Volkssternwarte Kirchheim
The Volkssternwarte Kirchheim is a public observatory in Kirchheim , about 15 kilometers south of the Thuringian state capital Erfurt .
History of the observatory
In 1968, the students Gunter Freydank and Jürgen Schulz began with astronomical observations. Between 1969 and 1972 they built a small observation station with a 12 cm reflector telescope , followed by a 30 cm Cassegrain telescope between 1974 and 1977 . At the same time, a sliding roof observatory was built in-house at the current location of the public observatory .
The Kirchheim community took over the building and the existing instruments in 1977 and an astronomy specialist group was founded at the local cultural association . In 1979 the six meter high dome was erected on the site of the observatory, and in 1982 the 500 mm Newtonian telescope was put into operation. At that time it was one of the largest telescopes constructed by amateurs in the territory of the GDR . In 1985 the observatory was expanded to include a lecture building with guest rooms.
From 1978 until the fall of the Berlin Wall , weekly summer camps were held for young amateur astronomers. In addition, the observatory was also used by guest observers.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Astronomy Section was transformed into a non-profit association in 1990 with the name “Volkssternwarte Kirchheim e. V. ”, which in 1992 was able to conclude a partnership agreement with the Vereinigung der Sternfreunde (VdS) to set up a central holiday observatory in Germany. Since then, conferences, seminars and workshops have been held regularly with participants from all over Germany and neighboring EU countries.
The Newtonian extension on the 50 cm telescope was completely rebuilt in 2008. Today it allows vignetting-free sky photography with cameras up to 35mm format. A system of ring swallows enables a quick change from photographic to visual observation. A fan behind the main mirror now ensures a significant reduction in tube seeing. A projector supported by EU funds was installed in the lecture room. After two years of planning, a new 60 cm Cassegrain telescope was put into operation in the dome in March 2009.
Furnishing
In the sliding roof hut on the computer-controlled German mount :
- Primary focus Cassegrain telescope 300/1500/4500 mm with Sital mirror
- Cutter-Schiefspiegler 250/5000 mm from Lichtenknecker
- Takahashi TOA-130
- Zeiss AS refractor 80/1200 mm and 110/1650 mm
In the 6 m dome on a remote-controlled Zeiss VIII mount with a high-precision worm wheel:
- Newtonian telescope 500/2500 mm
- Zeiss AS refractor 200/3000 mm and 110/1650 mm
- Zeiss camera 300/450/900 mm with a corrected field of view of 5 × 5 ° (dismantled in 2009)
- 24-inch Cassegrain telescope with f / 3 primary focus (corrector) and f / 8 secondary focus
Transportable instruments
- Celestron C8 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflecting telescope
- Lichtenknecker bassoon refractor 127/1900 mm
- Zeiss Telementor 63/840 mm
Camera technology:
- Canon EOS 300D
- Canon EOS 350D with filter conversion
- AlphaMaxi with blue-sensitive KAF401E sensor from OES
- SBIG STV camera
- SBIG-STL6303E with AO-L
In addition, there is a wide range of eyepieces , filters and adapters, Herschel prisms for observing the sun, a protuberance approach and options for extensive graphic documentation.
Observation offers
The Volkssternwarte Kirchheim offers weekly public observations and supervises student working groups and school project work. What is unique about the observatory is the offer to interested amateur astronomers to observe the instruments as guest observers.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Schulz, Jörn Kaufmann: The Volkssternwarte Kirchheim as a holiday observatory of the VdS. (No longer available online.) In: VdS-Journal. June 1997, pp. 45f. , formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 6, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 50 ° 52 ′ 12.3 " N , 11 ° 0 ′ 37.3" E