Last Autumn, as a part of an excursion conducted by the PhD fellowship I am in, I got to visit one of the prettiest optical telescope in Bavaria - Wendelstein Observatory.
It is a set of two optical telescopes on top of the Wendelstein mountain at a height of about 1838 m. It is operated by the University of Munich (Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet, Muenchen) and is just about an hour's drive from the city. It was originally designed as a solar observatory, but since 1980s it has been used for night observations of stars and galaxies as well. Sitting on top of this mountain, there is a splendid view of the Bavarian country side and the alps from this observatory.
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| Wendelstein Observatory, Bavaria, Germany |
Since 2011, the observatory has a 2m Fraunhofer telescope, much improvement from the previous 80 cm one.
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| View from the peak of the mountain. |
Along with this, the observatory has a 40 cm Cassegrain telescope as well. In a year there are about 155 clear nights when the observations can be done. These days, since there are many other facilities which provide much better data than this one, this observatory is primarily used by the university students as a part of their practical exercises. However, it is still used by present day astronomers quite often. You can find more information about the observatory here.
It is worth visiting this place not just for the telescope, but this area also serves as a great spot for hiking, skiing and recreation.
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