Gudrun Wolfschmidt

Cultural Heritage of Astronomical Observatories

We present the results of the ICOMOS international symposium “Cultural Heritage of Astronomical Observatories (around 1900) – From Classical Astronomy to Modern Astrophysics” (Oct. 2008). The objective of the symposium was to discuss the relevance of modern observatories to the cultural heritage of humankind and to select partner observatories which, due to the date of their construction or to their architectural or scientific importance are comparable to Hamburg Observatory, as international cooperation partners for a serial trans-national application.

Strasbourg Observatory in German Times

In 1872, Strasbourg University Observatory was founded by the German government as a model observatory — for its construction, its instrumentation as well as its the staff. Unique working conditions were offered. The 49cm refractor was at that time the largest in the German empire and showed the importance given to Strasbourg Observatory. The director and the staff in Strasbourg in the German time from 1872 to 1918 were first-class astronomers. But already in 1872 and again in 1895, one did not succeed to introduce the new topic of astrophysics. Thus Strasbourg became famous for the field of classical astronomy, i.e. compiling catalogues of stars with data like positions, magnitudes, proper motions and so on, as well as calculating orbits of planets and comets according to the formulae of celestial mechanics.

Early German plans for southern observatories

As early as the 18th and 19th centuries, French and English observers were active in South Africa. Around the beginning of the 20th century, Heidelberg and Potsdam astronomers proposed a southern observatory. Then Gottingen astronomers suggested building an observatory in Windhoek for photographing the sky and measuring the solar constant. In 1910 Karl Schwarzschild (1873–1916), after a visit to observatories in the United States, pointed out the usefulness of an observatory in South West Africa, in a climate superior to that in Germany, giving German astronomers access to the southern sky. Seeing tests were begun in 1910 by Potsdam astronomers, but WW I stopped the plans. In 1928 Erwin Finlay-Freundlich (1885–1964), inspired by the Hamburg astronomer Walter Baade (1893–1960), worked out a detailed plan for a southern observatory with a reflecting telescope, spectrographs and an astrograph with an objective prism. Paul Guthnick (1879–1947), director of the Berlin observatory, in cooperation with APO Potsdam and Hamburg, made a site survey to Africa in 1929 and found the conditions in Windhoek to be ideal. Observations were started in the 1930s by Berlin and Breslau astronomers, but were stopped by WWII. In the 1950s, astronomers from Hamburg and The Netherlands renewed the discussion in the framework of European cooperation, and this led to the founding of ESO in 1963.

The Merz Company: A Global Player of 19th Century

In the early 19th century, as a result of the Continental System, the Bavarian workshops achieved global leadership in high quality optical-mechanical instrument-making thanks to the work of Joseph von Fraunhofer and his successors like Merz. The Merz Company was an extremely successful organization during the more than 100 years that they existed. Their impressive market areas characterize Merz as one of the early global players in the field of scientific instruments, especially in building of optical-mechanical instruments of high precision. Its influence on scientific instrument-making by far exceeded Fraunhofer’s work.

DIVISION IX/COMMISSION 41/WORKING GROUP ASTRONOMY AND WORLD HERITAGE

The WG was created in 2008 to progress UNESCOs Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative (AWHI) jointly with the World Heritage Centre, following the signing of a formal Memorandum of Understanding between the IAU and UNESCO.

BERNHARD SCHMIDT AND THE SCHMIDT TELESCOPE FOR MAPPING THE SKY

Abstract Bernhard Voldemar Schmidt (1879-1935) was born in Estonia. He ran an optical workshop in Mittweida, Saxonia, between 1901 and 1927. Astronomers appreciated the quality of his telescopes. Starting in 1925, working freelance in Hamburg Observatory, he developed a short focal length optical system with a large field of view. He succeeded in inventing the “Schmidt Telescope” in 1930, which allows the imaging a large field of the sky without any distortions. Shortly after Schmidt’s death, the director of the observatory published details on the invention and production of the Schmidt Telescope. After World War II, Schmidt telescopes have been widely used. The first large Schmidt telescope was built in 1948, the “Big Schmidt” (126 cm), Mount Palomar, USA. Schmidt telescopes are also important tools for cosmology. The result of the Palomar Observatory Sky Surveys (1949-1958, 1985-1999) is a data base of about 20 million galaxies and over 100 million stars, supplemented in 1971 by the ESO Schmidt for the southern sky. Also high resolution spectrometers can be fitted to the Schmidt telescope. The 80 cm Schmidt telescope of Hamburg Observatory, planned since 1936, finished 1955, is on Calar Alto, Spain, since 1975. Combined with two objective prisms, it was used for a Quasar survey project.

Telescopes Made in Berlin: From Carl Bamberg to Askania

Marking the anniversary of the telescope’s invention, these collected essays highlight a number of significant historical episodes concerning this well-loved instrument, which has played a crucial role in Man’s thinking about his position – literally and philosophically – in the universe.

COMMISSION 41 WORKING GROUP on ASTRONOMY AND WORLD HERITAGE

What follows is a short report on the Business Meeting of the Astronomy and World Heritage Working Group held on Thursday August 6, 2009. This was the first formal Business Meeting of the Working Group since its formation following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the IAU and UNESCO on Astronomy and World Heritage in October 2008.

TYCHO BRAHES INSTRUMENTE

Tycho Brahe erkannte aufgrund seiner astronomischen Beobachtungen die Notwendigkeit, verbesserte Instrumente zu konzipieren und zu konstruieren. Bei der genauen Diskussion der instrumentellen Entwicklungen wird auf die Frage eingegangen, ob hier Tradition oder Fortschritt uberwiegt. Einerseits stutzte sich Tycho auf die drei wichtigen antiken Instrumente Quadrant, Triquetrum und Armillarsphare und lehnte neuere mittelalterliche Entwicklungen wie Astrolab und Torquetum ab, andererseits erkannte er die Mangel und verbesserte in innovativer Weise viele Eigenschaften der klassischen Instrumente. Besonders bemerkenswert ist die Schaffung neuartiger Instrumente (Groser Mauerquadrant 1582, Sextanten, Halbkreise) sowie die Entwicklung neuer Mess- und Auswertemethoden. Im Rahmen seiner Beobachtungen der Nova 1572 und des Kometen 1577 setzte sich Tycho uber die geltenden aristotelischen Vorstellungen hinweg. Andererseits deutete er den Kometen in klassischer Weise auch astrologisch als negatives Vorzeichen. Mit seinem Tychonischen Weltsystem versuchte er, einen Ausgleich zwischen dem antiken geozentrischen Weltbild und dem copernicanischen Weltsystem.

Special Colloquium on the History of Astronomy

J 17 Development of Radioastronomy – prehistory and the first decades J 18 Hyades and Pleiades as a kind of “clock” in the astronomy of archaic cultures – The function and representation of these open clusters in prehistoric and protohistoric time as well as among indigenous people J 19 A Pioneer of the Theory of Stellar Spectra – Rado von Kovesligethy J 59 The Sky in the World View of the Australian Aborgines J 60 X-ray astronomy in Germany – the successful establishment of a new field of science J 61 Erich Schoenberg (1882–1965) – Early Scientific Career in Tartu (Dorpat) (1907 to 1918) J 62 IUE – Also Pioneering Observing and Archiving Strategies J 63 The Bronze Age Astronomy – a hypothetical Model J 67 Pre-Euclidean geometry on the sky disk of Nebra? J 68 Astronomical Orientation of aWest Hallstatt Burial Chamber J 84 On the Orientation of Megalithic Tombs in Northern Germany J 214 Astronomic-statistical Analysis of Circular Symbols on Golden Hats (Bronze Age)