Founding of Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory

The Heidelberg-Konigstuhl State Observatory is an astronomical observatory on the Konigstuhl hill above Heidelberg in Germany. Its origins lie in an observatory established in Mannheim in the eighteenth century by the Elector Carl Theodor, which was later moved to Heidelberg, with the main buildings on the Konigstuhl built around the end of the nineteenth century. It was directed by Max Wolf, who pioneered the use of astrophotography to discover asteroids, and who found hundreds of them. The observatory later became part of Heidelberg University as the Landessternwarte and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy is nearby. It remains a centre of research and teaching in astronomy.

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