Valongo Observatory

The observatory holds various instruments and telescopes used for positional astronomy such as the measurement of astronomical objects, and tracking transient astronomical events, and astrophotography. Most of the observatory’s instruments date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the major equipment is an equatorial refracting telescope, manufactured by Cooke & Sons, and a refractor made by Brazilian instrument maker José Hermida Pazos in 1880. It also houses a Coudé reflector telescope made by Zeiss.^[1][3][4]

Apart from the telescopes, it houses other instruments such as sextants, theodolites, prisms, diffraction gratings, spectroscopy equipment and photographic equipment. It also maintains timekeeping instruments such as chronographs, pendulum clocks, and marine chronometers for determining sidereal. Various instruments were often used in conjunction, such as telescopes paired with chronographs and micrometers for scientific use.^[1][3]

• List of astronomical observatories