OBSERVATOIRE ASTRONOMIQUE DE STRASBOURG

An essential meeting of the sky and the stars, the Astronomical Observatory in Strasbourg is a must to visit absolutely because of its large astronomical telescope of 48.7 cm diameter for 7 m in length, sheltered under an impressive iron dome of 9.2 m in diameter weighing around 34 tons! His story is quite surprising and really begins when Alsace-Moselle is transferred to Germany after the war of 1870. Guillaume I of Germany decides to make the city a symbol of progress by installing a university, a botanical garden and an astronomical observatory. A large dome and its main building, and the meridian rooms with two cupolas are built. The bezel itself, whose lens consists of lentils (unlike telescopes that mainly use mirrors), is manufactured by the German company Repsold & Söhne based in Hamburg. The vagaries of history then change the observatory on several occasions! Today it brings together the Observatory of Sciences of the Universe, an internal school at the University of Strasbourg, as well as a Joint Research Unit between the University of Strasbourg and the CNRS.

The visit of the big dome lasts about 20 minutes, moments of pure happiness before a instrument as beautiful as symbolic. This telescope, the third largest in France after those of Meudon and Nice, is indeed the romantic representation of the work of the astronomer as perceived in the collective imagination. At his feet, one would seem to look at Tintin's mysterious star, and try to pierce the mysteries of the universe. It falls well, several times in the year of the "night evenings" are proposed with observation through the bezel! An unspoiled spectacle organized in partnership with the planetarium of the Jardin des Sciences.