First CLIMSO Mission: My Pic du Midi Adventure!

My First CLIMSO Mission: Up on the Pic!

My very first gig as an associate observer at CLIMSO kicked off from August 15th to 22nd, 2011. It was a week packed with discoveries and great new connections, just like every trip up to the Pic. I was lucky enough to spend the week up there with Laurent, affectionately known as “the African.” He’s a true veteran of the coro, having made the trek up for over 15 years.

On the agenda for the week: solar observations, of course, but also a few maintenance tasks. This included swapping out the occulter disks on both coronagraphs, giving the optics a good scrub, and realigning the solar finder.

This initial week was primarily an opportunity for me to learn the ropes of the CLIMSO system. Laurent turned out to be an excellent trainer, and honestly, the system itself is incredibly well-designed. Stick to the procedures, and everything just hums along without a hitch.

We were treated to some gorgeous, “almost” coronal skies during our visit, though solar activity was pretty chill – no X-flares in sight! So, when’s this new solar cycle going to kick off for real?