Beine-Nauroy Observatory

Beine-Nauroy Observatory, just outside Reims in northeastern France, is a public astronomical facility built for stargazing rather than professional research.

About Beine-Nauroy Observatory

The observatory is managed by the Reims Municipal Planetarium together with the PlanétiCA association, and sits on a roughly 2,500-square-metre site. Its dome can hold about 15 visitors at a time, with an adjacent building providing space for around 30 people for workshops and lectures.

Telescopes & research

The main instrument is a 410mm f/6 telescope on a fork mount, backed up by a 250mm and a 200mm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, a 102mm apochromatic refractor, and solar telescopes fitted with Coronado H-alpha filters for safe daytime observing of the Sun.

Location & getting there

Beine-Nauroy is a village near Reims, in the Marne department of northeastern France, within the Europe region — close enough to the city for an easy evening visit.

Visiting Beine-Nauroy Observatory

Free public evenings run on Fridays: from 9pm to 11pm in August, September and October, from 8pm to 10pm from November to March, and again from 9pm to 11pm from March to late April. No booking fee applies, making it one of the more accessible public observatories in the Reims area.

See your named star from here

With a 410mm telescope and several smaller instruments on hand, staff at Beine-Nauroy Observatory could, in principle, point toward the exact coordinates of a star you've named. Browse our star-naming packages or the full catalogue to name your own.