OBSERVATOIRE ASTRONOMIQUE DES CÔTES DE MEUSE

The observatory is not located in Vigneulles-lès-Hattonchâtel but in Vieville-sous-les-Côtes, a village built in the hollow of a small valley, a few kilometers away from birds. The observatory and the attached lodging are towards the heights, with a hill, in the orchard of a restored house, in front of the square at 5 lineups and the old lace. Marc Kaschinski (founder of the observatory) warmly welcomes visitors and quickly puts in the atmosphere of this old building, a house of winemakers dating back to the eighteenth century, which is a good place for the rusticity, with a large fireplace that sits in the main room, and charming rooms with apparent beams, alumni. and solid wood beds covered for some of the oversized cords. Outside, a terrace awaits travelers looking for complimentary breakfasts or barbecues, while a little higher, on the ground, is discovered with a giant amateur telescope of 830 mm diameter (one of the largest in France!) surrounded by apple trees, mirabelliers, pee and other cherry trees. Near there, in a meadow, a few sheep graze quietly… Guarantee guaranteed!

The Observatory of the Côtes de Meuse offers various services… The Gîte aux stars, first of all, is worth the detour between its beautiful rusticity, its thick walls that neither the outdoor cold nor the waves of mobile phones can pass (real holidays in sum!), and the absolute calm that seems to invite the visitor to rest in the best of ways. A kitchen is available for meals as required. Then there are the discovery evenings that take place on the ground above the cottage, during which you become familiar with the stars, constellations, and where you learn a bit of celestial mechanics. With low light pollution, the sky looks very good. Finally, there is the evening of sightings in the dome, the eye glued to the ocular of the impressive telescope… Such an instrument collects 19,000 times as much light as the human eye! What does that mean? That most of the weak celestial objects that belong to the "deep sky" are visible as if we were looking at a photograph: The observer thus sees the spiral arms of distant galaxies, plunging into the heart of the gaseous nebulae, where stars form or disappear, and admire the shiny stellar clusters of thousands of stars. But to discover such wonders, in addition to a clear sky, it also takes a night without Moon, whose light illuminates far too much the sky to allow to visualize these particular objects in the best conditions. It is therefore important to close his visit according to the lunar phases, favoring the periods of new moon, when it is almost invisible. After a few days and nights of this diet, we leave the house with stars full of head: a surprising and out of time experience!