SONEAR Observatory

SONEAR Observatory operates from Oliveira in Brazil's Minas Gerais state, a facility built by a small group of amateur astronomers that has become the only observatory of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

About SONEAR Observatory

SONEAR stands for Southern Observatory for Near-Earth Asteroids Research. It was founded and is operated by a group of amateur astronomers and friends from Minas Gerais, with the site constructed and planned by João Barros, Eduardo Pimentel, and Cristóvão Jacques.

Telescopes & research

The observatory's main instrument is a 45-centimetre reflecting telescope, built in Brazil by engineer Marcelo Moura. It operates fully remotely, with data accessible over the internet from anywhere in the world. A programmed observation schedule assigns sky zones for nightly monitoring, and dedicated software automatically screens the resulting images, separating candidate discoveries from already-catalogued objects. The observatory is credited with discovering Comet C/2014 A4 (Sonear) using this 45-centimetre telescope.

Location & getting there

Oliveira lies in the interior of Minas Gerais state, a mountainous region of Brazil that offers darker skies than the country's major coastal cities.

Visiting SONEAR Observatory

SONEAR operates as a remote, automated research facility run by its amateur founders rather than a staffed public attraction; anyone wanting to learn more should look for current contact details tied to the observatory or its founders before planning a visit.

See your named star from here

An observatory built to scan the sky night after night for faint, moving objects is a reminder of how precisely astronomers track coordinates, the very same coordinates behind a star named through Star Register. Search the catalogue to find your star's position in the sky above Minas Gerais.