Astro-lab Winter term 2023/2024


Dec 1 2023: The astrolab is booked full. Interested students can be put on the waiting list only. Consider to attend in autumn instead. Dates are from September 23 - 27 and from October 7 - 11. 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!


Slides of the presentation on the astrolab Oct 19 2023 during the 1st lecture on "Introduction to Astronomy & astrophysics"(in German)

The preliminary list of participants.

Students on the preregistration list for September/October 2024.

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 19 - Mar 1 2024:

  • The astrolab will be held fully in presence at the Landessternwarte on the Königstuhl.
  • More information about the astrolab in early October 2023 can be found in a booklet circulated with the confirmation of participation here . We anticipate that the outline of the astrolab in February/March 2024 will be very similar.
  • The E-mail with the confirmation of participation will be mailed out by the end of January 2024. 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
Note: As part of the astro-lab to be held from February 19 - March 1 2024, observations will be carried out with the 70cm telescope of the Landessternwarte Heidelberg. Since weather is normally pretty poor in February/March, the observations will be performed during the lecture period in the Winter-term 2023/2024. Observing sessions are offered Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Since we suffered from bad weather in previous Winter seasons (mostly only a few nights of the 30 nights offered were useful) we will carry out the observations with two groups, with a maximum of 4 students each back to back. The first group at a given day is at the telescope from 16.30h - 19:15h, the second group from 19:30h - 22.15h.

The following dates in Winter 2023/2024 are offered:

Date Start Observer Weather Assistant
30. 10. 16:30h Bergmann, Gebhardt, Sattler, Sülberg rain Heidt
30. 10. 19:30h Kissel, Seither, Sinn, Viviente rain Heidt
31. 10. 16:30h Beier, Bromann, Giesler, Matejcek cloudy Rajpoot
31. 10. 19:30h Beidinger, Ordowski, Walter, Zacher cloudy Rajpoot
6. 11. 16:30h Frank, Escanuela Nieves, Krause, Sattler rain Heidt
6. 11. 19:30h Heinz, Knie, Kruse, Uebener rain Heidt
7. 11. 16:30h Bromann, Giesler, Kuleff, Matejcek mostly cloudy Rajpoot
7. 11. 19:30h Schneider, Viviente, Waßmer, Zacher cloudy Rajpoot
8. 11. 16:30h Benz, Leeb, Papadimitriou, Walter variable clouds Rajpoot
8. 11. 19:30h Beidinger, Kissel, Ordowski, Seither variable clouds Rajpoot
13. 11. 16:30h Bergmann, Gebhardt, Nadella, Walter rain Heidt
13. 11. 19:30h Benz, Leimenstoll, Lobanov, Schneider rain Heidt
14. 11. 16:30h Frank, Kuleff, Schwefer, Wohlleben cloudy Heidt
14. 11. 19:30h Yulai Shi, Yuting Shi, Song, Zhao cloudy Heidt
15. 11. 16:30h Beier, Leeb, Papadimitriou, Sinn cloudy Heidt
15. 11. 19:30h Krause, Kruse, Sülberg, Waßmer rain Heidt
20. 11. 16:30h Bromann, Matejcek, Nadella, Sinn rain Heidt
20. 11. 19:30h Heinz, Knie, Uebener, Viviente rain Heidt
21. 11. 16:30h Giesler, Kuleff, Schwefer, Wohlleben clouds Rajpoot
21. 11. 19:30h Beidinger, Kruse, Ordowski, Sinn rain Rajpoot
22. 11. 16:30h Beier, Benz, Papadimitriou, Leeb clouds Rajpoot
22. 11. 19:30h Krause, Lobanov, Sülberg, Zacher clouds Rajpoot
27. 11. 16:30h Frank, Kegel, Moccerino, Zeller snow Rajpoot
27. 11. 19:30h Leimenstoll, Lobanov, Schneider, Viviente snow Rajpoot
28. 11. 16:30h Gleis, Paulus, Romanelli, Walter snow Rajpoot
28. 11. 19:30h Song, Yulai Shi, Yuting Shi, Zhao snow Rajpoot
29. 11. 16:30h Beier, Benz, Sattler, Sinn cloudy Rajpoot
29. 11. 19:30h Heinz, Knie, Nadella, Uebener cloudy Rajpoot
4. 12. 16:30h Frank, Nadella, Paulus, Sinn - Rajpoot
4. 12. 19:30h Beidinger, Krause, Ordowski, Sülberg - Rajpoot
5. 12. 16:30h Giesler, Kueleff, Timmer, Zacher - Rajpoot
5. 12. 19:30h Gleis, Kruse, Schneider, Waßmer - Rajpoot
6. 12. 16:30h Dierich, Leeb, Papadimitriou, Romanelli - Rajpoot
6. 12. 19:30h Heinz, Knie, Leimenstoll, Uebener - Rajpoot
11. 12. 16:30h Kegel, Mocerino, Walter, Zeller - Heidt
11. 12. 19:30h Lobanov - Heidt
12. 12. 16:30h - - Rajpoot
12. 12. 19:30h Song, Yulai Shi, Yuting Shi, Zhao - Rajpoot
13. 12. 16:30h Benz, Beier - Rajpoot
13. 12. 19:30h - - Rajpoot
18. 12. 16:30h - - Heidt
18. 12. 19:30h - - Heidt
19. 12. 16:30h - - Rajpoot
19. 12. 19:30h - - Rajpoot
20. 12. 16:30h - - Rajpoot
20. 12. 19:30h - - Rajpoot

HowTo: Pls. register online for the astrolab as detailed below. Then pls. indicate via a GOOGLE spreadsheet all dates, where you would be available for an observing evening. Based on the number of participants and their availability, we will then build groups with a maximum of 4 observers with fixed dates for the observations. At the day of the observations you are scheduled for, you will receive an E-mail from the assistant in charge between 13h and 14h. He will let you know if observations will take place or not! Registration is now open with the observations starting on October 30. On October 26 the first assignment of observing nights can be found on that page. It will be updated every Thursday.

You can also register at a later stage. Once the first round of scheduled observations is over, new dates for the unsuccessfull students/groups will be defined as well as observing dates for the participants who have registered later on. The assignment of the dates will always been made based on the entries in the GOOGLE spreadsheet.

The assistant for the observations is Bhavesh Rajpoot or Jochen Heidt

Logistics and transportation: Meeting point for the observations is at the gate of the Landessternwarte.

If you come by car, pls. leave it just to the right hand side in front of the gate.

For the ones who require public transport to come up, Bus 39 leaving Hauptbahnhof every full hour (16/19h) is recommended. You can alternatively hop on Bus 39 a few minutes later from the Alois-Link Platz (it is a 10min walk from the Bismarckplatz to the Alois-Link Platz). Arrival at the Landessternwarte is about 25minutes later. You have to walk about 400m from the bus stop to the gate of the Landessternwarte following the sign. Alternatively you can take the Bus 30 leaving the bus stop Peterskirche at 16.28/19.28, arrival at the Landessternwarte about 12min later. Note, however, that you need to find your way to the telescope in that case. Please note also that there is some street work going on at the Friedrich-Ebert Anlage, which means that the bus stop Peterskirche is not available at present. A "Ersatzhaltestelle" has been prepared. The bus nr. 30 leaves (at present) in front of the Hotel "Regina" about 200m walk towards the Bismarkplatz from the bus stop Peterskirche.

Going down: Bus 39 leaving at 19.32h or Bus 30 leaving at 19.46h from the Landessternwarte (1st group). There is no bus running at times when the 2nd group is done with their observations. Instead the "Ruftaxi" which runs at 22.28h from the bus-stop at Landessternwarte has to be used. It needs to be called 30min in advance at 0621-1077077 for a reservation. The assistant at the 70cm telescope will take care of this. The Ruftaxi is free of charge for the ones with a "Deutschlandticket" or "JugendticketBW", otherwise it costs 1,50 Euro per ride/person.

Preparation and outline of the observations: Pls. download the script for the observations here . For the evening pls. go through the parts 1.1 and 1.2 and prepare for the observations by working on the questions. At the begin of the evening you will first get an introduction to the telescope and the CCD-camera by the assistant followed by a discussion on what you have done for the preparation of the evening. The data taken during the night will be reduced and analysed as part of the astro-lab in February/March 2024.

Pls. have warm clothes with you. It can be very cold at the Königstuhl during the night.

In case not all participants werde able to conduct their observations during the dates offered (e.g. due to bad weather), we may arrange further observing sessions in January 2024.

Observations with the 70cm telescope are voluntarily, they are not a requirement to pass the astrolab.



Registration


Astro-lab PhD students: February 19 - March 1 2024

Dates: Monday, February 19 through Friday, February 23 and Monday, February 26 through Friday, March 1 2024.
Full day, starts at 8:45 AM daily



Astro-lab Bachelor students WPAstro3:

Alternatively, February 19 - 23 or Monday, February 26 - Friday, March 1 2024.

Full day, starts at 8:45 AM daily.




Astro-lab Master students MVAstro1 or MVSpec:

Alternatively, February 19 - 23 or Monday, February 26 - Friday, March 1 2024.

Full day, starts at 8:45 AM daily.




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

    Registration required!

    • Ms Wright, LSW Heidelberg, Tel: 06221 - 541781 or online (preferred). If the former, 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 11 tasks will be offered. An introduction to the tasks 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 will be 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 2024 are from September 23 - 27 and from October 7 - 11. 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: 16. 10. 2023