The Kevola Observatory is located in Kevola in

Paimio Paimio (; ) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population ...

in South-Western

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, some 35 km east from the city of

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

. The

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

is currently owned by ''Turun Ursa ry'', a local astronomical association operating in Turku area. The buildings of the observatory include an observatory dome, a

zenith The zenith (, ) is the imaginary point on the celestial sphere directly "above" a particular location. "Above" means in the vertical direction (Vertical and horizontal, plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The z ...

observatory, and a house for recording observations. Kevola Observatory has code

064 64 or sixty-four may refer to: * 64 (number) Dates * one of the years 64 BC, AD 64, 1964, 2064 Places * Highway 64, see list of highways numbered 64 ** Interstate 64, a national route in the United States * The code for international direct d ...

in the IAU/MPC observatory list. The main-belt asteroid 1540 Kevola was named after the observatory.

History

The observatory was built in 1963 by ''Tähtitieteellis-optillinen seura'' (Astronomy-Optical Society) on a small hill on lands of the home farm of

Hilkka Rantaseppä-Helenius Hilkka Rantaseppä-Helenius (1925–1975) was a Finnish astronomer. Rantaseppä-Helenius began studying mathematics in hopes of becoming a teacher. Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä inspired her to become an astronomer instead. Helenius, as a ...

. She worked at the time as an observer at

Tuorla Observatory Tuorla Observatory is the Department of Astronomy at the University of Turku, southwest Finland. It is the largest astronomical research institute in Finland. Together with the Space Research Laboratory at the Physics Department of the University o ...

University of Turku The University of Turku (, shortened ''UTU'') is a multidisciplinary public university with eight faculties located in the city of Turku in southwestern Finland. The university also has campuses in Rauma and Pori and research stations in Kevo ...

. The association was founded by

Yrjö Väisälä Yrjö Väisälä (; 6 September 1891 – 21 July 1971) was a Finnish astronomer and physicist. His main contributions were in the field of optics. He was also active in geodetics, astronomy and optical metrology. He had an affectionate ni ...

Liisi Oterma Liisi Oterma (; 6 January 1915 – 4 April 2001) was a Finnish astronomer, the first woman to get a Ph.D. degree in astronomy in Finland. She studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Turku, and soon became Yrjö Väisälä's assi ...

, Hilkka Rantaseppä-Helenius, and other astronomers working at University of Turku. The association was terminated in 1983. In 1986 the observatory building was passed to Turun Ursa, also founded by Yrjö Väisälä. The land of the observatory was rented from a local farmer until 2002, when Turun Ursa received a grant from ''Viljo, Yrjö ja Kalle Väisälän rahasto'' (Viljo, Yrjö and Kalle Väisälä Fund) to purchase the land.

Astronomical instruments

The observatory dome houses a 50 cm anastigmatic Schmidt-Väisälä camera, which was earlier located at

Iso-Heikkilä Observatory Iso-Heikkilä Observatory (, ) is an amateur astronomical observatory used by a local amateur astronomical association, Turun Ursa ry in the Iso-Heikkilä district of Turku, Finland. Referred to as Turku Observatory () by the Minor Planet Cent ...

, where it was used in an asteroid hunt to find 807 minor

planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

s and 7

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

s. The telescope has a 50 cm corrector menisculus and a 60 cm primary mirror with focal length of 1031 mm. It has a 6.7 degree field of view on 12x12 cm film plates, making it ideal for searching asteroids. Attached to the main telescope are two guide telescopes: an 18 cm and an 8 cm refractor. The zenith tower originally housed a 250/5150 mm

zenith telescope A zenith telescope is a type of telescope that is designed to point straight up at or near the zenith. They are used for precision measurement of star positions, to simplify telescope construction, or both. A classic zenith telescope, also known ...

that was used to observe the movements of the

axis An axis (: axes) may refer to: Mathematics *A specific line (often a directed line) that plays an important role in some contexts. In particular: ** Coordinate axis of a coordinate system *** ''x''-axis, ''y''-axis, ''z''-axis, common names ...

of the

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. After the ''Tähtitieteellis-optillinen seura'' was ended, the telescope was moved to Tuorla Observatory. As the zenith tower does not have a dome but a roof that opens to the sides, and has therefore little use for normal observations, it remains unused.

References

External links

Women of Learning Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kevola Observatory Astronomical observatories in Finland Paimio Buildings and structures in Southwest Finland Astronomy-optics society

History

Astronomical instruments

See also

References

External links