Born in France, Thierry Legault is an engineer currently living in the suburbs of Paris.  He became interested in astronomy at the age of 13, after reading an article about amateur astronomy in a science magazine.  His parents offered him a 2" refractor and he remembers perfectly his first view of Saturn and its rings.  "I was stuck at the eyepiece!"  But it was not until  1993 that he took up astrophotography.  Considering that digital imaging was very promising, he decided to go directly to digital imaging and acquired a Hi-SIS CCD camera and a ST4 autoguider and began to take deep-sky images with a Celestron C11.  Since then he has acquired an ST-10XME and most recently an STL-11000M.  He has a reputation for producing excellent high resolution images of the planets, moon and sun. 

Thierry began planetary imaging on the occasion of the crash of the comet SL9 on Jupiter in July, 1994, which he photographed during a mission at the Pic-du-Midi observatory with Christian Buil.   He then met Gérard Thérin, a master of high resolution planetary imaging, and together they explored the possibilities of CCD imaging on the Moon and the planets. Thierry was the first amateur to record the Encke division on the rings of Saturn (0.05" wide).

"I have no exclusive interest center in astrophotography, I like to take images of any celestial object or event: Moon, planets, Sun (in white light and H-alpha light with a Daystar filter), deep-sky etc. To cover all these subjects, I use all available types of cameras: webcams and video cameras for the planets, CCD cameras (currently a STL11000M with AO-L, after a ST10ME) for deep-sky and large field lunar and solar images, and a DSLR (Canon 5D)."

After a lot of instruments of different types and sizes, Thierry currently uses a Meade 12" SCT optical tube and two Takahashi refractors (FSQ-106 and TOA-150).  He uses a Losmandy Titan German Equatorial mount at home and a Takahashi NJP for holidays and all deep-sky images.  Since he lives in the suburbs of Paris, 35 km from the Eiffel Tower, he also fights severe light pollution.  From his home he restricts his imaging to the Sun and the planets.  Whenever he wants to take deep-sky images, he travels to the field by car about 70 km outside Paris for darker skies.  Thierry says that full clear nights are quite rare in this area (less than 30 per year) and any clear night has to be exploited.

"In astrophotography, my main concern is to take raw images of the best possible quality with my equipment, with very careful focusing, guiding, collimation etc. For processing, I apply what is just necessary and sufficient to take the best from these raw images. In my opinion, the first quality of a processing is to be invisible: at first glance, we must see a celestial object, not a processed image. I prefer pastel colors rather than harsh ones and I try to respect the true colors of objects (the colors they would show if our eyes were more sensitive to low light or if these objects were brighter than they are), as well as the hierarchy of brightness of the object: if an area is brighter in reality (for example, the bulb of a galaxy), I keep it brighter in the final image to maintain a realistic global aspect."

Thierry's images have been published in dozens of books and magazines in various countries around the world:  USA, Japan, Germany, England, Italy, Israel, and of course France.  Magazines such as Sky and Telescope, Astronomy Now, Ciel et Espace, Coelum, Popular Science, the Guardian, The Daily Mail, and the Vatican calendar have all published Thierry's images at one time or another.  In October 2006, one minute was dedicated on CNN to the description of Thierry's photo of the transit of the Space Station (ISS) and the Atlantis space shuttle in front of the Sun.  NASA has selected several of Thierry's images for the Astrophoto of the Day (APOD) and he has been an invited lecturer in astronomical meetings in France, United States, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, and Greece.  For the past 10 years Thierry has run a workshop on Digital Imaging at the Festival d'Astronomie de Haute Maurienne.  He has been awarded the Marius Jacquemetton award (photographic works) from the Société Astronomique de France in 1999.  The asteroid number19458 has been officially named Legault at the International Astronomical Union, and he has published two books: "Astrophotographie" (currently in French, to be translated in English) in 2006, and "The New Lunar Atlas" (co-author: Serge Brunier) in 2004.

SBIG is proud to present our Award for Excellence in Astronomical Imaging to Thierry and honored to welcome him to our Hall of Fame.

A few of Thierry's images are seen below (Click a thumbnail to see the entire image).  To see more of Thierry's work, please visit his web site at http://www.astrophoto.fr

 
 
 
 
 
Thierry setting up for some solar imaging
 His Meade 12"

 

Thierry with his STL-11000 camera and Takahashi 150 TOA

 

Thanks and Congratulations to Thierry!

Revised: February 05, 2008 08:59:52 AM.
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