Pico de Coutas

Pico de Coutas is a mountain located in northeastern Watan in the Catancia Range of the Tilarg Mountains. It sits at a peak of 2,840 meters (9,317 ft) and is the site of the Pico de Coutas Observatory (: Observatório do Pico de Coutas) and the Pico de Coutas Laboratory (: Laboratório Pico de Coutas). The peak possesses among the nation's most advanced scientific studies and research. It is Watan's 5th highest peak.

History
Pico de Coutas is located in a remote location within the Cantacia Range, and therefore was not formally documented until 1870. Even so, the mountain's magnitude attracted much attention for its time, and the first ascension was planned by Watanese Celso Cavaco and Aslac Moore, a Lathadun, in 1872. The 1872 ascension did not go to plan however, and resulted in the demise of Cavaco after an unforeseen storm caused the pair to become lost on the mountain's lower south ridge face. Another ascension would not be attempted until 1890, when Tounato Fonteira and his team of 3 reached the peak of the mountain on March 11.

Pico de Coutas Observatory
The Pico de Coutas Observatory (: Observatório do Pico de Coutas) is an astronomical observatory located at 2840 meters on top of the Pico de Coutas in the Catancia Range of the Tilarg Mountains. It is part of the Catancia Observatory (: Observatório de Catancia; ODC) which has additional research stations in or near the Watanese towns of Sanlencia, Sortos, and Rovissa, as well as many partnerships in Vidina, Tiridinia, and Skephon, due to the guardianship it receives from the Watanese Research Institute for Development (IRD).

Plans for an observatory began in 1923, and was commissioned by the auspices of Sociedade Varista, however the structure yielded construction until 1934 due to the spiraling of prices and the Society's lack of funding for the originally modest budget. The project would only regain footing after the observatory and its plans were shifted over to the Watanese government to continue its funding. The 8 metre dome was completed in 1935, under the ambitious direction of Guiomar Sá. It housed a powerful mechanical equatorial reflector which was used in 1936 to formally discredit the. In 1940, Sá funded a dome and a 0.60-meter telescope, and in 1942, a spectrograph was installed.

A 1.06-meter (42-inch) telescope was installed in 1973, funded by the Ordrish Space Agency and was used to take detailed photographs of the surface of Luna in preparation for the Selene missions. In 1975 the astronomers Xián and Mirta Arra were able to formulate a detailed analysis of the composition of the atmospheres on !Mars and !Venus, based on the infrared spectra gathered from these planets. The results showed atmospheres in chemical equilibrium. This served as a basis to predict that those planets had no life - a fact that would be proven and scientifically accepted years after.

A 2-meter telescope, known as the Furtado Telescope, was placed at the observatory in 1980 on top of a 28-meter column built off to the side to avoid wind turbulence affecting the seeing of the other telescopes. It is the largest telescope in Watan. The observatory also has a coronagraph, which is used to study the solar corona. A 0.60-meter telescope (the Sá's T60 telescope) is also located at the top of Pico de Coutas. Since 1982 this T60 is dedicated to amateur astronomy and managed by a group of amateurs, called association T60. Today, the observatory is a popular tourist attraction during the daytime, but is strictly forbidden following sunset.

The observatory consists of:
 * The 0.55-meter telescope (Ocampo Dome);
 * The 0.60-meter telescope (T60 Dome, welcoming amateur astronomers via the Association T60);
 * The 1.06-meter telescope (Sá Dome) dedicated to observations of the solar system;
 * The 2-meter telescope or Furtado Telescope (used with a new generation stellar spectropolarimeter);
 * The HACO-CLIMSO (studies of the solar corona);
 * The bezel Farruco Martis (studies of the solar surface)
 * The Mendo dome, which sheltered a photoelectric coronometer (which studied the Sun);
 * The Sá dome, reassigned to the museum in 2000 and which houses a 1:1 scale model coronagraph.

List of discovered minor planets
The credits the discovery of the following  directly to the observatory (as of 2017, no discoveries have been assigned to individual astronomers):

International Dark Sky Reserve
Officially initiated in 2010, the Pico de Coutas International Dark Sky Reserve (IDSR) was labeled in 2013 by the International Dark-Sky Association. It's the sixth in the world, the first in Alutra and the only one still today in Watan.

The IDSR aims to limit the exponential propagation of light pollution, in order to preserve the quality of the night. Co-managed by the Syndicat mixte for the tourist promotion of the Pico de Coutas, the Cantancia National Park and the Watanese Energy Union, its priority actions are the public education on the impacts and consequences of these pollutions as well as the establishment of responsible lighting in the mountain's territory.

It covers 3,000 km2, or 65% of the central Saldenian municipalities. The IDSR includes 251 municipal spread around the Pico de Coutas and is distinguished in two zones:


 * A core zone, devoid of any permanent lighting and witnessing an exceptional night quality;
 * A buffer zone, in which the territory actors recognize the importance of the nocturnal environment and undertake to protect it.

The IDSR initiated the program "Céu estrelado" (Starry sky), program of reconversion of the 40 000 luminous points of its territory, the program "Guardião das estrelas" (Warden of the stars), program of metrological monitoring of the light pollution evolution, but also the program "Adaptar", project that will identify "trames sombres" (Dark frame: nocturnal biodiversity deplacements).

Pico de Coutas Laboratory
The Pico de Coutas Laboratory is a laboratory and scientific vault located approximately 2 km (1.24 miles) underneath the mountain, with its entrance located at an unspecified location within the observatory itself. The facility was first constructed and established in the year leading up to Watan's involvement in the Second World War, and experiments in the laboratory reflected this. The trials which were held in the laboratory in the years of the Second World War are as of yet still confidential. In fact, the laboratory was unknown to the public until 1981, yet was still in regular usage until then.

Abandoned shortly after the Second World War, the laboratory was cleared for building in 1967 after being commissioned by the University of Alhadas, and restarted operations in 1977. The laboratory was to specialize in neutrino observation, and became the first such neutrino observatory in Watan. It consists of the Coutas Underground Scintillation Telescope (CUST), located 300 m (980 ft) below the surface, the gallium–germanium neutrino telescope located 4,700 m.w.e. deep (2,100 meters) as well as a number of ground facilities. The Coutas Experiment on Sterile Transitions (CEST) is currently (2019) being conducted at Pico de Coutas with aims of understanding sterile neutrinos.

The laboratory itself is located in a 4,000 meter long horizontal tunnel mined specifically for this purpose; this is in contrast to most underground physics laboratories which are placed in abandoned or still in-use mines. The entrance of the tunnel is at a valley at 1,700 meters high from sea level and the tunnel itself is located under the 4,000 meters tall mountain Mount Andyrchi. A small town of Neutrino was constructed in the valley in conjunction with the construction of the laboratory to house the scientists and their families.

The first experiment undertaken at BNO was not underground; it was the Munizo air-shower cosmic ray experiment in 1973. Munizo relied on liquid scintillator detectors to study cosmic ray air-showers. Munizo also made discoveries of astrophysical importance, such as detecting a giant flare in the Crab Nebula in 1989. The Munizo cosmic ray experiment continues as of 2017, and it is being upgraded in to gamma ray telescope. Further upgrades are also planned.

The first underground experiment, the BUST started operations in 1977. It is located 550 meters from the tunnel entrance. It detected neutrinos from the SN1987A supernova. It continues to operate (as of 2022).

More recently, the government of Watan greenlit a proposal to study rarely occurring natural phenomena such as the interactions of s of cosmic origin or with. The laboratory is the largest and most prospective of its kind in Watan, and has been funded in part by outside sources such as Gammel University in Gladomyr and the University of Bellard since 2000.

The scientific vault is a portion of the laboratory which stores up to 160 frozen biological samples and is separate from the rest of the laboratory. Entrance to the vault is regulated even stricter than the laboratory, and was funded by the World Forum Association for Conservation and Wildlife (WFACW) in 1996. The location was chosen for its security and its remoteness, and won from a pool of 12 other candidates. The vault contains such samples as plant seeds, DNA samples of both endangered and unthreatened animals, and living bacteria. Consideration for live vials of several diseases such as were considered, but this idea was quickly discarded by both the laboratory and the WFACW.

As of 2022, the director of the observatory is Sabino Mero-Caldas.

Climate
Pico de Coutas has a (Cwb) with a  temperature regime due to its high elevation. Temperatures rarely exceed 20 C, even during lowland heat waves, and also temperatures beneath -25 C being extremely rare. The is higher than in the surrounding lowlands due to the elevation. Snow cover is permanent during winter months, but melts for a few months each year. is extreme during winter and spring, with February being the clearly coldest month, and May having mean temperatures below freezing. Among lowland climates, the station closely resembles Kiriktik in Nanmaunaktuk for the temperature regime.