Tourists visiting Nha Trang next year will have a chance to visit Vietnam’s very first observatory on Hon Chong Island.
According to Tuoi Tre, the facility will feature a 0.5-meter telescope as well as a nine-meter dome. Both are currently in the final stages of installation and will open to the public in March 2017 after Tet.
The observatory is part of a larger project spearheaded by the National Satellite Center which aims to bolster local scientific interest as well as tourism in Nha Trang. The total cost of the entire project amounts to VND13 trillion (US$600 million).
The coastal city will not be the only locality to feature an observatory, however, as another similar facility is being constructed in Hanoi’s Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park, albeit on a smaller scale. The Hanoi observatory will start receiving visitors in mid-2018 along with the Vietnam National Space Technology Museum.
Tuoi Tre also reports that equipment for both observatories will be imported from Italy. The cost of completing these facilities is estimated around VND120 billion (US$5.2 million).
[Original photo via Tuoi Tre]
