STScI

News

General

Das Tor ins Weltall öffnet sich bald

Trusted journalist Arndt Gaudich caught up on our work progress, reports on the upcoming commissioning of our large telescope, and on our new colleagues.
Article: Das Tor zum Weltall öffnet sich bald

25. July 2022
General

Wolfhard Schlosser 1940 – 2022

We have lost a great teacher and friend of the school observatory. Prof. Dr. Wolfhard Schlosser was a founding member and honorary president of our association. He passed away on July 14 after a long illness. Wolfhard...

18. July 2022
Observations

Shadow show

The telescopes in our School Lab are good for observing the planets. Right now, an opportunity is presenting itself with Jupiter and Saturn. Although Saturn is relatively low above the horizon and the air turbulence is...

18. July 2022
Technology

Air for the stars

The main mirror of our large telescope is relatively thin, but still weighs 80kg. To maintain the nominal mirror shape during telescope movements, it lies on an air bag, whose pressure is adapted to the respective...

17. July 2022
General

Our third dome

In addition to our ‘upper’ auxiliary station at the school lab, we also operate a ‘lower’ auxiliary station. This very first station was already built downhill (i.e. below) our service building...

18. June 2022
General

On the way to the auxiliary station

Next to the school lab we will install our heavy 40cm telescope. For this purpose, we have already poured a separate concrete plate and installed the mounting pier. Astronomy really has a lot to do with concrete. Now...

25. May 2022
Observations

The moon in May 2022

The phase of the moon at the beginning of May 2022 allowed to test the videography technique to capture high resolution and high contrast lunar photos. Thereby with an astronomical color camera (here: ASI183MCpro) and a...

16. May 2022
Observations

The Pinwheel Galaxy

It is May! The twilight phase is getting longer and longer: currently one waits already more than 2.5 hours after sunset until it is dark and the first photons can be captured. During my journey into the universe...

6. May 2022
General

Heavy metal positioning

In order for a telescope to accurately correct for the Earth’s rotation and accurately track objects in the sky, its polar axis must be aligned exactly parallel to the Earth’s axis of rotation. To achieve...

17. April 2022
General

Heavy metal in motion

The digital controller, its software and new encoders for our large telescope have now arrived from the USA. We will not only be able to control the telescope but also to completely compensate for structural mechanical...

28. February 2022
Technology

Digital cameras

Our colleagues Sophia, Katharina and Lucia have tested all our CCD cameras today. This includes shots that provide the pixel noise and give information about the quality of the readout electronics. Other shots provide...

5. February 2022