Nearby to my observing site "Gerstenhalm" is an amateur observatory run by the "Sternfreunde Breisgau". I was able to contact them via the internet and a visit to the observatory was arranged. The location is after the mountain peak, on the place indicated by the arrow (approx.)
On the site is also an old sun observatory that is mostly not used anymore because the astronomers use the equipment on the Canary Islands. Here are some domes, most of them are empty.
In one of the domes is this classic Zeiss Jena sun refractor for solar research. Beautiful instrument.
The amateur observatory is built inside a concrete circle that was orginally planned for a very big refractor. Because of the second world war this never came into existance. The "Sternfreunde" built their domes and warm room inside this concrete circle. There are 3 main instruments. In the middle is a C14.
This is the 15" F5 Astrooptik Keller Newton in its fork mount with FS2 control.
And here is the Bath 250mmF4.2 Astrograph (hyperbolical main mirror and corrector) in its fork mount with FS2 control. This instrument is with regard to its optical system comparable to the Takahashi Epsilon 300mm of Halley Observatory.
On the wall inside the warm room was a beautiful picture of the Horsehead nebula made with the Bath Astrograph. It was made using Gas treated Kodak TP2415 film. Beautiful picture.
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