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Shadow dance

The four large moons of Jupiter regularly cast shadows on their planet during their orbit. Our club member and teacher at the Gesamtschule Waldbröl Günter Dombrowski captured this spectacle with a short image sequence...

At dizzying heights

Working at the dome slit is not popular in our group. When you are balancing with tools at a height of several meters above our main telescope and actually always lack a hand to hold on to, a certain tension likes to...

Star trails

If one points a fixed camera at the sky and leaves the shutter open, the rotating earth causes star trails in the image because of the long exposure. The length of these trails depends on the exposure time. This image...

Substation assembly

The “foundation stones” for our secondary station in the student laboratory in the form of a row of bricks are bricked and the telescope foundation with the telescope column are concreted. Soon a wooden...

The second wedding

Almost exactly two years after the first “wedding” between our main telescope and the dome building, we could celebrate the second “wedding” between the main telescope and its optics. This...

Partial Solar Eclipse

On Thursday, June 10, 2021, an annular solar eclipse took place over the north polar region, which could be observed here as a partial solar eclipse. Around noon, the moon covered up to a maximum of 13% of the solar...

Gerhard Wirths 1948 – 2021

Our friend and supporter of the first hour Gerhard Wirths passed away on April 27. He was one of the first to get involved after the presentation of the project plans for the observatory and to become active for its...

Optics in the main wash

Our main mirror needed a cleaning before installation. This is what one does with water. For this purpose we lined the transport box, dissolved dishwashing detergent without additives and filled the pool with water...

The heart of the observatory

Currently, we are concentrating our work on our large telescope. After the electromechanical control of the mirror doors has been realized, the mounting of the main mirror on an air bag as well as its sensor system has...

And it moves after all…!

At the moment, we are concentrating our work entirely on completing our main instrument. Currently, this includes the cooling unit of the main mirror, the electric mirror doors and especially the telescope control...

Uwe Schröder 1961 – 2021

Completely surprisingly we have lost a friend. As an astrophysicist, Uwe dedicated his interest to the stars, as a high school teacher to the next generation and as a longtime member of STScI to the development of the...