Calar Alto Observatory

Calar Alto Observatory

Enclosure of the 2.2-meter telescope at Calar Alto Observatory
Organization	Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Observatory code	493
Location	Almería, Spain
Coordinates	37°13′25″N 2°32′46″W / 37.22361°N 2.54611°W / 37.22361; -2.54611Coordinates: 37°13′25″N 2°32′46″W / 37.22361°N 2.54611°W / 37.22361; -2.54611
Altitude	2,168 m (7,113 ft)
Website	www.caha.es
Telescopes
Unnamed 3.5 m reflector 37°13′15″N 2°32′49″W / 37.220791°N 2.5468465°W / 37.220791; -2.5468465 Unnamed 2.2 m reflector 37°13′23″N 2°32′46″W / 37.2231427°N 2.5461943°W / 37.2231427; -2.5461943 Unnamed 1.5 m reflector 37°13′30″N 2°32′55″W / 37.2249718°N 2.5484985°W / 37.2249718; -2.5484985 Unnamed 1.23 m reflector 37°13′23″N 2°32′52″W / 37.223074°N 2.5476775°W / 37.223074; -2.5476775 Unnamed 0.8 m Schmidt reflector 37°13′26″N 2°32′54″W / 37.223927°N 2.5483678°W / 37.223927; -2.5483678
Location of Calar Alto Observatory
Related media on Wikimedia Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The Calar Alto Observatory (Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán or Deutsch-Spanisches Astronomisches Zentrum, respectively "Spanish–German Astronomical Centre" and "German–Spanish Astronomical Centre") is an astronomical observatory located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a 2,168-meter-high (7,113 ft) mountain in Sierra de Los Filabres.^[2]

Calar Alto is owned and operated jointly by the German Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, and the Spanish Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Granada, and specializes on the observation of objects in the Solar System.^[2]

The 3.5-meter telescope is the largest telescope in mainland Europe, though there are three larger telescopes on the Spanish island of La Palma at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. The minor planet 189202 Calar Alto, discovered by Felix Hormuth at Starkenburg Observatory in 2003, was named in honor of the observatory site.^[2]

History

The site was proposed in 1970, and was officially opened in July 1975 with the commissioning of its 1.2-meter (47 in) telescope. The site developed due German and Spanish cooperation in astronomy. Eventually four more telescopes were commissioned. The Schmidt telescope was moved to Calar Alto in 1976 from the Hamburg Observatory at Bergedorf, where it had been completed in 1954. It was decommissioned in 2000.

Equipment

The Max-Planck institute owns a 3.5-meter (138-inch), 2.2 m (87 in), and a 1.23 m (48 in) telescope, and an 80 cm (31 in) Schmidt reflector. The 3.5-meter is the largest telescope on European soil with an Equatorial mount. There is also a 1.5 m (59 in) telescope that is owned and operated by the Spanish OAN.

Work

The CALIFA Survey (Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey) is an astronomical project to map 600 galaxies with imaging spectroscopy (integral field spectroscopy (IFS)).^[3]

List of discovered minor planets

Close to a hundred minor planets have been discovered at Calar Alto by astronomers Luboš Kohoutek, Kurt Birkle, Ulrich Hopp, Johann Baur, Krisztián Sárneczky, Gyula Szabó, Felix Hormuth and Hermann Boehnhardt. In addition, the Minor Planet Center, directly credits "Calar Alto" with the discovery of the following minor planets:^[1]

Publications

• Elsässer, H. (1975). "Kurze Berichte über die wissenschaftlichen Vorträge": 53. Bibcode:1975MitAg..36...53E. 
• Lemke, D.; Frey, A.; Hefele, H.; Schulte in den Bauemen, J. (1978). "Observational conditions for infrared photometry on Calar Alto": 98–103. Bibcode:1978MitAG..43...98L. 
• Elsässer, H. (1981). "Calar Alto - bisherige Erfahrungen, künftige Entwicklung". Bibcode:1981MitAG..54...15E. 
• Fried, J. (1987). "Das 3.5-m Teleskop auf dem Calar Alto": 27. Bibcode:1987MitAG..68...27F. 
• Birkle, K.; Hopp, U. (1987). "The Calar Alto 3.5 m Telescope. Operation and Test Results". Bibcode:1987MitAG..68...12B. 
• Hopp, U.; Graser, U. (1990). "Optical quality of the Calar Alto 3.5 m telescope". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 235: 543–548. Bibcode:1990A&A...235..543H. 
• Bizenberger, Peter; McCaughrean, Mark J.; Birk, Christoph Birk; Thompson, Dave; Storz, Clemens (1998). "Omega Prime: the wide-field near-infrared camerea for the 3.5-m telescope of the Calar Alto observatory". Bibcode:1998SPIE.3354..825B. doi:10.1117/12.317219. 
• Lenzen, Rainer; Bizenberger, Peter; Salm, Norbert; Storz, Clemens (1998). Bely, Pierre Y; Breckinridge, James B, eds. "Omega Cass: a new multimode NIR-imager/spectrometer for the Calar Alto Observatory". Space Telescopes and Instruments V. 3356: 493. Bibcode:1998SPIE.3354..493L. doi:10.1117/12.317275. 
• Bailer-Jones, Coryn A. L.; Bizenberger, Peter; Storz, Clemens (2000). "Achieving a wide field near infrared camera for the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope". Proc. SPIE. Bibcode:2000SPIE.4008.1305B. arXiv:astro-ph/0003072 . doi:10.1117/23.395447. 
• Hippler, Stefan; Kapser, Markus E.; Feldt, Markus; Weiss, Robert (2000). "ALFA: three years of experience in adaptive optics with a laser guide star". Proc. SPIE. 4007. Bibcode:2000SPIE.4007...41H. doi:10.1117/23.390397. 
• Wolf, C.; Meisenheimer, K.; Röser, H. -J.; Beckwith, S. V. W.; Chaffee, F. H.; Fried, J.; Hippelein, H.; Huang, J. -S.; Kümmel, M.; Von Kuhlmann, B.; Maier, C.; Phleps, S.; Rix, H. -W.; Thommes, E.; Thompson, D. (2001). "Multi-color classification in the calar alto deep imaging survey". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 365 (3): 681. Bibcode:2001A&A...365..681W. arXiv:astro-ph/0010604 . doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20000064. 
• Graser, U.; Hopp, U. (2001). "Pointing models for the Calar Alto 2.2 M and 3.5 M telescopes". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 251 (2): 737–742. Bibcode:1991A&A...251..737G. 
• Baumeister, Harald; Bizenberger, Peter; Bayler-Jones, Coryn A. L.; Kovacz, Zoltan; Röser, Hermann-Josef (2003). "Cryogenic engineering for OMEGA2000: design and performance". Proc. SPIE. 4841. Bibcode:2003SPIE.4841..343B. doi:10.1117/23.461003. 
• Ziad, A.; Gredel, R.; Aceituno, J.; Borgnino, J.; Hoyo, F.; Irbah, A.; Martin, F.; Thiele, U.; Pedraz, S. (2005). "A site-testing campaign at the Calar Alto Observatory with GSM and DIMM instruments". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 362 (2): 455. Bibcode:2005MNRAS.362..455Z. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09299.x. 
• Sanchez, S. F.; Aceituno, J.; Thiele, U.; Perez-Ramirez, D.; Alves, J. (2007). "The night sky at the Calar Alto Observatory". Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 119 (860): 1186. Bibcode:2007PASP..119.1186S. JSTOR 10.1086/522378. arXiv:0709.0813 . doi:10.1086/522378. 
• Baumeister, H.; Alter, M.; Cárdenas Vázquez, M. C. N.; Fernandez, M.; Fried, J.; Helmling, J.; Huber, A.; Ibáñez Mengual, J. M.; Rodríguez Gómez, J. F.; Laun, W.; Lenzen, R.; Mall, U.; Naranjo, V.; Ramos, J. R.; Rohloff, R. R.; García Segura, A.; Storz, C.; Ubierna, M.; Wagner, K. (2008). "PANIC: the new panoramic NIR camera for Calar Alto". In McLean, Ian S; Casali, Mark M. Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II. 7014. p. 70142R. doi:10.1117/12.788796. 
• Sanchez, S. F.; Thiele, U.; Aceituno, J.; Cristobal, D.; Perea, J.; Alves, J. (2008). "The night sky at the Calar Alto Observatory II: The sky at the near-infrared". Publ. Astr. Soc. Pac. 120 (873): 1244. Bibcode:2008PASP..120.1244S. JSTOR 10.1086/593981. arXiv:0809.4988 . doi:10.1086/593981. 
• Quirrenbach; Amado; Mandel; Caballero; Ribas; Reiners; Mundt; Abril; Afonso (2009). "CARMENES: Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with a Near-infrared Echelle Spectrograph". arXiv:0912.0561  [astro-ph.SR]. 
• Husemann, B.; jahnke, K.; Sanchez, S. F.; Berrado-Navscues, D. (2012). "CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey: II. First public data release". arXiv:1210.8150 . 

See also

• Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
• La Silla Observatory
• List of minor planet discoverers
• Llano de Chajnantor Observatory
• Paranal Observatory
• Very Large Telescope

References

• "Calar Alto Observatory homepage". Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán. Retrieved December 12, 2005. 

External links

• Calar Alto: Darkness In The Infrared ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2009)
• Carta de apoyo del Observatorio de Calar-Alto of April 2013
• bird's eye view
• Guindos, E. "map".