Decoding the Flag in Tintin

astronomy. About forty people attended on Friday, June 16, at the Valcourt Observatory, the “Science in Tintin” conference proposed by the Astronomical Society of Haute-Marne and presented by Helen El Turk. The speaker immersed the audience in his childhood by exploring some albums of The Adventures of Tintin through a real science walk detailing how Hergé, the creator of this comic strip, took the advice of scientists to give more realism to his albums. Concerning Professor Tornesol, Hergé took inspiration from the Swiss scientist Auguste Picard to form this character. “Hergé and Picard lived in the same neighborhood in Belgium,” said Helen El Turk. In “Objectif Lune” one can note the “description in 1953 of a nuclear power plant” and the evocation of “industrial espionage”. On the album “We walked on the Moon” there is an encounter with an asteroid. In 1936, the famous asteroid Adonis was discovered by Eugene Delporte. This album was created sixteen years before Man on the Moon’s First Step with a description really accurate like the stars not blinking on the Moon due to the lack of an atmosphere or even the discovery of ice. These are photographs that we did not have in 1953 “, confirms Helen El Turk. Among other elements we can also note Captain Haddock in weightlessness with his whiskey. In the album “The Temple of the Sun” Hergé describes a lunar eclipse “completely” Elements of “The Mysterious Star” album including the position of the watch bottle were also discussed.At the end of the conference, skywatching with a telescope was provided as well as a session in the Paul-Macquart Planetarium.