CENTRO ASTRONÓMICO BUENAVENTURA SUÁREZ

The Buenaventura Súarez Astronomical Interpretation Center opened its doors in 2010, thanks to the technical and academic support of Professor Blas Servín (1950-2020), an eminent figure in South American astronomy. The center's name pays tribute to the missionary who went down in history as a pioneer of astronomy in the southern hemisphere. In addition to a stone sundial, whose operation the guides will explain to you, the missionary, who was also a great geographer and mathematician, made extensive observations of the celestial vault, using a telescope he built himself, with metals and crystals taken from the Río Paraná. In his lunar calendar(Lunario de un siglo), the genius was able to predict lunar eclipses, down to the minute, from January 1740 to December 1841, with an appendix allowing the lunar calendar to be extended to 1903, following "simple rules" according to its author... The guided tour (in Spanish) includes a multimedia room, for explanations of the solar system and the interpretation of the stars according to Guaraní mythology; a planetarium in the shape of a dome, where the movements of the stars are reproduced according to the seasons; an astrolabe, an ancient instrument for measuring the positions of the stars; and finally, the observatory, which boasts a high-powered telescope enabling you to admire the planets of the solar system more closely after dark (when the sky is clear).