Abacial Palace - Municipal Museum of Alcalá la Real and Territory Interpretation Centre
Museums and Visitor Centers
Alcalá la Real
Description
In the village of La Pedriza, 8 km from Alcalá la Real with an impressive dark sky, the Einstein Society of Astronomy, with the collaboration of the Alcalá la Real City Council, has first-class facilities for astronomical observation and dissemination: the Andaluz Observatory of Astronomy.
The South Sierra de Jaén, which obtained the Starligth Reserve certificate in 2014, retains the natural lighting and nocturnal conditions of the night sky intact. It is also a space where a commitment has been made to the defence of the quality of the night sky, access to the light of the stars and the different associated values.
The main building, about 70 square meters, houses the multi-purpose room and library, observatory control room, small kitchen, toilet and archive.
To the north of the main building and completely independent, is the observatory itself. The lower floor serves as a storage room for the various instrumentation and accessories of the telescopes and has a small workshop for the repairs.
The 4-meter-in-diameter Scope Dome dome, installed on the top, has a Meade S / C LX200-ACF GPS telescope of 0.30 meters of opening at f / 10, in an equatorial fork mount, supported by an independent rigid column.
The whole of the Andalusian Observatory of Astronomy: Dome, telescope as well as its battery of accessories and instrumentation can be operated remotely from anywhere.
On the terrace of the control room there is a weather station specially designed for use in an astronomical observatory and an AllSky automatic camera for meteor detection.
