A nice photographic target in the winter sky is the Rosette Nebula in the constellation Unicorn. The cosmic cloud of gas is excited to glow by the open star cluster in the center. The area can be called a “cosmic...
The Small Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 76) is a faint (10.1mag) planetary nebula. The name comes from the similarity with the Large Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27). It is located in the constellation Perseus at a distance of...
Of course our school observatory is also affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. On the one hand, the school lab is ready for operation as an extracurricular learning place. On the other hand, we unfortunately had to cancel...
The planet Mars is currently in a very favorable position in the night sky. You can discover it shortly after sunset as a brightly shining, reddish “star” in the constellation Pisces in the east. It stands...
Our member Frank Bohlscheid is an experienced astrophotographer and regularly shows what is possible with a small telescope. He uses a Newton telescope with an aperture of 20cm (even smaller than at our school...
The Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146) in the constellation Cygnus (above) has an apparent extension of about 10 arc minutes. This is one third of the diameter of the full moon. It is about 3000 light-years away from Earth, so its...
After the drive units of the large dome were overhauled, we had to seal some joints and ducts. Since these cannot be reached by ladders from the outside, we used a lifting platform and also cleaned the dome from pollen...
Eleven years ago, the STScI, together with professional astronomers, was the main organizer of a long-term observation campaign at the Teide Observatory on Tenerife. At that time we investigated the behaviour of a...
This week a group from the HBW-house “Haus am Konradsberg” in Wiehl visited our observatory. After an introduction to the possibilities of the school lab, Klaus Vollmann made a special impression with the...
A distinguished visitor from Barcelona! Nauel (7 years) had already heard about our school observatory and wanted to have a look at the instruments. Under a cloudy sky this was unfortunately only possible by observing...
Our large dome is now more than thirty years old and a renovation was needed. While turning the dome made quite a noise. The polyurethane rollers were brittle, the electrical control was outdated and the motors for the...
Last year we received an email from Leon Advena asking for an internship at the observatory. Unfortunately we do not offer internships, but transfer immediately chief positions. Since then Leon has been our...
