The Main Building

The Main Building of Hamburg Observatory hosts research groups studying  galaxies beyond our Milky Way using observations at different wavelengths. The administration and library are also located in this building.

Until the 1970s, research at Hamburg Observatory was mainly based on observations performed with on-site telescopes. Later, data collected by telescopes at sites with better observational conditions, for example in Chile and Spain, became more and more significant. The arrival of newer, larger telescopes at these observatories led to the study of galaxies becoming a major new field of research.

Additionally, since the 1980s, international space telescopes have become important observational tools for the astronomers and astrophysicists in Hamburg. These instruments provide access to frequency ranges blocked  by the Earth’s atmosphere.

A radio telescope used for teaching is installed on the roof of the main building.

Fig. 1: The observatory in Bergedorf around 1912, taken from the “Hansa” zeppelin.

Fig. 2:  Supernova Refsdal. Due to its gravity, a galaxy cluster acts as a lens and splits the image of a supernova located in a background galaxy into four single images. Sjur Refsdal, who worked at Hamburg Observatory from 1970 to 2001, predicted this phenomen. (Source: HST space telescope, NASA/ESA 2015).

 

History of Hamburg Observatory

Hamburg Observatory was established in 1833 near the port of Hamburg, at the present-day location of the Museum for Hamburg History. In 1912, the observatory moved to Bergedorf because of the deteriorating observational conditions caused by smoke, light and vibrations from the port and industry in the city.

The main building of the new observatory housed the library, workshops and offices. In the basement, there was a clock chamber for the time service. From here, the time ball in the port of Hamburg was controlled. It provided the exact time for departing ships, which was necessary for determining geographical longitude at sea.

Hamburg Observatory has been part of Universität Hamburg since 1968. Today, astrophysics is a focus of physics research and teaching in Hamburg.

 

Fig. 1: The time ball in the port of Hamburg

Fig. 2: Hamburg Observatory library