| Stockert Radio Telescope | |||||
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Radio telescope on the Stockert hill |
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| Location | Bad Münstereifel, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany | ||||
| Altitude | 435 m | ||||
| Established | 1956 | ||||
| Closed | 1993 | ||||
| Website http://www.astropeiler.de |
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The Stockert Radio Telescope is a historical radio telescope on a 435 m high hill in Bad Münstereifel, west of Bonn, Germany.
The Stockert hill is located within the district of Euskirchen in the town of Bad Münstereifel, about 1.3 km west from the village of Eschweiler. The hill is mostly covered in forest; to its south runs the Eschweiler Bach, which 3 km further east flows into the river Erft.
Germany's first radio telescope, with a diameter is 25 m, was inaugurated on 17 September 1956 on the Stockert. Until 1993 – since 1979 only for student training – it was used by the University of Bonn and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. In 1999 the installation was listed for its industrial heritage, and since 2005 it is owned by the Nordrhein-Westfalen-Stiftung (NRW-Stiftung), which in 2006 made available €300,000 for restoration.[1] The site is used and taken care of by the Förderverein Astropeiler Stockert, which is has updated the technology and has opened site to the public.