Centro Astronomico di Arson

The astronomical center “Giuliano Vanin”

The Rheticus Astronomical Association Feltrina was founded as the Feltrini Amateur Astronomers Group in 1974. 

The observatory organizes and hosts many events that can be found on their official website and are suitable for adults and children.

The Giuliano Vanin Astronomical Center is located on the hills of Feltre, at the entrance of the hamlet of Arson, at 520 mslm, in a site that has favorable characteristics for public astronomical observation: elevation above the mid-level thermal inversion zone resulting in atmospheric stability, clear atmosphere with low presence of pollutants and dust, low level of light pollution, easy accessibility.
The main building is the planetarium, with an internal dome of eight meters in diameter, one of the largest in Italy, which can accommodate 70 people. It consists of a completely digital projection system, capable of covering the entire dome ensuring a resolution of 1200 pixels in the meridian. The projection is managed through a specialized software designed to fully exploit the potential that digital technology offers.

Among the main functions offered by the system, we have the faithful reproduction of all objects visible in the night sky from any location and at any time.

Then there is the main pavilion of the observatory, with a double sliding roof, housing the following instruments:

1. Newton telescope Virgilio Marcon 360 mm f/5 with automatic pointing;
2. Newton Marcon telescope Zen 200 mm f/5;
3. Portable Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain 200 mm f/10;
4. Guide refractor Apogee 152 mm f/8;
5. Camera Schmidt-Newton Celestron 140 mm f/3.6;
6. Maksutov MTO 100 mm f/10;
7. Astronomical binoculars Apogee 25 x 100 with giant Manfrotto tripod;
8. PST Coronado for observing the Sun in H-alpha;
9. CCD camera SBIG STL-11000 M;

The largest instrument at the Center is housed in a rail-mounted cover that is removed to allow observation on a 50 square meter concrete pad: it is a 64 cm diameter Dobson Obsession telescope with automatic pointing and Argo Navis system. Finally, between the Dobson pad and the observatory, another spacious area is created for naked-eye observation of the night sky, also using instruments such as vertical quadrants, sextants, astrolabes, and nocturnals.

Source of information: Rheticus