The former spent eight years in the makeshift weather station built in 1873 on the Col de Sencours, while the latter raised funds for the observatory from donors. This was finally built from 1878 to 1882. The French state subsidized its operation with 30,000 francs a year and the Senate became its first director. He had the summit leveled and erected other buildings there. Pierre Jules César Janssen observed the sun there in 1887. In 1891 Vaussenat suffered a circulatory collapse on the Pic du Midi, from which he died a week later in Bagnères-de-Bigorre .
He was succeeded by the astronomer and geophysicist Émile Marchand . Under his aegis, the surfaces of the sun and planets were mapped and numerous geophysical measurements were made. At the turn of the century, a small botanical garden was even set up on the summit to study the behavior of plants at high altitudes. At the instigation of the then head of the Toulouse observatory , Benjamin Baillaud , the construction of the first dome for a 50 cm telescope began in 1905, which finally went into operation in 1908. One of the first results was the refutation of the "canals" assumed by Giovanni Schiaparelli on Mars . Benjamin's son Jules Baillaud was the most intensive user of the observatory in the following years, and his research was rewarded with a prize from the Academy of Sciences in 1924.
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The sudden death of Émile Marchands in 1914 and the outbreak of World War I left the observatory almost orphaned; The meteorologist Latreille was the only one who stayed on the summit for 14 months . In 1915 the facilities on the Pic du Midi were placed under the Toulouse Observatory. The new director Joseph Rey did not take up his post until 1917 and resigned in 1920. His successor Camille Dauzère found the facilities in poor condition. In 1922 part of the north terrace even broke off. This awakened politics; In the following 15 years, major funds were invested in renovating and expanding the facilities. The paved Route du Pic du Midi was supposed to make the supply considerably easier: in 1927 the road from Col du Tourmalet to Col de Sencours was completed, in 1933 it was extended to Les Laquets, where a hotel was also built. Between 1926 and 1927, two 25 m high radio transmission masts were built. Research shifted its focus to geophysics after the head of the Meudon observatory, Henri-Alexandre Deslandres , who was in charge of the inspection, recommended the closure of the observatory on the Pic du Midi. Astronomy on the Pic only got a new boost with the activities of Bernard Lyot , who developed his solar coronograph there from 1930 .
When Camille Dauzère retired in 1937, there was initially no successor. In order to avert the threat of closure, Jules Baillaud finally agreed to head the observatory. His plans to expand the facilities could not be realized due to the Second World War, but at least he managed to equip the observatory with a new telescope. In 1947 Jean Rösch took over the management of the observatory; he held this position until 1981. Initially, the infrastructure could be expanded: a high-voltage line took over the power supply of the station from 1949, and in 1951 the cable car was put into operation. In the 1950s, scientists on the Pic du Midi primarily researched the sun and cosmic rays . This high-energy radiation was also used for nuclear physics experiments. In the following decade , a research group at Manchester University led by Zdeněk Kopal mapped the surface of the moon using tens of thousands of photos. This program served as preparation for the Apollo mission and was financially supported by NASA . In 1964, laser beams were used to determine the Earth-Moon distance to within a few decimeters.
Transmitter
As early as 1957, television broadcasting had started on the Pic du Midi. From 1959 to 1962 the inter-ministerial building with the radio and television station was built. In 1970 the construction of the very elaborate tower for the new reflector telescope began, which went into operation in 1980. In 1994, however, the observatory threatened to end. The Ministry of Research no longer wanted to finance the operation alone and announced the closure for 1998. A union ( Syndicat mixte ) of the Midi-Pyrénées , Département and surrounding communities stepped in and invested a total of 39 million euros in the facilities on the Pic du Midi. The aim was to ensure its continued existence through tourist use. The terraces were renovated, a new cable car installed and a restaurant and museum set up. The Pic du Midi has been open to visitors again since 2000. The operation requires an annual grant of between 600,000 and one million euros.
Today's facilities
On the Pic du Midi there is a restaurant for excursions, a radio and television station, a weather station and an important observatory with the largest reflector telescope in France. As possible bad weather and strong winds can hold visitors to the Pic du Midi at any time, there is the capacity to accommodate and cater for 600 people for a period of five days.
observatory
The observatory on the Pic du Midi is part of the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées , an astronomical research facility affiliated with the Paul Sabatier University . Due to the low air pressure and the low light pollution , the Pic du Midi offers excellent conditions for astronomical observations. One disadvantage, however, is the inconsistent weather. Currently in operation:
- The Cassegrain telescope named after Bernard Lyot , with a diameter of 206 cm, the largest reflecting telescope in France since 1980. The NARVAL spectropolarimeter , which is used to study the magnetic fields of stars, is in the Coudé focus . The telescope has its own tower away from the other facilities, so that the observations are affected as little as possible by air turbulence. It is also designed with two shells to keep the telescope free from vibrations.
- A 106 cm reflector telescope equipped with a CCD camera to examine the planets of the solar system. It was financed by NASA in 1963 and was used at the time for precise observations of the lunar surface in preparation for the Apollo mission. With this telescope, the Saturn moon Helene was discovered on February 29, 1980 .
- a 60 cm reflector telescope used by amateur astronomers
- another 55 cm reflecting telescope
- the coronagraph HACO CLIMSO for observing the solar corona
- The telescope named after Jean Rösch with an opening width of 50 cm for observing the sun's surface, especially its granulation . It is equipped with a spectroheliograph .
Transmitting station
The inter-ministerial building , completed in 1963, houses a radio and television station, among other things. It is operated by the formerly state-owned company TDF . The transmission power is 10 kW. It has a 104 m high antenna and covers about one seventh of the French territory. Since November 2005 digital television has also been broadcast.
literature
- Voyage au cœur du Pic du Midi , in: PYRÉNÉES Magazine No. 113, September – October 2007, ISSN 1252-2783
Web links
- Pic du Midi de Bigorre - photo, map + brief information (peakbagger, English)
- Pic du Midi website (English, French)
- Observatory on the Pic du Midi (French)
- History of the observatory on the Pic du Midi (French)
- Real-time weather data from the Pic du Midi
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Astronomie et Recherche (French) ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ NARVAL (French)
- ↑ University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (January 19, 2001, English)
- ↑ Media-Newsletter of November 2, 2005, French ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
