Caprile Observatory is a small private-owned astronomical observatory located in the Apennine Mountain ridge of Tuscany, Italy.
The Observatory is the result of a complete DIY project from Niccolò Coli (myself) and Marco Cipriani, two passionate astrophotographers who joined forces in summer 2020 to design and build the structure and the electronics / automation.
The philosophy behind the project was to create an eco-friendly structure that would perfectly blend with the surrounding natural landscape, providing all the functionalities to be remotely-controlled from the city.
The choice ended up with a 2x2m roll-off housing realized in local chestnut wood, fir and polywood, with minimal use of concrete.
For details about the construction phases and the challenges we faced, take a look at Marco’s blog here.
Update September 2021: during summer 2021 the observatory went through a complete re-painting of the exterior surfaces with a high protective coating against blue stain, mould and rotting.
Conveniently located in one of the very few remaining low light polluted areas in the region (Bortle 4, 20.9 mag/arcsec2), and with almost 360° unobstructed view from 30deg altitude, the observatory constitutes an ideal spot for both broadband and narrowband DSO astrophotography of galaxies and gas nebulae.
