The Amateur Astronomers Group of Piacenza has carried out an interesting cultural and educational project in collaboration with the Municipality of Pecorara (PC) and with some public and private sponsors.
It is an Astronomical Observatory located in the province of Piacenza, in Lazzarello di Pecorara, in an elevated position (785 m / asl), isolated and sufficiently far from light pollution. This allows the Gruppo Astrofili di Piacenza to exercise the practice and dissemination of Astronomy from a privileged position, therefore of particular interest for astronomy science enthusiasts and schools.
The scientific instrumentation consists of:
– a main telescope (Celestron, mod. OT C14) of Schmidt-Cassegrain type 355 mm in diameter and 3.9 m focal length with equatorial mount (10 Microns, mod. GM2000Q) equipped with an integrated computerized system to compensate for the Earth’s rotational motion and for the automatic search of astronomical objects on the celestial vault (with GPS positioning).
– a telescope for guidance and imaging (Takahashi, mod. TOA 130F) of apochromatic refractor type of 130 mm in diameter and 1 m focal length, in parallel to the main one, to allow the precise tracking of the celestial vault during the shooting of long-exposure photographs of astronomical objects, and for the shooting of angularly very large objects accessories of use such as a set of eyepieces to obtain the various magnifications required for observation, solar filters in visible light and in H-alpha, nebular filters, etc. CCD cameras for self-guidance and for the shooting of digital images of the objects of the solar system and the deep sky computer for the control of the pointing of the telescopes and for the automatic search of astronomical objects to be observed.
Next to the dome of the Observatory, a multifunctional classroom is being built, to be used as a conference room and guesthouse.
Astofili Group Piacenza
Localita Lazzarello, 29010 Pecorara, Italy
Phone: 0523 861210
Mail:info@astrofilipc.it
Website: http://www.astrofilipc.it/osservatorio/
