Astronomy in Peru
Ph.D. José Kaname Ishitsuka Iba
Astronomy Division
Director of Huancayo Observatory
Instituto Geofísico del Perú - IGP

Contents
 Ancient Astronomy
 XIX century astronomy
 XX century astronomy
 Astronomy at Geophysical Institute of Peru Astronomy Against Terrorism - APRM 2002

Ancient astronomy
Pre-Inca

Caral

ChavinInca

5000 years

1200 BC - 200 BC

1438 AC - 1532 AC

3

Caral Was a society where there were not: 1. Wars 2. Sacrifices

 Perhaps, the most important person was a womenastronomer.

4Chanquillo
Oldest solar observatory of America

52000 years old

Human side and climate changes

6Stellar groups Since Caral culture, representation of stellar groups
were done.

7Chimu1000 to 1200 AC

8

Amauta9

Catholic church imposition

Harvard Astronomical Observatory inPeru

 In 1890, Bailey established the Boyden Station near
Arequipa, Peru, and, between 1891 and 1927,
astronomers used various telescopes and a meridian
photometer to photograph stars in the southern sky andrecord their physical characteristics.

Henrietta Leavitt(July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921) ‘the women that discovered
how to measure the Universe’14Geophysical Institute of Peru
Observatories
IGP

Huancayo

SicayaAncón
MAGDAS

JROAncónLima

Huancayo

JROCuscoIca

Beginning of IGP

Construction of the observatory

Detector Forbush

 Cosmic Ray observations
begun with a Forbush
detector that was installed in1936

 Unfortunately a fire
destructed electronics ofdetector

Solar observations at Huancayo Observatory
Huancayo
Observatory
was established in 1922
by Carnegie Institution ofWashington
AHaleTypeSpectrohelioscope wasinstalled in 1936
Mutsumi Ishitsuka madesolar observations since
July of 1957 to 1972

Solar observations at Huancayo Observatory

A new Coelostat
replaced the Hale
Type
spectrohelioscope in1960s, then a newera of solarobservations begun

A refurbished spectrohelioscope in Ica

A fire damaged part ofspectrohelioscope
NAOJ provided someparts and a refurbishedspectrohelioscope wasinstalled in IcaUniversityAstronomy Against Terrorism
The Educational
Astronomical Observatory
Project in Perú

Mutsumi Ishitsuka
Instituto Geofísico del Perú(IGP)
APRM - 2002

Coronographic Observatory• The idea to build a Coronagraphic
Observatory was borne in Kyoto Universityin 1951
• Professor Joe Ueta traveled to Huancayo
Observatory in 1956, had success withcoronagraphic observations• I moved to Huancayo Observatory in 1957

Huancayo Observatory• Belongs to the Instituto
Geofísico del Perú,
Geomagnetic
Observatory• Altitude: 3200 m.a.s.l.
• Founded in 1922 by theCarnegie Institution ofWashington

SKY PHOTMOMETER AT HUANCAYO OBSERVATORYSky conditions at Salinas

Sky condition at Cosmos

Sky condition on both sites

Sky condition at Cosmos

Cosmos Observatory• Searched many
possible places for theobservatory in Perú
• A place named
Cosmos, 70 km fromHuancayo• Altitude: 4,600 m.a.s.l.
• In 1972 begun theconstruction of theCosmos Observatory

コロナグラフの設計• 架台部分の図面はシンポ工業（現日本電産シンポ株）の図面に書かれており、話には聞いていたのですが、図面を見るのは初めてです。
• 私がシンポに入社する前の話ので、どんな物かぜんぜん知りませんでした。
一度会社で資料が残っていないか調べて見たいと思いますが・・• 図面からするとリングコーンの技を使って駆動している様なのですが？
追尾精度などはどの様なものか興味が有ります。

CEREMONY TO CELEBRATE THE COMPLETION OF THE CORONAGRAPH
IN JAPANMAY 1965

RECEIVING THE CORONAGRAPH IN HUANCAYOSEPTEMBER 1966

SKY PHOTOMETER AT THE INSTALLATION SITE OF THE
CORONAGRAPHMAY 1967

SET UP OF THE ECUATORIAL OPTICAL BENCH SEPTEMBER 1978

CONSTRUCTION OF THE SLIDINGROOF1975 - 1977

OPENING CEREMONY OF THE“COSMOS SOLAR OBSERVATORY”
OCTOBER 22, 1978

CORONAGRAPH AND THE SLIDING ROOF

TUNE UP OF THE TELESCOPEOCTOBER 1976

IDEALISTIC PANTINGS ON THE WALLS OF THE
LABORATORY AT COSMOSOCTOBER 31, 1988

EQUATORIAL OPTICAL BENCHCOMPLETELY DESTROYEDOCTOBER 31, 1988

PARTS OF THE SLIDING ROOF
OCTOBER 31, 1988

AND MORE DESTRUCTION ...

A New Observatory• In 1995 the Ministry ofEducation of Peru
proposed to construct
an Educational
AstronomicalObservatory• Must be near the capital
Lima

The Site• Distance to Lima:270 km• Altitude: 396 m• Distance to thePan-American
road: 7 km
• Place: Jahuay Hill
• Area: 9 km2• 45% of the year,
clear skyOther projects• A new planetarium for Lima, a Japanese
government donation, thanks to Professor
Masatoshi Kitamura

Acknowledgements• Would like toacknowledge thepeople that worked tobuild COSMOS, also
the governments ofPeru and Japan• Thanks to the people inJapan for theircontributions to build
the new educational
Observatory• I want to recognize thegreat resistance, formany years of Peruvianpeople, against theterrorism.
• Their heroic attitude
will be retained in mysoul and heart, forever.
• Popularization ofAstronomy is a
powerful means toavoid violence.

COSMOS CORONAGRAPH
andMutsumi Ishitsuka

Last visit to Cosmos
Mutsumi Ishitsuka
2003年11月

天文学の普及と教育
天文学も科学が無いペルーには観測装置だけを設置するのでは国の為にならない。
子供の頃から天文学の面白さと楽しさを知らせる必要がある、そして大人になってからも天文学を愛して科学の重要性が分かる様になる。
子供達を教育する先生達も同時に天文学の教え方を教える必要がある。
日本の天文学教育のレベルは高いのでもっと世界に羽ばたいて欲しい。

FMT Telescope Flare Monitoring Telescope fromHida Observatory to Solar
Observatory of Ica National
University - 2010

 Data Analysis WS in Peru and Japan Papers tu publish from data taken inPeru

Two students of Ica University are
doing master degree in Brazil

First Moreton Wave 2014

First Moreton Wave
detected in Peru, March29th 2014

Astronomy
 A 60 cm telescope wasdonated to Peru, is the biggest
in the country Installed temporally in Ica
University in 2013

 Will be part of the Educational
Astronomical Observatory atJahuay Hill

PHOTO CREDIT: Yvonne Kei-Nam Tang (Cornell University)

Radio Astronomical Observatory
SicayaFirst WaveElectricity happenings
March 20 of 2012

April 26 of 2012

Radio Astronomy in Peru Having a big radio telescope inPeru is almost imposible

 Telephone Company donated to
IGP in 2008

 Will be a good instrument toeducate new scientists, capacity
building:- Astrophysics- Instrumentation- Data Analysis

Radio Astronomy in Peru
 Running cost is high, and funds
for it are not available

 Possibly Science Foundation ofPeru (Concytec) will implement
National Facility funds in thefuture.

 National Astronomica

Observatory of Japan
collaborate to beguine
operations

Variabilidad de emisiones maser

S. Goedhart et al. (2003), Telescopio HartRAO 26m

Potential for the future Very Long Baseline

Interferometry (VLBI) Interferometry within SouthAmerica

 Caravan-SUB(Bartkiewicz, A. et al. 2005)

Caravan-sub Project

NASE - Network for Astronomy
School Education
 In 2014 we teach how to tech
astronomy to 100 schoolteachers

 To monitor if teachers learn
how to teach, we visited 24
schools with our 3D systemand telescopes. Almost 5, 000
could enjoy astronomy.

Reflections
 To avoid unnecessary destructions and robbing, we have tomake people feel proud of their institutions, then they willprotect observatories.

 To make people proud of their institutions, we have tomake, since they are young, to understand importance of
science and the best way is trough astronomy education.

Gracias por su atención
jose.ishitsuka@igp.gob.pe

Observatorio Wanka