Gahberg observatory

The Gahberg observatory is a private observatory on the Gahberg (860 m), a wooded elevation east of the Attersee in Upper Austria . It is located in the municipality of Weyregg .

The observatory was founded in the late 1980s by amateur astronomers who were looking for a meteorologically favorable location for deep sky observations and astrophotography . The observatory is operated by the Salzkammergut Astronomical Working Group and is designed as a club observatory for use by members. Nevertheless, there is a regular public guided tour, on average around 1000 visitors come to the Gahberg observatory every year.

history

The first modest observation station, consisting of a permanently installed telescope mount and a metal protective box, was built on the Gahberg as early as 1982. The property was initially made available by the municipality of Lenzing free of charge, and in 2000 the property was purchased to enable an extension to be built. The official opening of the observatory took place in 1988 after two years of construction. The main unit formed a Fraunhofer - Refractor . In the following years the outdoor area was expanded with device bases and instrument pillars. In 1990 the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics also installed a meteorite tracking camera on the observatory area, which subsequently also became the property of the sponsoring association.

Sponsoring association

The Salzkammergut Astronomical Working Group was founded in 1980 from members of the Gahberg Astronomical Working Group, which had been active since the mid-1970s. The association is mainly financed through membership fees; the association currently has over 400 members. Since 1983 the Astronomical Working Group Salzkammergut has published the association magazine Astro Info at irregular intervals, and since 1996 the association has also operated the website www.astronomie.at with information on current celestial events.

See also

• People's Observatory
• Amateur astronomy
• European fireball network

Web links

• Gahberg observatory - Weyregg
• Astronomie.at, Gahberg Observatory
• Guest observatory for the members
• Astronomy Workshop 2014

Coordinates: 47 ° 54 ′ 45.6 ″  N , 13 ° 36 ′ 30 ″  E

Individual evidence

1. ↑ AAS article: Association. Retrieved July 29, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Astronomical Working Group Salzkammergut (Ed.): Astro Info . No. 205 . Seewalchen am Attersee November 2010, p. 8 .
3. ↑ Astronomical Working Group Salzkammergut (Ed.): Astro Info . No. 205 . Seewalchen am Attersee November 2010, p. 7 .