The Montsec Observatory receives more than a hundred visitors during the summer

The Montsec Observatory (OdM) of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya) has carried out, between May and August, four guided tours of its facilities open to the general public. In total, more than one hundred people have enjoyed these visits, held one Sunday of each month. The Observatory is located in the municipality of Sant Esteve de la Sarga (Pallars Jussà), within the UNESCO Global Geopark Orígens.

These open-door sessions, held every summer since 2017, represent a unique opportunity to get a close-up view of a state-of-the-art scientific infrastructure and to see the Observatory’s astronomical telescopes at first hand. “Visitors are shown the Joan Oró telescope, the largest in Catalonia and one of the most technologically advanced in Europe; and also the Fabra-ROA Montsec telescope. Our team of experts explains how they work and what research is done with them,” explains physicist and astronomer Kike Herrero, OdM director.

Every year, visitors enjoy images captured with the all-sky camera, which detects fireballs and meteors, and learn about the infrastructures for satellite communications, the calibration systems for Earth observation satellites and the atmospheric measurement services installed at the Observatory.

In addition to the visits open to the general public, this year the Observatory also hosted, on 10 July, a session as part of the activities of the Summer School of the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), which this year dealt with the observation of exoplanet systems. More than 50 participating students from different countries visited the Observatory’s facilities, which are usually used for this type of research.

Finally, on 5 August, the 4th edition of ‘Discovering the sky of Montsec’ took place, a talk and telescope observation by Kike Herrero, held in Alzina, in the municipality of Sant Esteve de la Sarga. This activity aimed at all audiences has been held since 2020 in the different villages of the municipality, with the aim of bringing the local population closer to the research and the main discoveries made with the Observatory’s telescopes. “Due to the climate of the site and the quality of the dark sky, the Montsec sky is the best in Catalonia for observing space,” concludes Herrero.