Calar Alto Observatory


see

The Calar Alto Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a mountain in the Sierra de Los Filabres range.
Until 2018, Calar Alto was owned and operated jointly by the German Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, and the Spanish Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Granada. It was named Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán / Deutsch-Spanisches Astronomisches Zentrum, "German–Spanish Astronomical Centre". In 2019, the Council of Andalusia takes over the German partner, sharing the observatory with the Spanish National Research Council through its head institute, IAA-CSIC.
Calar Alto telescopes are used for a broad range of observations, from objects in the Solar System to cosmology, including the search for exoplanets.
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.

History

The site was proposed in 1970, and was officially opened in July 1975 with the commissioning of its telescope. The site developed thanks to 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. The observatory hosted the finish of Stage 11 of the 2017 Vuelta a España cycling race, having previously hosted stage finishes in 2004 and 2006.

Equipment

There are 4 main telescopes on site: a,, and a telescope, and an Schmidt reflector.
The 3.5-meter is the largest telescope on European soil with an Equatorial mount.
There is also a telescope that is owned and operated by the Spanish National Observatory and a robotic telescope operated by the Spanish Astrobiology Center.

Work

CALIFA survey

The CALIFA survey is an astronomical project to map 600 galaxies with imaging spectroscopy.

CARMENES survey

The CARMENES survey is a project to examine approximately 300 M-dwarf stars for signs of exoplanets with the CARMENES instrument on Calar Alto's 3.5m telescope. Operating since 2016, it aims to find Earth-sized exoplanets around 2 using Doppler spectroscopy.

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:
21 June 2001
17 January 2001
21 June 2001
124143 Joséluiscorral21 June 2001
213269 Angelbarbero20 June 2001
16 January 2001
18 February 2004

Publications

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