Göttingen observatory

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The historic Göttingen observatory
Historic Göttingen observatory at dusk

The Göttingen University Observatory is a historical research facility and, after the founding of Vienna and Graz, the third university observatory in the German-speaking area. It is located on Geismar Landstrasse in Göttingen and is now part of the Physics Department of the University of Göttingen .

The university previously operated a second observatory on the Hainberg , 3–4 km northeast of the Göttingen observatory.

First observatory on the city wall

Founding history

First Göttingen observatory

On the occasion of a visit by King George II to Göttingen in 1748, Johann Andreas von Segner was commissioned to set up an observatory. This first Göttingen observatory was set up in 1750 in a tower in the southern city wall that is no longer preserved today, from where one had a clear view to the south. The former syringe house in the apothecary's garden in the street “Klein Paris” (today Turmstrasse) was then demolished in 1897. The observatory started operating in 1751. After Segner's appointment to Halle in 1754, Tobias Mayer took over the management of the observatory.

The establishment of the observatory - especially the financing of the building, personnel and instruments - should lead to progress in cartography according to the ideas of the Hanoverian royal family . The military asked for better maps, the military engineers for topographic maps . The royal interest was therefore less focused on astronomy itself than on the necessary astronomical preparatory work for the creation of good maps and sea maps.

Instruments

Main building of the historical observatory

The main measuring instrument of the old observatory was a large quadrant of the wall. The wall quadrant is a quarter circle with a moveable telescope attached to a wall in a north-south direction. It was used to measure the height of a star above the horizon and its transit time through the southern meridian. The device from 1756 comes from the London workshop of John Bird (1709–1776) and is considered one of the best measuring instruments of its time. Tobias Mayer carried out measurements for his star catalog with this instrument, with a reading accuracy of about two arc seconds. He also made maps of the moon , where he first divided the moon into longitudes and latitudes . After Mayer's death in 1764 Abraham Gotthelf Kästner was entrusted with the management of the observatory. But under Kästner, the observatory was only rarely used; in Lichtenberg's words it was “the unused observatory in Göttingen”. After all, during this time, Johann Hieronymus Schroeter and Wilhelm Olbers , two astronomers who were later very successful elsewhere, received their basic training in Göttingen.

The wall quadrant has been preserved and is on display in the Institute for Astrophysics at the University of Göttingen, along with other devices from the historical collection of the Institute for Astrophysics, such as a Herschel reflector telescope . It is a gift from King George III. which was made by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel and installed by him personally in 1786. It has a speculum metal mirror with a diameter of 21.7 centimeters and a focal length of 3 meters.

University observatory

View from the wall of the observatory around 1835

In 1803 the construction of a new observatory outside the city wall began. The construction was financed by the Anglo-Hanoverian King George III. The builder was Georg-Heinrich Borheck . As a result of the Napoleonic wars , however, the building could not be completed until 1816 under the building officer Justus-Heinrich Müller . The building was in the classical style and had a dome, which was not used for observation purposes, but was only an architectural stylistic device. The first director of the observatory was Carl Friedrich Gauß .

Southern meridian mark 12 km away

In 1819 a meridian circle was set up in the observatory . For this purpose, two so-called meridian signs ( miren ) were set up a few kilometers north and south of the observatory . With these markings visible from the observatory, the meridian circle could be aligned.

At the observatory, Karl Ludwig Harding , who lived in the east wing of the building until his death, worked on his star atlas Atlas novus coelestis , published in 1822 . He also created two sheets for the Berlin Academic Star Maps , an international project carried out by the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences . Furthermore, Harding dealt with the study of variable stars and gas nebulae and comets , of which he discovered several.

In 1833 Gauß and Wilhelm Weber set up the world's first telegraph connection by connecting the observatory with the physical cabinet in Papendiek in the center of downtown Göttingen.

After Gauss' death in 1855, Wilhelm Klinkerfues took over the management of the observatory. He mainly dealt with the determination of star positions and meteorology . Klinkerfues' successor was Wilhelm Schur .

In 1887/1888 the "ornamental dome" was replaced by an observation dome in which a refractor with a 15 cm opening was installed. A deep telescopic pillar would have been necessary for a larger instrument . The dome was renovated in 2008.

From 1901 Karl Schwarzschild , one of the founders of modern astrophysics , worked at the observatory. In 1909 he moved to the Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam .

In the 1920s and 1930s Johannes Franz Hartmann , Hans Kienle , and Paul ten Bruggencate further expanded the field of astrophysics in Göttingen.

After the Second World War , Hans-Heinrich Voigt , Rudolf Kippenhahn and Egon-Horst Schröter worked in Göttingen. In 1960 a solar telescope was put into operation in Locarno- Orselina in Ticino . In 1985 it was moved to the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife .

Hainberg observatory

Observatory on the Hainberg

In 1929 a second observatory was put into operation under the direction of Hans Kienle due to the better observation conditions on the Hainberg. It is located at 9 ° 58 '30 "degrees east longitude and 51 ° 31' 32" north latitude , 347 m above sea level .

The centerpiece of the system is an astrograph with a Cooke triplet lens with an aperture of 34 cm and a focal length of 412 cm, which was procured for the observation of a total solar eclipse on June 29, 1927. The lens was made of special, ultra-pure glass that is still permeable to the near ultraviolet. To observe the eclipse, the 4-ton device was brought to northern Sweden and then set up on the Hainberg.

With the help of an objective prism , which is no longer preserved, the flash spectrum of the sun was recorded, i.e. the emission lines of the chromosphere , which can be observed at the moment the sun is completely covered by the moon. A guide scope with a Fraunhofer lens with an aperture of 25 cm and the same focal length as well as a larger mount later completed the device.

In the years 1935 to 1937, a Schmidt camera with 36 cm aperture and 2 m focal length based on a design by astro-optician Bernhard Schmidt , who suddenly died in 1935, was completed at Zeiss in Jena and installed in Göttingen.

The building has an observation dome with a diameter of 8 m and a lifting platform with a 2 tonne load capacity, which is currently defective.

Since the beginning of 2009, the Amateur Astronomical Association Göttingen has owned the Hainberg Observatory. Guided tours for the interested public take place there at regular intervals.

New use in historical rooms from September 2008

Two graduate schools and the LichtenbergKolleg of Georgia Augusta are currently located here. In

  • the Göttingen Graduate School of Social Sciences and
  • the Graduate School for the Humanities Göttingen

the university’s doctoral training is brought together in structured programs. In this context, the LichtenbergKolleg will create an international forum for scientists in the humanities and social sciences in the historical observatory, which will enable concentrated research and interdisciplinary cooperation.

Göttingen Gauss Dome Community

In 2005, the Göttingen Gauß Kuppel Gemeinschaft eV set itself the goal of making the observatory dome usable again. For the restoration of the dome from 1886, which warped when an air mine detonated in the Second World War and could no longer be rotated and opened since then, donations of 200,000 euros were expected. Donors who donated more than 2500 euros were presented with a bronze Gauss statue, limited to 99 copies, made by the Göttingen natural stone company Bachmann & Wille GmbH. The goal was achieved on July 25, 2008: the dome has since turned and opened again.

Directors

From 1751 to 1816 the directors ran the old observatory on Turmstrasse, which was ready for occupancy in 1751 and was demolished in 1897. Carl Friedrich Gauß was director of the old and then the new observatory until 1816, which was ready for occupancy in 1816. After Gauss' death in 1855, the observatory was managed by two provisional directors until 1868.

In 1868 the management of the observatory was split up: department A was responsible for practical astronomy, department B for theoretical astronomy and geodesy. Department A was headed by Wilhelm Klinkerfues and, after his death, Wilhelm Schur , and Ernst Schering was director of Department B. After Schering's death in 1897, the separation of the departments was lifted.

In 2008 the observatory was rededicated. Since then, it has housed graduate schools and the Lichtenberg College as a "historical observatory".

From To Director (s)
1751 1754 Johann Andreas von Segner
1754 1762 Tobias Mayer
1762 1763 Georg Moritz Lowitz
1763 1789 Abraham Gotthelf Kästner
1789 1804 Karl Felix von Seyffer
1804 1807 Karl Ludwig Harding
1807 1855 Carl Friedrich Gauss
1855 1859 Wilhelm Weber , provisional director Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet , interim director
1859 1868 Wilhelm Weber , provisional director Wilhelm Klinkerfues , provisional director
1868 1884 Wilhelm Klinkerfues Ernst Schering
1884 1897 Wilhelm Schur Ernst Schering
1897 1901 Wilhelm Schur
1901 1909 Karl Schwarzschild
1909 1921 Johannes Hartmann
1921 1924 ?
1924 1927 Hans Kienle , interim director
1927 1939 Hans Kienle
1939 1941 Otto Heckmann
1941 1961 Paul ten Bruggencate
1963 1986 Hans-Heinrich Voigt
1987 1994 ?
1994 1996 Klaus Beuermann
1996 2008? Stefan Dreizler

literature

  • Klaus Beuermann (Hrsg.): Principles about the construction of new observatories with relation to the observatory of the University of Göttingen. By Georg Heinrich Borheck. Göttinger Universitätsverlag, Göttingen 2005. ISBN 978-3-938616-02-4 ( online ; PDF; 4.6 MB)
  • Hartmut Grosser; Hans-Heinrich Voigt: The University Observatory. In: Dietrich Hoffmann (editor): “Designed for studying”: the museums, collections and gardens of the University of Göttingen. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2001, pages 188-190 (directors of the observatory).

Web links

Commons : Göttingen University Observatory  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. See archived copy ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tourismusverein-friedland.de
  2. gausskuppel.de
  3. extratip-goettingen.de ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.extratip-goettingen.de
  4. gausskuppel.de (PDF; 551 kB)

Coordinates: 51 ° 31 '42.5 "  N , 9 ° 56" 35.1 "  E