Which amateur astronomer does not dream of his own observatory away from the lights of big cities. For Richard Gierlinger from Schärding in Upper Austria, this dream has come true. The preconditions were good. Richard Gierlinger has been designing and manufacturing large mounts as well as controls for telescopes for many years.

The observatory is built on top of a hill without disturbing light sources and away from roads. The 5.5 meter dome houses the main instrument that can be remotely controlled from the ground floor. The annex building was rebuilt as a workshop. The location is ideal for astronomical observations. On one side the magnificent panorama of the Alps, on the other the view from the top of the 10km distant Schärding.

All that was missing was the primary mirror for the main instrument; a 24 inch parabolic mirror with a focal length of 2828 mm. For the contract to produce a high-precision parabolic mirror for Richard Gierlinger, Alluna Optics was the company of choice. In April, the order was placed. The mirror was finished and coated with a layer of aluminium by mid-September. Wolfram Felber (Alluna Optics) took it upon himself to deliver the parabolic mirror in person and to visit the observatory. Due to the good preparatory work the mirror was easily placed in the special 27-point main mirror frame and attached to the lower end of the open tube largely consisting of carboxylic. After a short adjustment of the focuser, secondary mirror and the main mirror the first starlight could already be captured. The excellent measurement values ??from the laboratory of lambda 1/10PV wavefront (distance between the highest and the lowest point of the surface profile) and a Strehl ratio of .98 were confirmed.

Unfortunately, that night with limited vision due to a full moon causing a bright sky background, only a few objects could be visually observed. Despite a full moon, the Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra showed numerous contours. The globular cluster M13 was resolved to the centre as well as M92 in the immediate vicinity.  

In the future, the Newton Telescope will be used, in addition to visual observation, particularly in CCD photography and the tracking of minor planets and comets. 
 
 

Pictures

For more information about the observatory http://www.gierlinger.cc 
For more information about Alluna Optics http://www.alluna-optics.de