STScI

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On the way to the upper auxiliary station II

After the steel frame of the upper auxiliary station has been completed a few days ago the walls have now been put in place and the shelter building completed accordingly. The station is ready for instrumentation, for...

Setup of our Professional Spectrograph

Our cooperation in the field of research and promotion of young scientists with Macquarie University in Sydney is bearing fruit. The first components of the professional spectrograph for our large telescope were...

On the way to the upper auxiliary station

Our three identical observing stations will get company. In order to build a didactically meaningful bridge from the first scientific steps in the student lab to our large telescope, we will use two secondary stations...

From the Cirrus Nebula to the Witch’s Hand

The summer sky is full of fascinating star clusters and nebulae. But they are all surpassed in size, complexity, and beauty by the Cirrus Nebula. This mystical web stretches over more than six full moon diameters. This...

Galilei in Waldbröl

For the project days at Kopernikus-Gymnasium Wissen from Tuesday, July 18 to Thursday, July 20, 2023, an astronomy project was offered for the first time in several years. It was led by Cathrin Garbotz and Dr. Stephan...

A nebula in Cygnus

Very massive stars can show a very strong mass loss in the final stage of their evolution. Here large amounts of stellar stellar matter and the core of the formerly massive star is exposed. Such stars are called Wolf...

Finally the earth tilts “right” again

Of course, there is no objective “right” or “wrong” in this case, but most amateur astronomers know a subjective one. The inclination of the earth’s axis in relation to the sun influences...

On the way to professional measurements

Thanks to a substantial public grant, we were able to finance a spectrograph for our large telescope. With this instrument we will be able to perform professional measurements of stars and participate in the search for...

Research campaign at STScI

With the instruments of the school observatory, research campaigns can be carried out on a professional level. Our colleague Christoph Quandt from Lübeck has been working on the study of the yellow hypergiant rho...

A new nearby supernova

A week ago, a new supernova, or exploding star, was discovered in the Pinwheel Galaxy, 21 million light-years away. While this event can’t be seen with the naked eye, the equipment in the school lab makes it easy...