Tachibana Observatory

Tachibana Observatory is a public observatory in Takazaki, a district of Miyakonojo, run by the city as a base for tourism and science education. It opened in 1991 and calls itself Hoshi no Todai (星の燈台), the lighthouse of the stars.

Telescope and planetarium

Staff guide visitors through the sky with a large telescope and explain what is on view. By day it shows the Sun, the Moon and bright stars; at night it turns to the stars of the season. The building also has a planetarium with seasonal programmes. A renovation begun in 2025 replaces the large telescope and adds a deck on the south side.

Night sky survey

The Environment Agency ran a national stargazing survey, Zenkoku Hoshizora Keizoku Kansatsu (全国星空継続観察), in which local groups measured how dark their night sky was. In the winter round of early 1997, the square in front of the observatory ranked fourth in the country.