Villa Remedios Geomagnetic Observatory

High above La Paz, Bolivia, at an elevation of 3,950 metres, Villa Remedios Geomagnetic Observatory monitors the invisible pulses of Earth's magnetic field rather than the stars overhead.

About Villa Remedios Geomagnetic Observatory

The observatory was established in December 2002 and is operated jointly by the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. It was built quickly, in just two months, using four small clay buildings to house its instruments.

Telescopes & research

Its main instrument is an FGE variometer, built by DTU Space at the Technical University of Denmark, which measures the X, Y, and Z components of the geomagnetic field. Located roughly 650 km south of the magnetic equator, Villa Remedios works alongside the Huancayo Observatory in Peru to study the equatorial electrojet, a band of electric current high in Earth's ionosphere.

Location & getting there

The observatory sits near La Paz, Bolivia, in the high-altitude Andean landscape that gives the region its distinctively thin air and clear horizons.

Visiting Villa Remedios Geomagnetic Observatory

As a scientific monitoring station rather than a visitor site, access is limited; check with the operating institutions before planning a visit.

See your named star from here

Villa Remedios watches Earth's own magnetic field rather than the stars, but its high, clear Andean setting is a reminder of how special a dark, elevated sky can be for stargazing. Name a star and get its exact coordinates, or browse the catalogue of named stars.