COAA is the well known astronomy holiday centre, based in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, which is designed to give amateur astronomers the opportunity to use larger telescopes under exceptionally favourable observing conditions and to give their families a superb holiday in one of the sunniest corners of Europe.
Telescopes at COAA include a huge 0.5m f4.5 Newtonian on an equatorial, driven, fork mount in a rotatable dome, a 0.3m f5 Newtonian telescope on a Dobsonian mount and a 0.2m f4.4 Newtonian on an equatorial mount. The equatorially-mounted reflectors have provision for photography or CCD imaging at the Newtonian focus. COAA is IAU MPC observatory number 965.
To find out more about COAA, download a PDF version of our colour brochure here. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this document. If you would like your own free copy of the COAA colour brochure by post, please email us with your postal address.
Up-to-the-minute news about the latest events and equipment at COAA is contained in our newsletter which is available online. You can download a PDF file of the newsletter here. You will need Adobe Reader to read this document.
Our brochure and newsletter concentrate on the astronomy that you can enjoy at COAA. However, the Algarve is a super place to spend a holiday and non-astronomers in the party will look forward to enjoying all the other holiday facilities that are within easy reach of COAA.
You can find out if we have space at COAA when you want to come, by visiting our booking page which also allows you to check availability, prices and discounts for your stay at COAA. As we are becoming booked up further and further in advance, this service has been extended to cover the next 24 months from the latest update. When you have established that we have space at the time you want to visit us, you can follow the links to make an online reservation or, if you prefer to do it offline, you can download and complete this booking form and send it off to us with your deposit.
Our nearest airport is Faro, which is about 50 minutes drive from COAA. A huge number of airlines operate cheap flight from most major European airports directly to Faro. Check this page for a list of links to the airlines that fly from near you to Faro. We strongly recommend that you hire a car to make the most of your stay in the Algarve. Some visitors prefer to travel from Faro airport by taxi and then to hire a car once they are settled. We can make all these arrangements if you check the appropriate options on your booking form. If you are driving yourself from Faro airport to COAA then this page tells you all you need to know or simply search Google Maps for "COAA" to get complete instructions. If you have Google-Earth (tm) installed, then this page will let you practice the route in minute detail although it does not yet show our new roundabout.
Complete weather statistics for COAA are available on our weather page.
A selection of recent images taken by visitors to COAA are available here.
A few years ago, a new member of the solar system was discovered at COAA. Click here to find out more about COAA's own asteroid discovery, 8225 (1996QC).
We have authored many software programs including the industry-standard AstroVideo which you can download freely and try for 21 days.
You can explore which Messier objects are visible from COAA (or from anywhere else) on a chosen date here.
For more information about COAA, brochures, newsletters, booking forms, etc., please contact us at the address at the top of the page.