The Planeterrella of the Plateau of the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels was completed just in time for the open doors days of the Observatory on 25 and 26 May 2013. A great success, since Eddy Equeter, who built it, presented to the public continuously from 10:00 to 6:30 p.m., as the crowd who wanted to see the aurora was important !
This Planeterrella originated from Cyril Simon, who helped design the first Planeterrella when he was a PhD student at the Laboratory of Planetology of Grenoble (now Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics in Grenoble). Indeed, after his thesis, Cyril went to post-doctorate in Brussels, where he gave the virus of the experiment to his colleagues. You can see Cyril on the following picture :

But besides Eddy and Cyril, it is the result of the will of a great team, under the umbrella of STCE, both at the Royal Observatory of Belgium and at the Institute for Space Aeronomy in Belgium : Ronald, Johan Petra, Jan, the two Eddy, Crist, Niels, Jeroen, Mark, Geert, Tom, Bert, Ronny Francis, Claudio, and Cyril, Romain, Sylvain, Stijn, Herbert, Fabien, Anne, Stephen, Christian, Frederick : a strong team and dream ...

This experiment could recycle the basis of a vacuum chamber of a previous experience, which has led to several changes. It also successfully tested the use of a dry pump.

The result is magnificent. Here are two configurations that the public can now enjoy :

Updated on 6 décembre 2013