STScI

News

A new milestone

We normally work on technical challenges whose solutions usually run in the background. This is also the case with the construction of our large telescope, which places very high demands on the accuracy of its...

First public observation day

After some interested persons had contacted us via our website for observations, we now used the good weather for an open observation day. We were able to welcome around 30 visitors. As the sun is at its maximum...

Honoured by the Minister President

The Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, invited volunteers from the Oberberg district to a reception to honour their commitment. The board of the school observatory, Dr Thomas Eversberg and Dr...

A wide-field telescope

Our combined funding application to the EU LEADER Oberberg program, the Hans Hermann Voss Foundation and the Rotary Club Gummersbach for a wide-field telescope and its instrumentation (mount, camera, filter) was...

An astronomy course on site

Pupils at Engelbert von Berg-Gymnasium in Wipperfürth chose astronomy as a specialisation course and found out about our technical equipment and the opportunities for astronomical work at our site. The weather was...

Astrophotographer tinkers with spectrometer

While I was at the observatory on a quiet Saturday, soldering away at a defective controller for a mount, I received a message from a club colleague: “Can you please take a look at which eyepiece we can use for...

A speedrun

Would you like to know how long it takes to take a photo of the sun? That’s why I went to the observatory and did a speedrun for a photo of the sun for you 5 minutes arrival. Put things down, unlock everything 15...

A new dome slit

Our fiberglass dome was in urgent need of repair. The running surfaces of the dome slit were in a catastrophic condition and made a terrible noise when the slit was opened. We already had concerns about opening the dome...

A storage container provides space

It was slowly getting cramped in our service building. Many telescopes and telescope mounts as well as chairs for the seminar room were in the way at important places. This has now been remedied. The company Säbu from...

The sun: Our star and the polar lights

The sun is the star around which our planets revolve. It plays a crucial role for life on Earth by providing light and heat. But the sun is also responsible for spectacular phenomena, such as the auroras. The sun goes...

… and then came the polar lights

Typically, the electrons from a mass ejection from the sun take two to three days to reach Earth. And since a lot of matter is ejected from sunspots in particular, strong auroras could certainly be expected from the...