Landessternwarte, Hauptgebäude

Orientation & Geography

Europe, Germany, Heidelberg

The Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory (German: Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl) is an historic astronomical observatory located near the summit of the Königstuhl hill in the city of Heidelberg in Germany. The predecessor of the current observatory was originally opened in 1774 in the nearby city of Mannheim but degradation of observational conditions there resulted in a relocation to the Königstuhl in 1898. The observatory forms part of the Center of Astronomy of the University of Heidelberg. The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy opened on an adjacent site in 1967. The current director (since 2006) is Andreas Quirrenbach.