“The night of the stars has been imagined to allow everyone to look up to the sky” | EUROtoday

DIn the 1991, the “Night of the Stars” invited each summer season and huge to look as much as the sky and regain the surprise of the night time remark. Created by the French Association of Astronomy, this occasion that has turn out to be important goals to make astronomy accessible to all, removed from the sunshine air pollution of cities. From 1^er As of August 3, 2025, greater than 500 conferences are supplied in all places in France round an evocative theme: “The oceans of the sky”.

Astrophysicist and president of the Academy of Sciences, Françoise Combes returns to the genesis of this occasion and on what to ponder the celebs can nonetheless train us within the digital age.

The level: You noticed the delivery of the “Night of the Stars” over thirty years in the past. Why was this occasion created and what does it signify as we speak?

Françoise Combes: The “Night of the Stars” was imagined to permit everybody, passionate as easy curious, to look as much as the sky. From the beginning, the thought was to create a collective, pleasant second, the place we might share the invention of the starry sky. Summer is a perfect interval: persons are on trip, the climate is good, you may exit at night time and take the time to look at. It can also be the second when the Perseids, a spectacular rain of capturing stars, attain their peak between July 20 and August 20.

Precisely, the Perseids are sometimes highlighted in the course of the “Night of the Stars”. What can we are saying about this phenomenon? What is its origin?

These are capturing stars, as a result of passage of a comet. In the case of Perseids, it’s the comet Swift-Tuttle, named after the 2 astronomers who recognized it. It is a very massive comet, it’s nearly 26 kilometers in diameter, whereas most measure roughly 4 kilometers. When this comet approaches the solar, the warmth melts the ice that composes it, which releases mud, a bit like a cloud or a path that it leaves behind. As she could be very huge, she leaves rather a lot.

It is a phenomenon recognized for a very long time: the Chinese already spoke of the Perseids across the 12 months 30 of our period! But we did not know the place they got here from. It was not till 1862 that it was understood that it was the mud tail of the comet Swift-Tuttle which induced these streams of capturing stars. The peak of exercise of the Perseids is round August 12, and a few years, we are able to see as much as 100 per hour! You simply need to take the time to look at.

When you get out of an enlightened place, you may’t see something at first, however after 15 to twenty minutes, your eyes get used to darkness and there the present begins. You need to settle, don’t have a look at your telephone, and let your eyes accommodate.

What different astronomical phenomena might be seen this 12 months, whether or not it’s meteor rains, planets or different exceptional occasions? Can you clarify them to us?

To the bare eye, we are able to already see a whole lot of issues. The planets are seen, in addition to the Moon, typically in its first district at this era. With a easy pair of binoculars, you may even distinguish your craters, it is fairly spectacular. Then Saturn might be seen a great a part of the night time. And if in case you have a telescope, you may see its rings.

A bit later at night time, round 3 am, Venus will seem. Then round 4 am, it is going to be Jupiter’s flip. Again, with a telescope, you may observe its 4 largest satellites, that are known as the Galilean satellites.

Where are the very best remark factors in France this 12 months? And how typically do these phenomena reproduce?

The finest locations to look at the sky are these removed from cities. To see the celebs properly, you want a really darkish sky, as darkish as attainable. The very best is subsequently to climb a bit at altitude, in rural or mountainous areas, removed from synthetic gentle sources. The Alps, the Pyrenees, and even the small mountains away from Paris, it is excellent! (Laughs.) And if we’re above the clouds, it is even higher.

What do you suppose explains the sustainable success of the night time of stars with most people? And why does the remark of the sky proceed to fascinate us, even within the period of screens?

Heaven nonetheless fascinates a lot. The public could be very inquisitive about what the celebs, galaxies, the universe as an entire say. These are data that has grown enormously in recent times, and as we speak we all know far more.

When lectures, we really feel that persons are passionate: they ask very deep, very related questions. There is an actual thirst to know. And paradoxically, the Internet has strengthened this curiosity. It is a superb software to broadcast astronomical discoveries. The normal public can see unbelievable photos taken by skilled telescopes that one might by no means understand with the bare eye.

Why, exactly, can we observe such a craze for astronomy as we speak?

I believe it touches one thing elementary: the query of our origins. Astronomy shouldn’t be solely to observe stars; It is to attempt to perceive the place we come from, how the universe was fashioned, how our photo voltaic system, the earth, and even our galaxy appeared.

These questions have at all times existed, they usually stay deeply rooted in us. Astronomy responds partially, and that’s most likely why it continues to captivate a lot.

If you needed to advise a primary remark expertise to a baby, what would you say?

He should persuade his mother and father to take him to the mountains! (Laughter.) The most important factor is to be in a darkish place, removed from the lights of town, the place you may actually admire the sky. Then, it have to be left to look at and find the celebs by itself.

We can begin with the big constellations seen within the northern hemisphere, such because the Big Dipper, which is definitely acknowledged by tracing the form of a pan. From there, we are able to additionally spot the little bear. And if sooner or later he’s fortunate to go to the southern hemisphere, then there, it is going to be one other sky to find! We don’t see the identical constellations, however we are able to observe for instance the clouds of Magellan, that are seen to the bare eye and which we don’t see from the north.

What would you say to somebody who has by no means appeared as much as the sky one summer season night?

I might inform him that he should completely do it! (Laughter.) It is an actual spectacle, an open -air poetry. And if, actually, we can’t observe the sky, then I like to recommend visiting a planetarium. Today, these areas provide whole immersion, with a 360 ° vault which reconstructs the night time sky. We see not solely the constellations as we observe them with the bare eye, but in addition photos captured by the big skilled telescopes, invisible in any other case.

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Answer

And you, what’s your finest reminiscence of remark of the sky? Is there a star or a constellation that significantly impacts you?

I typically go to the southern hemisphere, particularly in Chile, and there, the sky is totally unbelievable. We see the Milky Way like by no means earlier than: it is so vivid that you simply really feel like you may contact it, to be lit by it. But if I needed to quote a celestial object that significantly touches me, it will be the galaxy of Andromeda. It is an immense, fascinating galaxy, on which I work rather a lot and which is seen in France.