Waldbröl Observatory is reference observatory for the Nebra Sky Disk

Prof. Dr. Wolfhard Schlosser from the Ruhr-University Bochum is a member of the initiative group STScI e. V. and chief astronomer responsible for the investigation of the Nebra Sky Disk. He has officially declared our observatory a “Reference Observatory of the Sky Disk“. The disk discovery site (and its probable use) and Waldbröl observatory are located on almost identical geographical latitude. Therefore, observations of our Bronze Age ancestors can be reproduced analogously by observations of the sky. The complex procedure for the prehistoric determination of the times of sowing and harvesting are of great importance, especially in relation to the school objectives of the STScI.

Prehistoric astronomical procedures and the corresponding sites can be traced and understood. Pupils from Waldbröl, for example, erected a “Nutscheid henge” based on Stonehenge in order to be able to determine the sunrise and sunset at the solstices.