www.baader-observatories.com
Teachers, students, and the astronomy enthusiasts of Großenhain were very pleased when the decision was made to build an observatory on an old ventilation shaft of the venerable school building. Some resistance had to be overcome: is it not money thrown away to build an observatory right in the middle of the city? On the other hand: how many visitors can you reach with an observatory that is located far away from any development? Astronomy for everyone is possible even without deep-sky objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula, or the Pleiades!
Thanks to the professional support of Baader, who had already accompanied the construction, a large platform was also built, which goes back to a suggestion by Mr. Baader. This platform not only serves for observing with a beautiful view, but also provides a good “buffer” for larger groups when it gets crowded inside the dome.
The originally planned remote control with transmission, for example into the classrooms, was not realized. The effort involved is not justifiable for an observatory of this kind and — what is a look at the monitor in the classroom compared with the view through the eyepiece in the dome!
We are very satisfied with the dome, which will certainly adorn our observatory for a long time to come and which even withstood the tornado that caused severe destruction in Großenhain in 2010 completely without damage.
