Memambetsu Magnetic Observatory

Memambetsu Magnetic Observatory sits in Hokkaido, Japan, where it has quietly measured the Earth's magnetic field rather than the stars above it since the middle of the twentieth century.

About Memambetsu Magnetic Observatory

Memambetsu is a branch observatory of the Kakioka Magnetic Observatory, run as part of Japan's geomagnetism monitoring network. Observations there began in 1949, and the station has been a member of INTERMAGNET, the international real-time geomagnetic observatory network, since 1992. For more than fifty years it recorded the geomagnetic field and geoelectric voltage, serving an auxiliary role for the Japan Meteorological Agency. The site became unstaffed in 2011, when its atmospheric electric field observations were also terminated, though its geomagnetic monitoring role continues.

Location & getting there

The observatory is located in Memambetsu, Hokkaido, in northern Japan — a region chosen, as with many magnetic observatories, for its distance from the electrical interference of major cities.

Visiting Memambetsu Magnetic Observatory

As an unstaffed scientific monitoring station rather than a public astronomy venue, Memambetsu is not set up for stargazing visits or telescope viewing. Anyone interested in the site's geomagnetic research is best directed to the Japan Meteorological Agency's own information pages.

See your named star from here

Because Memambetsu focuses on measuring the Earth's magnetic field rather than observing the sky, it isn't a place to view a named star in person. Wherever you do stargaze, though, a star named through Star Register keeps the same fixed coordinates, which you can look up any time in the catalogue.