Bavarian public observatory in Munich
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The Bavarian People's Observatory Munich e. V. is one of the largest public observatories in Germany. The observatory is located in Munich 's Berg am Laim district on Rosenheimer Strasse and is located in a former air raid shelter .
history
On August 22, 1946, the Volkssternwarte received approval for Peter Westphal to operate a "celestial observation and guide service". The first public tour took place on May 31, 1947. This date is generally regarded as the foundation date in the association. On July 21, 1947, permission was granted to operate under the name “Volkssternwarte München”. On October 26, 1956, the non-profit association was founded under the name Bayerische Volkssternwarte München e. V. registered in the registry court.
The association has around 570 members (as of August 2010), of which around 10% are volunteers. From 1990 to 2015 Peter Stättmayer was the full-time director of the observatory, after which the asteroid 3398 Stättmayer was named. His predecessor was Hans Oberndorfer , after whom the asteroid (3275) Oberndorfer was named. In addition, there were two other full-time employees who ran the observatory's day-to-day business. Since July 1, 2015, Dr. Benjamin Mirwald Head of the People's Observatory.
The association finances itself for the most part from membership fees, entrance fees and donations , but also receives financial support from the cultural department of the City of Munich .
Guided tours and lectures
The observatory offers evening tours from Monday to Friday. There are also special guided tours for children every Friday. There are special tours for school classes and other groups. In addition, more than 20 generally understandable lectures take place each year, in some of which external speakers such as Harald Lesch and Rudolf Kippenhahn give the layman insights into astronomy.
tasks
The main aim of the association is to convey astronomy in a generally understandable form. This takes place in public tours, tours for school classes and kindergartens as well as in lectures and courses.
In addition, the association enables its members to use the large telescopes for their own observations outside of the guided tours. The amateur astronomers exchange ideas on the topics of astronomy, astrophotography and telescope construction.
Instruments
The larger telescopes are housed in two domes and two shelters on a 300 m² platform at a height of 35 m . In addition, the observatory has a " Carl Zeiss " planetarium with 30 seats, an exhibition room, a lecture hall, an extensive library, a seminar room and its own workshops. A telescope with a 7 "(17.5 cm with 3 m focal length and 30 to 600-fold magnification) aperture, a 16" (40 cm with 4 m focal length) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a 10 "(25 cm with 4 m focal length) folding refractor was used. There are also numerous smaller telescopes which are used when there are a lot of visitors. Since May 2004 the Bavarian People's Observatory in Munich has had a reflector telescope with an 80 cm -Main mirror and 8 m focal length, which is one of the largest publicly accessible telescopes in Germany. The telescope was inaugurated on January 13, 2005 by Munich's Mayor Christian Ude .
Projects outside of normal operation
The Volkssternwarte has numerous active members who are active outside of normal regular operations.
Satellite observations
The satellite observation group has been active at the Volkssternwarte Munich since December 2004. On July 2, 2005, the ISS took the first image with the 80 cm telescope. Since the technology has been continuously improved since then, the pictures show an ever greater wealth of detail.
Star occultations
A group of active members determines the shape and movement of smaller celestial bodies in the solar system with the help of star coverings .
Crescent moon observations
Some members try to observe ever narrower crescent moons. They were the first in the world to capture the crescent moon 5 minutes after the new moon . That was a world record at the time.
Exoplanets
Exoplanets can also be detected with the 80 cm telescope.
photography
Numerous excellent photos were taken on the devices of the public observatory, many of them by Bernd Gährken. Further images will also be made available to the public in the Astro Gallery.
Mirror grinding and telescope construction group
At weekly meetings, the members will build telescopes or grind the necessary mirrors themselves.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://sternwarte-muenchen.de/portrait.html
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of May 22, 2018 in the Internet Archive ): Homepage of the satellite tracking group
- ↑ http://www.euraster.net/results/index.html European Asteroidal Occultation Results
- ↑ http://www.mondatlas.de/other/martinel/sicheln2008/mai/mosi20080505.html World record crescent imaging on May 5, 2008.
- ↑ http://www.free-space.at/gaehrken2/veroef.htm Publications by Bernd Gährken
- ↑ http://www.astrode.de/astro.htm Bernd Gährken, Astronomiehomepage
- ↑ http://photo.sternwarte-muenchen.de/ Astro gallery of the Volkssternwarte Munich
Coordinates: 48 ° 7 ′ 18 ″ N , 11 ° 36 ′ 25 ″ E