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| Organization | Turun Ursa ry | ||||||
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| Observatory code | 064  | ||||||
| Location | Kevola,Paimio,Finland | ||||||
| Coordinates | 60°25′12″N22°45′54″E / 60.42000°N 22.76500°E /60.42000; 22.76500 | ||||||
| Established | 1963 (1963) | ||||||
| Website | www | ||||||
| Telescopes | |||||||
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  Location of Kevola Observatory | |||||||
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TheKevola Observatory is located in Kevola inPaimio in South-WesternFinland, some 35 km east from the city ofTurku. Theobservatory is currently owned byTurun Ursa ry, a local astronomical association operating in Turku area. The buildings of the observatory include an observatory dome, azenith observatory, and a house for recording observations.
Kevola Observatory has code064 in theIAU/MPC observatory list. The main-belt asteroid1540 Kevola was named after the observatory.
The observatory was built in 1963 byTähtitieteellis-optillinen seura (Astronomy-Optical Society) on a small hill on lands of the home farm ofHilkka Rantaseppä-Helenius. She worked at the time as an observer atTuorla Observatory ofUniversity of Turku. The association was founded byYrjö Väisälä,Liisi Oterma, Hilkka Rantaseppä-Helenius, and other astronomers working at University of Turku.
The association was terminated in 1983. In 1986 the observatory building was passed to Turun Ursa, also founded by Yrjö Väisälä. The land of the observatory was rented from a local farmer until 2002, when Turun Ursa received a grant fromViljo, Yrjö ja Kalle Väisälän rahasto (Viljo, Yrjö and Kalle Väisälä Fund) to purchase the land.
The observatory dome houses a 50 cm anastigmaticSchmidt-Väisälä camera, which was earlier located atIso-Heikkilä Observatory, where it was used in an asteroid hunt to find 807 minorplanets and 7comets. The telescope has a 50 cm corrector menisculus and a 60 cm primary mirror with focal length of 1031 mm. It has a 6.7 degree field of view on 12x12 cm film plates, making it ideal for searching asteroids. Attached to the main telescope are two guide telescopes: an 18 cm and an 8 cm refractor.
The zenith tower originally housed a 250/5150 mmzenith telescope that was used to observe the movements of theaxis of theearth. After theTähtitieteellis-optillinen seura was ended, the telescope was moved to Tuorla Observatory. As the zenith tower does not have a dome but a roof that opens to the sides, and has therefore little use for normal observations, it remains unused.
