The Astronomical Observatory, the first building of the university complex, was erected in 1877 and inaugurated in 1881. It was crucial to isolate this place from urban emissions and disturbances from other institutes to enable precise observations. Hence, Hermann Eggert, the architect of the Imperial University, chose to build the structures away from the university grounds, surrounded by a vast undeveloped area, encompassing both the Botanical Garden to the north and west and the Astronomical Institute to the south. In the imagery from around 1880, the fences of the Botanical Garden and Rue de l’Université were not yet erected. The observatory’s large dome houses an equatorial telescope with an aperture of 49 cm, which was considered the best in the German Empire upon its installation in 1881. Today, it ranks as the third largest dome in France, following those of the observatories in Meudon and Nice. During the renovations conducted at the time of our shooting at the Planetarium Strasbourg, we could only observe it from the outside.
This episode is published under CC-BY 4.0
Please credit as follows
Photo: Sven Nemeth
Published by: Nemeth/Star Productions (https://nemethstarproductions.eu)
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