Calar Alto Observatory

Calar Alto Observatory

Organization	Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia
Location	Almería, Spain
Coordinates
Altitude	2,168 m (7,113 ft)
Webpage	www.caha.es
Telescopes
telescope	3.5 m reflector
telescope	2.2 m reflector
telescope	1.5 m reflector
telescope	1.23 m reflector
telescope	0.8 m Schmidt reflector
Asteroids discovered: 4 (63429) 2001 MH5 June 21, 2001 (94223) 2001 BU53 January 17, 2001 (99258) 2001 MF5 June 21, 2001 (124143) 2001 ME5 June 21, 2001

The Calar Alto Observatory (Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán or Deutsch-Spanisches Astronomisches Zentrum, respectively "German–Spanish Astronomical Centre" and "Spanish–German Astronomical Centre") is an astronomical observatory owned and operated jointly by the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia – CSIC) in Granada, Spain. It is located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a 2,168-meter-high (7,113 ft) mountain in Sierra de Los Filabres.

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.

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

2.2 meter at Calar Alto

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)).

See also

• Llano de Chajnantor Observatory
• Paranal Observatory
• La Silla Observatory
• Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
• Very Large Telescope
• European Extremely Large Telescope

External links

• Calar Alto: Darkness In The Infrared ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2009)
• Carta de apoyo del Observatorio de Calar-Alto of April 2013