Under the stars in Meuse

Marie-Hélène Kaschinski, guide at the Côtes de Meuse Observatory

“We chose Meuse in the heart of the Lorraine regional country park because it is far from the light pollution of the large cities. In our observatory, we have one of the largest amateur telescopes in Europe to be open to the general public. The lens of the T83 has a diameter of 83 centimetres. The pupil of the human eye is hardly 7 millimetres in diameter. Thanks to it, we can see hundreds of millions of light years away. Far beyond our own galaxy.

You can “fly” over the Moon as if you were actually approaching it.You can visit the planets of the solar system and see the beauty of the rings of Saturn. The adventure began, for us, twenty years ago. The foundation stone was laid in 1987, and light first entered the T83 telescope in 1997. We built the whole thing ourselves.

Then, when we saw the result, we decided to open it to the public and we have had almost 4,000 visitors so far. There is something to see whatever the season of the year, so long as the sky is clear.
When you’re here, it’s easy to understand that nature is not unique to Earth.”