OBSERVATÓRIO DO PICO DOS DIAS

Pico dos Dias Observatory is located between the communes of Brazópolis and Piranguçu, at 1,864 m above sea level, and 900 m above the average height of the region, 37 km from Itajubá, 300 km from Rio de Janeiro and 250 km from São Paulo. The last 12 kilometers from the MG 295 motorway are on a road. Three main telescopes are at work in this rather dynamic observatory… The "telescópio Perkin-Elmer" is the main instrument of the site. He came into service in 1981 with a primary mirror of 1.6 m in diameter! It is mainly used for photometry (measurement of luminous radiation of aspires), polarimetry (measurement of light orientation from the asterisks) and spectroscopy (study of light decomposition to know certain characteristics of the stars). The "telescópio Boller & Chivens" is much smaller because its diameter is 600 mm. It was installed in 1992 and also works on photometry and polarimetry themes of the stars. The last telescope will attract the interests of the connoisseurs because it is a superb optical and mechanical room in the rather surprising history… The «telescópio 0.6 m Zeiss» was bought in the former East Germany in the 1960-1970 s by negotiating it against… coffee! He then remained stored for many years in Brazópolis before being installed on site in 1983. Another essential feature: its score is manual, complicating manipulations when it comes to finding some objects of low brightness in the sky. It is also used exclusively for photometry and polarimetry.