Olivier R. Hainaut


NTT, La Silla	NTT, a few years later	NTT, again a few years later, this time from the RITZ

Science

Nice Results

Halley's comet is still observed! in March 2003, at the distance of Neptune. This was also the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" on Oct.3. I had also observed that comet in 1994, as it passed the halfway mark (January 1994): observation of the faintest solar system object ever observed. [at that time]. This outburst created some waves in the public. For instance, a lady contacted me to ensure me that this was a direct cause (or was it a consequence?) of the Gulf war. Also, a journalist concluded that the comet had completely exploded (which in turned caused some additional comments-in french in this example).
Comet Hale-Bopp is still very active, esp. considering the distance at which it is now. We observed it at the 2.2m at ESO in Mar.2001; here is a nice color image (and is also available in Italian, in Hebrew elsewhere...). It was also an "Astronomy Pic. of the Day".
The object 2000 OF8 was discovered as an asteroid. We found out that it is really a comet
The Trans-Neptunian Object 1996 TO66 has been extensively observed; we obtained many interesting resulst on that object, including its rotation period. This is described in an ESO Press Release, and in more details in one of my papers.
A strange supernova, sn 1998 bw, which seems to be related to a Gamma Ray Burst (May 98). An ESO Press Release has been published on that object.
Volcanoes on Io, using the UH adaptive optics instrument on the CFHT.
Observations of Comet Hale-Bopp. The IfA Hale-Bopp page contains plenty of info and links about that comet; for nice pictures, check out the Images and Spectra page.
Rapid Changes in the Inner Coma of CometHyakutake (March 1996): acrobatic observations of this nice comet with a great telescope and a great seeing!
Comet 1992a Helin-Alu, a nice distant comet, on its discoverer page.
The discovery of a Transneptunian Object: 1994 TG2 (October 1994): one more TNO (about 60 are known now), but I discovered this one :-)
High Resolution HST Images of Pluto and Charon (May 1994): the first detailed, direct look at Pluto and Charon's surface.

Trans-Neptunian Objects

In this section, I list some information related to my work on Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) and other Minor Bodies in the Outer Solar System ( MBOSSes)

The MBOSS color database, a compilation and analysis of published MBOSS photometry
Survey for Distant TNOs, ESO Large Program 165.S-0187, Hainaut et al: status of the project (password protected)

Papers

I keep on this page the PostScript files of some of my scientific papers, and links to the IAUC to which I contributed.

Programs

POS1/Astromet: an ESO/MIDAS package for astrometric calibration of scientific image (plates and CCD); it can get its USNO/A1 standard stars automatically through the net.
TMAG: an ESO/MIDAS package for photometric calibration of CCD images, with quasi-automatic identification of Landolt's stars, and interactive edition of bad points.
Stella: a program to draw maps of a region of the sky (using various catalogues, e.g. USNO/A1, HR, SAO, PPM, NGC, Uppsala, IRAS, Veron...). The result can be printed. It can also overplot user-defined focal planes (e.g. size of a detector, autoguider probes...). The graphics use SuperMongo (libraries included). (currently not available)
Exposure Time Calculator, a web-tool that computes the Signal/Noise ratio for visible imaging.
EPH1, a web-based ephemerides generator customized to my needs. Sources are available to the ESO MBOSS team and related.
EPH2, a web toll to search solar system objects according to their characteristics. Sources are available to the ESO MBOSS team and related.
MeteoMonitor, a web-tool to monitor the conditions at La Silla.
Astrolabe Generator, a web-tool to produce "astrolabes" for your site (updated version at eso.org. The one at IfA is outdated).

(standard disclaimer: no guarantee of any kind. If these programs blow your computer in pieces, or causes any disagrement, let me know, but don't expect me or ESO to compensate you)

Information

Basic information on CCD image processing
Signal, noises, signal/noise, a brief introduction
MIDAS image processing: notes for the beginner. Thanks to Serge Monagnac, a French version is also available.

If you are interested in working with me,

as a student: check out this studentship page
as an astronomer: check out the ESO vacancies page

If you would like me to work with/for you, send an offer (make it a good one: my current job is great :-)

Personal stuff

You can also

Look at my (small but growing) UFO picture collection.
Have a look at my curriculum vitae
get my addresses
Access my bookmarks (they are here mostly for my personal use...). If you are looking for a way to loose 1/2h of valuable time, this list of useless links should be of some help.
Go to the ESO La Silla (where I currently work) or Garching home pages
Go to the IfA home page, or Search something in there.
On this page, you will find the whole, email exchange constituting the Car 42 Saga. This is part of the ESO folklore, probably of no interest for outsiders...(recovered 2006-04-23)

Marie-Claire, my wife, has her own page at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, with plenty of palmtrees and aloha. Note that she is now working for Gemini

There was a nice article about her in the July 98 "Ciel & Espace" (sorry, no English version).

Some asked me what a marsupilami is. This is the Marsupilami:

Note that this is a private page; whatever you find here is under my responsibility, not ESO's.

Update: 2007-09-14T15:27:04 Fri

Olivier R. Hainaut (ohainaut at eso.org)