NATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY OF JAPAN (NAOJ) - MITAKA CAMPUS

The Mitaka campus is home to the headquarters of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) in Mitaka, Tokyo. This institute promotes astronomical research in the country and regularly organizes events that are often open to all. Among the instruments to be seen (and used!), a superb 200 mm diameter Zeiss astronomical telescope, designed by Tokyo Imperial University and built by Chodayu Nishiura in 1921. Equipped with an atypical equatorial mount, it has been used since 1938 to study sunspots. The building and its dome are the oldest observation buildings on campus! Despite this, they remain fully operational, to such an extent that they were registered as the Japanese equivalent of our historic monuments in February 2002. It is therefore through this telescope that observations of the Sun are made.... Free observations, which take place several times a month (updated agenda on the campus site), between 10am and 2:30pm, and which do not require any pre-registration: just come on site, a facilitator waits wisely for visitors!