Astro-lab Winter term 2025/2026

Slides of the presentation on the astrolab Oct 16 2025 during the 1st lecture on "Introduction to Astronomy & astrophysics I"(in German)

The preliminary list of participants

Students on the preregistration list for September/October 2026

You MUST register with your University account (Bachelor/Master students) or your institute account (PhD students). Registrations with E-mail addresses eg using gmail, gmx or other provider will _NOT_ be accepted and simply be ignored!!!

Notes on the astrolab to be held from Feb 23 - Mar 6 2026:

  • The astrolab will nominally be held at the Landessternwarte on the Königstuhl. As we may suffer from heavy construction work during the astrolab we may be forced to move to the seminar rooms 56-61 at the Philosophenweg. Any change will be announced in due time.
  • As part of the astro-lab observations with the 70cm telescope of the Landessternwarte Heidelberg will normally be offered during the lecture season. However, as there is heavy construction work going on at the Landessternwarte at present, no observations are possible at least until Christmas. If possible, we will offer observations with the 70cm telescope during the astrolab in Feb/Mar 2026. This will be announced in due time.
  • Information about the previous astrolab in September/October 2025 can be found in a booklet circulated with the confirmation of participation here . We anticipate that the outline of the astrolab in February/March 2026 will be very similar.
  • The E-mail with the confirmation of participation will be mailed out by mid-January 2026. It will contain further details about the outline. If necessary, an online presentation on the outline of the astrolab will be announced.


If you have any question, please send me an E-mail at jheidt at lsw.uni-heidelberg.de

Registration


Astro-lab PhD students: February 23 - March 6 2026

Dates: Monday, February 23 through Friday, February 27 and Monday, March 2 through Friday, March 6 2026.

Full day, starts at 8:45 AM daily



Astro-lab Master students MVAstro1 or MVSpec:

Alternatively, February 23 - 26 or Monday, March 2 - 6 2026

Full day, starts at 8:45 AM daily



Astro-lab Bachelor students WPAstro3:

Alternatively, February 23 - 26 or Monday, March 2 - 6 2026


Full day, starts at 8:45 AM daily




  • Location: Landesternwarte Heidelberg
  • Organized by: Prof. Dr. J. Heidt and Prof. Dr. A. Quirrenbach

    • How to register


    • Online (preferred) or Ms Wright, LSW Heidelberg, Tel: 06221 - 541781. If the latter, please provide address, phone number and course (PhD, Bachelor or Master). In case of Bachelor or Master, pls. provide also the week preferred and matrikel number. If you are from a different faculty, please provide this information in the "additional remarks" section.

    Further information

  • Procedure: There is no special preparation for the astro-lab required. Altogether 10 tasks will be offered. An introduction to the tasks and an outline of the astrolab in autumn 2025 can be found in this document. During the one-week astro-lab about 2-4, during the 2-week astro-lab about 6-8 tasks shall be worked on in groups of two (scripts will be given on site or be made downloadable from the WEB). Individual tasks will be assigned by the organizers. Once a task is completed by an individual group, it will be discussed with one of the responsible assistants. There is no need for a written summary or any homework.

  • Literature: It would be useful to bring your own textbooks, e.g.
  • Schneider: Extragalactic astronomy and cosmology
  • Shu: The Physical Universe, University Science Books

  • Very useful: Bring your own notebook for working on the tasks and/or searches in the internet (WLAN/DHCP available). For the data reduction as part of Tasks 1 and 11 dedicated notebooks are available. Knowledge of SW-tools like Origin, Excel or Gnuplot to e.g. fit functions to data would be an asset.

  • Due to space constraints the number of participants is limited to 40 students per week.

    The dates for the next astrolab during the Summer term 2026 are from September 28 - October 9 2026. If you prefer to take part during this period, send me an E-Mail. You will be put on a pre-registration list and be informed and allowed to register for that event before it is made public. Your participation will be guaranteed!

    Maintained by Jochen Heidt
    Last modified: 15. 10. 2025