Sternwarte 17 – Andreas Hauf

In Bavaria, in the district of Ansbach, there is an observatory operated by Andreas Hauf for the visual observation and photography of astronomical objects. In addition, the topic of astronomy is to be brought closer to interested people, which is why the observatory opens for visitors once or twice a year.

The construction of the 14 m² observatory began with detailed planning, lasted five months, and was completed in July 2017. During this process, excellent technical advice was provided by Baader Planetarium GmbH. At the beginning, a Celestron 14" EdgeHD was used as the main instrument, which was replaced in 2021 by a PlaneWave CDK14. In addition, a Takahashi Epsilon 130D is used as a fast widefield astrograph. To ensure precise tracking, both telescopes are mounted on a 10Micron GM 2000 HPS II mount. This is placed on a very stable, sand-filled Baader steel pier.

Due to light pollution from the city, the observatory site is located a few kilometers outside Ansbach, at 420 m above sea level. As a result, the sky brightness corresponds to Bortle class 4 (SQM-L value Ø 21.0 mag/arcsec²).