The Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA) and the Planetarium of Lignan are located in Lignan, a mountain village at an altitude of over 1600 a.s.l. in the Saint-Barthélemy valley, about 16 km along the road from the Municipality of Nus.
Opened in 2003, the OAVdA is the only regional astronomical observatory in Italy to have reached a multi-year agreement for research, teaching and educational activities with the INAF, the Italian National Astrophysics Institute. Thanks to the excellent quality of the scientific work carried out, OAVdA researchers are associates of the INAF.
