User:Omotecho/Mitaka Campus, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Front gate to the Mitaka Campus, NAOJ.

The Mitaka Campus of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan 国立天文台三鷹キャンパス (Kokuritsu Temmondai Mitaka Kyanpasu) is the headquarters of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, a National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Japan located in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan.

It hosts the Kiso Observatory which is an independent research organization.

Facilities

The Campus itself and the neiboring Nogawa area is well known for the stands of cherry trees that many visitors come to appreciate in spring.

The first equatorial observatory

The First Equatorial Telescope recorded sunspot for 61 years since 1938.

The wooden building was built in 1921 where a Carl Zeiss AG equatorial refractor telescope was installed in 1927 with the focal length of 359 centimeters. This facility was used to record sunspot for 61 years since 1938. It was designated as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2002.

Observatory History Museum (65-cm Telescope Dome)

Observatory History Museum

Two-storied building was finished in 1926, and an equatorial refractor telescope was installed in 1929. Retired as an observatory in 1998, and opened as Observatory History Museum in 2001 to be designated as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in February, 2002.

Its walls were built with reinforced concrete topped with a wooden dome constructed by applying ship building technology. It holds a refracting telescope, the largest of its kind in Japan with the calibre of 65 centimeters.

The focal length is as long as 1021 centimeters, that changed the height of the eyepiece greatly along the altitude of the observed celestial body. A motored elevating floor was installed which could lift up to 360 centimeters until 2000. The telescope functioned mainly to observe the position of stars before retirement.In the final years, orbital analysis of Saturn's satellites was observed.

50 cm Public telescope

Public observation for the general has been held since April 1996 twice monthly. Operates a 50 centimeters Cassegrain type reflection telescope with filters along with cooled CCD cameras. It is also used for research on solar system celestial bodies.

Einstein Tower (Solar Tower Telescope)

Eisnstein Tower

See also: w:ja:太陽塔望遠鏡 (Solar Tower Telescope) (ja)

Mounted a solar telescope in a 6-stories high building in 1930. As it shared the same purpose as the original Einstein Tower in Berlin, this facility was nicknamed "Einstein tower".

However called the sister telescope with the one at Potsdam, observation to prove the General Relativity has failed. It recorded sunspots and solar spectrum.

Repsold Transit Instrument 

Repsold Transit Instrument Building

Observation was done with a Repsold transit instrument installed in 1925.

The transit instrument with the caribre of 135 milimeters was built in 1880 by A. Repsold & Sohne AG in Germany and shipped to the observatory of Imperial Japanese Navy. Transferred to University of Tokyo Observatory, then relocated to Mitaka in 1937 to observe stars and published first official star catalogues, "Mitaka zodiac star chart" (1949) and "Mitaka Equatorial star chart" (1962). The final mission was completed to observe equatorial stars.

The Repsold transit instrument was designated a Tangible Cultural Property in 2011.

Gautier Meridian Circle Building

Gautier Meridian Circle Building, a Tangible Cultural Property

A circle building contains a French made Gautier meridian circle telescope built in 1903, which the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered and test run at their observatory then in Azabu. As its own building was finished in Mitaka in 1924, it was relocated in 1926.

Astronomical Instrument Museum (Photoelectric Meridian Circle)

Installed in 1982 and active between 1984 and 2000. Nicknamed PMC (Photoelectric Meridian Circle), it continued observation until 1998. The telescope was build by Carl Zeiss.

TAMA300

TAMA300 is a 300-m Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave antenna in operation since 1999. A 300 meters' laser interferometry is installed, which was one of the world's largest of its kind. Technical tests were maneuvered for "KAGRA", a large-scale low temperature gravitational wave telescope which was under construction in Kamioka cho, Gifu Prefecture.

Solar Flare Telescope

It is used to research the relationship between solar activity and magnetic field by infrared polarization observation. Also, it records three types of data simultaneously: visible solar spectrum, Hα ray from the chromosphere, magnetic fields of photosphere and chromosphere.

Related facilities

Old library

Old library

Used as the library and archive between 1930 and 2000 before the current library was built, and used as storage facility presently. A registered Tangible Cultural Property since 2014.

Library

Open to public with books, journals on astronomy and literature along with audio visual materials.

4D2U Dome Theater

The facility offers virtual reality projections as four-dimensional digital universe videos for the public. In 2018, the Advanced Imaging Society awarded NAOJ's movie titled "A Journey Through the Milky Way" the Best VR Science Experience at the Lumiere Awards. The Milky Way is visualized with large-scale astronomic simulations.

Operations

Postgraduate education

Mitaka Campus is part of the Graduate University for Advanced Studies serving for postgraduate research functions, and it hosts Kiso Observatory. Graduate school students from abroad are admitted as special collaborative researchers.

As hub for national astronomic researches

• As being the headquarters of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, it is responsible for advanced technology development and international shared observation.
• Function as the contact point for discovering celestial bodies.
  
• Reports of celestial bodies will be forwarded to The Astronomical Herald
• Consultation for observatories and general inquiries on astronomy is handled at the Astronomy Information Center.
• Ephemeris Computation Office calculates Leap second based on data acquired at Mizusawa VLBI Observatory, reports to International Bureau of Weights and Measures with National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.

Archaeological sites

Throughout the property, there has been numerous archaeological excavation carried out to cover sites dating back to prehistoric Japanese Paloelithic and Jōmon period. Artifacts of Kofun, Nara, and to early modern period are found overlapped, which are called as Temmondai kōnai iseki. It includes a very rare mound with spherical super structure on a square base, one among those four sites found in Japan.

Hosted facilities on-campus

University of Tokyo

• Kiso Observatory
• 15-inch Equatorial telescope

Mitaka City

• Mitaka Picture Book House in the Astronomical Observatory Forest (三鷹市星と森と絵本の家 (Mitaka-shi hoshi to mori to ehon no ie)) houses a chilcren's book library in a renovated residence of the observatory director built in 1915, and opened on 7 July, 2009. The building was designated as the first Tangible Cultural Asset by the city of Mitaka.

Location

• 2-21-1, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo
  
• Access
  • 15 minutes on bus from Musashi-Sakai Station on JR Chūō Line.
  • 15 minutes on bus from Chōfu Station on Keio Line.

Related topics

• National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)
  • Mizusawa VLBI Observatory
  • Nobeyama Radio Observatory
  • Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, finished the NINS project in December 2017
  • NAOJ Hawaii Observatory
  • Ishigaki Island Observatory

External links

• the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Tangible cultural properties database - The Agency for Cultural Affairs (Japanese)

• Solar Tower Telescope
• Observatory History Museum
• The first equatorial observatory