My hobbies (Excluding making my collegues mad) :


    Actual sky conditions in Montréal area

    I practice that hobby since I have 5 years old. I remember very well that my professors and classmates laughted of me when I spoke of that science on a regular basis.

    I own a 10" Meade LX200 GPS but I can't use it very often because it's very heavy. I dream to buy a terrain somewhre outside the town to build a rooftop observatory like builded by Skyshed

    I like to observe the planets from my balcony or deepsky when I go observing with my local astro club collegues.

    Despite I had to fight light pollution in my neibourhood I patiently observed that celestial treat , comet Hale-Bopp from my balcony. You can recover one of the pictures I took by cliking here.

    I'm a devoted total solar eclipse chaser who carried it tired body in remote parts of the Earth to observe them. I succeded to observe 8 eclipses including 7 totals (cumulating 31 m 22 sec) over a possibility of 12.

    I observed the following eclipses :

    Click on the dates to see some of my pictures

    Be patient !!! Pictures loading may be long on slower connections but it's worth waiting. :-)

    DATES TYPES DURATIONS TOWN COUNTRY TYPE OF SITE VIEWED AUDIO CLIP
    July 20th 1963 Total 0m 55sec Ste-Angele (Becancour) Quebec, Can Hay field No  
    July 10th1972 Total 2m 15s Cap-Chat Quebec, Can Hill face to the sea No  
    October 12th 1977 Total 0m 53s Aguazul Colombia Savana No  
    February 26th 1979 Total 2m 54s Melita Manitoba, Can Motel parking Yes  
    February 16th 1980 Total 2m 51s Ankola India College backyard Yes Yes
    June 11th 1983 Total 5m 10s Borobudur Java, Indonésia Dry rice field Yes  
    May 30th1984 Annular 0m 07s Chaze City Virginia, USA Service station No  
    July 11th 1991 Total 6m 41s Los Corchos Nayarit, Mexico Beach Yes  
    MaY 10th 1994 Annular 6m 12s Chestertown NY, USA B&B Lawn Yes  
    November 3th 1994 Total 3m10s Sevrayuro Bolivia Altiplano Yes  
    February 26th 1998 Total 3m 0s Grande Vigie Guadeloupe Cliff Yes Yes
    August 11th 1999 Total 2m 15s Noyon France Park No  
    June 21th 2001 Total 3m 37s Kamilonga Zambia Farm Yes Yes
    June 10th 2002 Annular 1m 0s La Cruz de Loreto Jalisco, Mexico Hill face to the sea Yes  
    March 29th 2006 Total 4 m 4s Eclipse City Jalu, Libya Sahara desert Yes Yes

    My next eclipses at my agenda will be :
     

    August 1st 2008 probably in Russia in the Novosibirsk area.
    ...
    April 8th 2024 in Montreal (I will have 76)

    I'm dreaming to go to the moon in a remote future with the reservation I did with Air Canada in 1969 shortly after Apollo 11.

    I also observe lunar eclipses The picture at left has been taken during the sept. 26 th 1996 total lunar eclipse from my appartement house balcony in Longueuil.

    Instrument Celestron 5+ f /6.3
    Camera Olympus OM-1
    Film Fuji Sensia 100 ASA
    Exposure time 15 Sec

    KEO