Calden Observatory
The Calden observatory was an observatory supervised by an amateur astronomical association . It was located on the northern edge of the core town of the municipality of Calden in the northern Hessian district of Kassel and was closed in 2012.
history
The Calden observatory was operated by the Astronomical Working Group Kassel eV and built around 30 years ago. In 1995, in a large expansion, it received a permanent residence and lecture building as well as two stable domes . The energy supply was initially provided by a solar power system and, since 1996, a wind power system . Since the end of 2004, a newly installed 220 V power supply has been used almost exclusively.
In 2010 it was decided to give up the Calden observatory. It has therefore not been accessible to the public since the end of 2011. The reasons given were the expansion of the nearby Calden airport , declining visitor numbers and the lack of activity of the members of the sponsoring association. The astronomical instruments of the observatory are brought on loan to the North Hesse Student Research Center in Kassel. The Kassel observatory was built on its roof, where public observations are also carried out by the Kassel Astronomical Working Group.
Equipment in 2011
1. Dome
- 300/1600 mm Newtonian telescope on Fornax51 mount
2. Dome
- 200/3000 mm Schaer telescope
- 200/800 mm Newtonian telescope
- Mount on old AD7 with FS2 control
1. External column
- Celestron C8
equipment
- Grating spectrometer
- Semiconductors - photometer
- T-scanner for H-α solar observation
- CCD - camera (SBIG ST-7E) with filter drawer and Astronomik RGB type II filter set
- Field glasses 20 x 80 with tripod
- Interference filter
- Mintron sky camera with monitor
- 6 inch Schmidt camera
Web links
- Astronomischer Arbeitskreis Kassel eV with the Kassel observatory , sponsoring association, on astronomie-kassel.de
Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 50.2 " N , 9 ° 24 ′ 16.7" E