IAB-Website - Observing sites

IAB-Website - Observing sites A short overview of our observing sites:
Our commonly used observing sites are divided into three groups

Observing at our home sites in Germany (~51°30' N, ~7°15' E):

"Sternwarte Bochum", Astronomical Observatory Dome II

severe light pollution, used for CCD imaging, tests

Equipment: Lichtenknecker Orion 80 GEM in a 5 m dome, 125 mm f/10 doublet refractor and 80 mm f/8 fluorite refractor

Public Observatory of Herne

severe light pollution, used for CCD imaging, tests

Equipment: self made GEM in a 3 m dome, 125 mm f/13 doublet refractor and f=1100 mm f/10.5 Maksutov lens

Observing sites in the surroundings of our home site (commonly used for newmoon weekend stays):

Observatory "Hoher List", Bonn University, located in the Eifel midlands (50°10' N, 6°51' E)

minor, but well detectable light pollution, used for b/w photography of comets and deep sky objects, CCD imaging

Equipment: heavy GEM (Alt 5 AD) in a removable garden house & 192/202/400 mm Schmidtcamera, 140/200/250 mm Schmidtcamera; different instruments of the Observatory (Schmidtcamera 340/500/1375 mm on heavy fork mounting, 300 mm Astrograph f/5, four lens design on heavy GEM, ...)

open field observing sites at the southern rim of the "Ruhr" area and "Sauerland" midlands (~51°03' N, ~8°33' E)

medium to minor light pollution, temporary used for visual comet and meteor observations in former times used for deep sky photography

Equipment: movable Losmandy G-11 GEM with different instrument configurations

Observing sites for excursions (lasting from a few days up to several weeks):

Jungfraujoch Observatory, Swiss Alps, elevation 3580 m (46°33' N, 7°59' E)

nearly no light pollution, used for photography of deep sky objects in different emissionline bands, zodiacal light pyramid and conterglow phenomena in winter 1984/85

Equipment: heavy GEM (Alt 5 AD), Polaris 2000 GEM´s, f=500 mm f/2.8 "Heliotar" catadioptric lens (120 mm format), f=17 mm to f=300 mm SLR lenses

European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile, elevation 2350 m (29°16' S, 70°44' W)

no light pollution, used for photographical studies of comet P/Halley, southern deep sky objects, zodiacal light pyramid and conterglow phenomena in March & April 1986

Equipment: heavy GEM (Alt 5 AD) and light Polaris 2000 GEM & f=500 mm f/2.8 "Heliotar" catadioptric lens (120 mm format), f=17 mm to f=1100 mm SLR lenses

Special: actual and historic ambient conditions at La Silla (provided by ESO)

Sierra Nevada, Spain (Mulhacen and Pico Veleta), elevation 3150 - 3350 m (37°07' N, 3°20' W)

nearly no light pollution, getting worse! mainly used for photography of deep sky objects in b/w and color during five summer stays from 1984 - 1995

Equipment: different GEM´s (Alt 5 AD, Alt 6 AD-N, Polaris 2000) & different SLR lenses, MPT-200 (192/202/400 mm) Schmidtcamera

Farm Hohenheim, Namibia, elevation 1500 m (23°18' S, 16°23' E)

no light pollution, used for color photography of southern deep sky objects in summer 1995

Equipment: Polaris DX GEM & different medium format lenses (30 mm - 300 mm focal length)

Gornergrat , Swiss Alps, elevation 3250 m (45°57' N, 7°42' E)

nearly no light pollution, used for photography of comet Hale-Bopp in April 1997

Equipment: Losmandy G-11 GEM with different medium format lenses (f=30 mm - f=400 mm focal length), Schmidtcamera 140/200/250 mm

Curacao , Antilles, elevation about sea level (12°23' N, 69°09' W)

medium to well detectable light pollution depending on concrete location, used for solar eclipse photography in February 1998.
Equipment: several tripods, Polaris 2000 GEM with 1100 mm catadioptric lens (f/10.5)

Farm Hakos, Namibia, elevation 1850 m (23°13' S, 16°21' E)

no light pollution, used for color photography of southern deep sky objects in May 2000

Equipment: heavy GEM (Alt 6AD-N) with different medium format lenses (f=35 mm - f=400 mm focal length)

Project: 12" Deltagraph - In June 2002 we installed a 12" Astrograph (f=990 mm, f/3.3) on this site

last updated: 10. March 2001

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