It was inaugurated in May 1989 and was financed by Banco Exterior.
The observatory has a first floor anchored in the structure of the building. There, work is carried out on the reduction of astronomical images and spectra related to practical teaching of Astrophysics at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
On the second floor is the Jerónimo Muñoz Telescope (TJM) inside a motorized dome 5 meters in diameter. Both the telescope and the dome were manufactured by the IMVO company, with financing from Banco Exterior. The optics is that of a reflector system and the mount is of the German equatorial type.
Jerónimo Muñoz (1520-1591), who gives his name to the telescope, was a Valencian astronomer, geographer, engineer and Hebraist. The most interesting scientific work of his consisted of the observations that, from Valencia, he made of the supernova of 1572 (SN 1572). He was able to measure the exact position of the star, in the constellation of Cassiopeia, and to determine that the distance to it, which he could not calculate exactly, was large enough to ensure that it was a celestial phenomenon. . These studies were published in the Book of the New Comet, in 1573 and he concluded, contradicting Aristotle, that there are "alterations and corruptions" in the sky.
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