1.
Arizona
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Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western United States and the Mountain West states and it is the sixth largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, Arizonas border with Mexico is 389 miles long, on the northern border of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the states to be admitted to the Union. Historically part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain, after being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase, Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Alpine, in addition to the Grand Canyon National Park, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments. To the European settlers, their pronunciation sounded like Arissona, the area is still known as alĭ ṣonak in the Oodham language. Another possible origin is the Basque phrase haritz ona, as there were numerous Basque sheepherders in the area, There is a misconception that the states name originated from the Spanish term Árida Zona. See also lists of counties, islands, rivers, lakes, state parks, national parks, Arizona is in the Southwestern United States as one of the Four Corners states. Arizona is the sixth largest state by area, ranked after New Mexico, of the states 113,998 square miles, approximately 15% is privately owned. The remaining area is public forest and park land, state trust land, Arizona is well known for its desert Basin and Range region in the states southern portions, which is rich in a landscape of xerophyte plants such as the cactus. This regions topography was shaped by volcanism, followed by the cooling-off. Its climate has hot summers and mild winters. The state is well known for its pine-covered north-central portion of the high country of the Colorado Plateau. Like other states of the Southwest United States, Arizona has an abundance of mountains, despite the states aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern-day France or Germany. The worlds largest stand of pine trees is in Arizona
2.
Focal length
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The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light. For an optical system in air, it is the distance over which initially collimated rays are brought to a focus. A system with a focal length has greater optical power than one with a long focal length. For a thin lens in air, the length is the distance from the center of the lens to the principal foci of the lens. For a converging lens, the length is positive, and is the distance at which a beam of collimated light will be focused to a single spot. For a diverging lens, the length is negative, and is the distance to the point from which a collimated beam appears to be diverging after passing through the lens. The focal length of a lens can be easily measured by using it to form an image of a distant light source on a screen. The lens is moved until an image is formed on the screen. In this case 1/u is negligible, and the length is then given by f ≈ v. Back focal length or back focal distance is the distance from the vertex of the last optical surface of the system to the focal point. For an optical system in air, the focal length gives the distance from the front. If the surrounding medium is not air, then the distance is multiplied by the index of the medium. Some authors call these distances the front/rear focal lengths, distinguishing them from the front/rear focal distances, defined above. In general, the length or EFL is the value that describes the ability of the optical system to focus light. The other parameters are used in determining where an image will be formed for an object position. The quantity 1/f is also known as the power of the lens. The corresponding front focal distance is, FFD = f, in the sign convention used here, the value of R1 will be positive if the first lens surface is convex, and negative if it is concave. The value of R2 is negative if the surface is convex
3.
Telescope mount
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A telescope mount is a mechanical structure which supports a telescope. Telescope mounts are designed to support the mass of the telescope, many sorts of mounts have been developed over the years, with the majority of effort being put into systems that can track the motion of the stars as the Earth rotates. Fixed-altitude mounts usually have the primary optics fixed at an angle while rotating horizontally. They can cover the sky but only observe objects for the short time when that object passes a specific altitude. Transit mounts are single axis mounts fixed in azimuth while rotating in altitude and this allows the telescope to view the whole sky, but only when the Earths rotation allows the objects to cross through that narrow north-south line. This type of mount is used in Transit telescopes, designed for precision astronomical measurement, Transit mounts are also used to save on cost or where the instruments mass makes movement on more than one axis very difficult, such as large radio telescopes. Altazimuth, altitude-azimuth, or alt-az mounts allow telescopes to be moved in altitude, or azimuth and this meant until recently it was normally used with inexpensive commercial and hobby constructions. Since the invention of digital tracking systems, altazimuth mounts have come to be used in all modern large research telescopes. Digital tracking has also made it a popular telescope mount used in amateur astronomy, besides the mechanical inability to easily follow celestial motion the altazimuth mount does have other limitations. The mount also has blind spot or zenith hole, a spot near the zenith where the rate in the azimuth coordinate becomes too high to accurately follow equatorial motion. These mounts also require a third axis to de-rotate the field as the telescope tracks, alt-alt mounts, or altitude-altitude mounts, are designs similar to horizontal equatorial yoke mounts or Cardan suspension gimbals. This mount is an alternative to the mount that has the advantage of not having a blind spot near the zenith. It has the disadvantage of having all the mass, complexity and these mounts may include a third azimuth axis to rotate the entire mount into an orientation that allows smoother tracking. Slewing or mechanically driving the mounts polar axis in a direction to the Earths rotation allows the telescope to accurately follow the motion of the night sky. Tilting the polar axis adds a level of complexity to the mount, mechanical systems have to be engineered to support one or both ends of this axis. Designs such as German equatorial or cross axis mounts also need large counter weights to counterbalance the mass of the telescope, larger domes and other structures are also needed to cover the increased mechanical size and range of movement of equatorial mounts. Because of this, equatorial mounts become less viable in very large telescopes and have been pretty much replaced by altazimuth mounts for those applications, instead of the classical mounting using two axles, the mirror is supported by six extendable struts. This configuration allows moving the telescope in all six degrees of freedom
4.
Altazimuth mount
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An altazimuth or alt-azimuth mount is a simple two-axis mount for supporting and rotating an instrument about two perpendicular axes – one vertical and the other horizontal. Rotation about the vertical axis varies the azimuth of the direction of the instrument. Rotation about the horizontal axis varies the altitude of the pointing direction and these mounts are used, for example, with telescopes, cameras, radio antennas, heliostat mirrors, solar panels, and guns and similar weapons. Several names are given to this kind of mount, including altitude-azimuth, azimuth-elevation, a gun turret is essentially an alt-azimuth mount for a gun, and a standard camera tripod is an alt-azimuth mount as well. When used as a telescope mount, the biggest advantage of an alt-azimuth mount is the simplicity of its mechanical design. The primary disadvantage is its inability to follow objects in the night sky as the Earth spins on its axis. On the other hand, an equatorial mount only needs to be rotated about an axis, at a constant rate. Altazimuth mounts need to be rotated about both axes at variable rates, achieved via microprocessor based two-axis drive systems, to track equatorial motion and this imparts an uneven rotation to the field of view that also has to be corrected via a microprocessor based counter rotation system. The design also does not allow for the use of setting circles to locate astronomical objects although modern digital setting circles have removed this shortcoming. Another limitation is the problem of gimbal lock at zenith pointing, when tracking at elevations close to 90°, the azimuth axis must rotate very quickly, if the altitude is exactly 90°, the speed is infinite. Thus, altazimuth telescopes, although they can point in any direction, cannot track smoothly within a zenith blind spot, typical current applications of altazimuth mounts include, Research telescopes Mounts for very large telescopes. In the largest telescopes the mass and cost of a mount is prohibitive. The simple structure of an alt-azimuth mount allows significant cost reductions, an altazimuth mount also reduces the cost in the dome structure covering the telescope since the simplified motion of the telescope means the structure can be more compact. Altazimuth mounts are cheap and simple to use
5.
McDonald Observatory
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The McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near the unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with facilities on Mount Fowlkes. The observatory is part of the University of Texas at Austin and it is an organized research unit of the College of Natural Sciences. The provision of the will was challenged by McDonalds relatives, but after a legal fight. The then-unnamed Otto Struve Telescope was dedicated on May 5,1939, McDonald Observatory was operated under contract by the University of Chicago until the 1960s, when control was transferred to the University of Texas at Austin under the direction of Harlan J. Smith. Directors Otto Struve Gerard Peter Kuiper Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren William Wilson Morgan Harlan James Smith Frank N and it works closely with the astronomy department of the University of Texas at Austin while maintaining administrative autonomy. The high and dry peaks of the Davis Mountains make for some of the darkest and clearest night skies in the region, the Otto Struve Telescope, dedicated in 1939, was the first large telescope built at the observatory. It is located on Mt. Locke at an altitude of 2,070 m, the summit of Mt. Locke, accessed by Spur 78, is the highest point on Texas highways. The Harlan J. Smith Telescope, also on Mt. Locke, was completed in 1968, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, dedicated in late 1997, is located on the summit of Mt. Fowlkes at 2,030 m above sea level. It is operated jointly by the University of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania State University, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, as of 2012, the HET is tied with the similar Southern African Large Telescope as the fifth largest telescope in the world. However, its cost was about 20% that of other similarly-sized telescopes in use due to its optimization for spectrography. The McDonald Laser Ranging System operates a 0.76 m telescope on Mt. Fowlkes to perform satellite laser ranging, a 0.5 m Ritchey-Chretien reflector owned by Boston University on Mt. Locke is used for optical aeronomy. The 0.4 m Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment reflector on Mt. Fowlkes is used to search for the signature of gamma-ray bursts. The 4.9 m Millimeter Wave Observatory radio telescope operated on Mt. Locke until 1988, MWO was a joint project between the UT Department of Astronomy and the Department of Electrical Engineering. The site of the antenna is now occupied by the BLOOMhouse, the UT School of Architectures entry in the 2007 Solar Decathlon. The observatory experiences a climate with cool, dry winters and hot. Coordinates,30. 70528°N104. 02333°W /30.70528, bash Visitors Center, located between Mt. Locke and Mt. Fowlkes, includes a café, gift shop, and interactive exhibit hall. The Visitors Center conducts daily live solar viewings in a large theater, special viewing nights, during which visitors can stay on-site and view directly through eyepieces on the 0.9 m, Struve, or Smith telescopes, are held on a reservation-only basis
6.
Segmented mirror
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A segmented mirror is an array of smaller mirrors designed to act as segments of a single large curved mirror. The segments can be spherical or asymmetric. They are used as objectives for large reflecting telescopes, to function, all the mirror segments have to be polished to a precise shape and actively aligned by a computer-controlled active optics system using actuators built into the mirror support cell. The concept and necessary technologies were developed under the leadership of Dr. There is a limit for primary mirrors made of a single rigid piece of glass. Such non-segmented, or monolithic mirrors can not be constructed larger than eight meters in diameter. The largest monolithic mirror in use are currently the two primary mirrors of the Large Binocular Telescope, each with a diameter of 8.4 meters, the use of segmented mirrors is therefore a key component for large-aperture telescopes. Using a monolithic mirror much larger than 5 meters is prohibitively expensive due to the cost of both the mirror, and the structure needed to support it. A mirror beyond that size would sag slightly under its own weight as the telescope was rotated to different positions. Segments are also easier to fabricate, transport, install, segmented mirrors do have the drawback that each segment may require some precise asymmetrical shape, and rely on a complicated computer-controlled mounting system. All of the segments also cause diffraction effects in the final image, some of the largest optical telescopes in the world use segmented primary mirrors. Both telescopes feature 10 m primary mirrors, Hobby-Eberly Telescope The HET is a 9. 2-meter telescope located at the McDonald Observatory, West Texas at an altitude of 2,026 m. Its primary mirror is constructed from 91 hexagonal segments, the telescopes main mirror is fixed at a 55 degree angle and can rotate around its base. A target is tracked by moving the instruments at the focus of the telescope, this access to about 70–81% of the sky at its location. Southern African Large Telescope The SALT is a 10-meter telescope dedicated on spectroscopy for most of its observing time. It shares similarities with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and also consists of 91 hexagonal mirror segments, each 1 meter across and it is located close to the town of Sutherland in the semi-desert region of the Karoo, South Africa. It is a facility of the South African Astronomical Observatory, the national observatory of South Africa. Gran Telescopio Canarias Also known as the GranTeCan, the Canaries Great Telescope uses a total of 36 segmented mirrors
7.
University of Arizona
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The University of Arizona is a public research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885, the UA was the first university in the Arizona Territory, the university operates two medical schools and is affiliated with the regions only academic medical centers. The university is home to the James E. Rogers College of Law and numerous other nationally ranked graduate. During the 2015-2016 academic year, there was an enrollment of 43,088 students. The University of Arizona is governed by the Arizona Board of Regents, the University of Arizona is one of the elected members of the Association of American Universities and is the only representative from the state of Arizona to this group. Known as the Arizona Wildcats, the teams are members of the Pac-12 Conference of the NCAA. UA athletes have won titles in several sports, most notably mens basketball, baseball. The official colors of the university and its teams are UA Red. After the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, the push for a university in Arizona grew, the University of Arizona was approved by the Arizona Territorys Thieving Thirteenth Legislature in 1885, which also selected the city of Tucson to receive the appropriation to build the university. Tucson had hoped to receive the appropriation for the mental hospital. Tucson was largely disappointed with receiving what was viewed as an inferior prize. Construction of Old Main, the first building on campus, began on October 27,1887, and classes met for the first time in 1891 with 32 students in Old Main, which is still in use today. Because there were no schools in Arizona Territory, the university maintained separate preparatory classes for the first 23 years of operation. The University of Arizona offers 334 fields of study leading to bachelors, masters, doctoral, academic departments and programs are organized into colleges and schools. Currently, grades are given on a strict 4-point scale with A worth 4, B worth 3, C worth 2, D worth 1 and E worth zero points. In 2004, there were discussions with students and faculty that may lead the UA towards eventual usage of the grading system in future years. As of December 2015, the university uses the 4-points scale. The Center for World University Rankings in 2015 ranked Arizona 68th in the world, the 2015–16 Times Higher Education World University Rankings rated University of Arizona 163rd in the world and the 2016/17 QS World University Rankings ranked it 233rd
8.
University of Minnesota
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The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses are approximately 3 miles apart, and it is the oldest and largest campus within the University of Minnesota system and has the sixth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 51,147 students in 2013–14. The university is the institution of the University of Minnesota system, and is organized into 19 colleges and schools, with sister campuses in Crookston, Duluth, Morris. Minnesota is one of Americas Public Ivy universities, which refers to top universities in the United States capable of providing a collegiate experience comparable with the Ivy League. Founded in 1851, The University of Minnesota is categorized as an R1 Doctoral University with the highest research activity in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Minnesota faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 25 Nobel Prizes and three Pulitzer Prizes. Notable University of Minnesota alumni include two Vice Presidents of the United States, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, and Bob Dylan, who received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is also a member of the Association of American Universities which is an association of the 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada. In its 2017 edition, U. S. News & World Report ranked Minnesota 38th in their Best Global University Rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2015 ranks Minnesota 46th in the world. In 2015, Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked the university 11th in the world for mathematics, the University of Minnesota is ranked 14 over-all among the nations top research universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance. The U. S. News & World Reports 2016 rankings placed the program of the University as the 69th-best National University in the United States. Additionally, nineteen of the Universitys graduate-school departments have been ranked in the nations top-twenty by the U. S. National Research Council, in both 2008 and 2012 U. S. News & World Report ranked the College of Pharmacy 2nd in the nation. 2016 U. S. News & Report now rank the College of Pharmacy 2nd in the nation. In 2011, U. S. News & World Report ranked the School of Public Health 8th in the nation, the University of Minnesota ranked 19th in NIH funding in 2008. Minnesota is listed as a Public Ivy in 2001 Greenes Guides The Public Ivies, the university developed Gopher, a precursor to the World Wide Web which used hyperlinks to connect documents across computers on the internet. However, the produced by CERN was favored by the public since it was freely distributed. The University also houses the Charles Babbage Institute, a research, the department has strong roots in early days of supercomputing with Seymour Cray of Cray supercomputers. Notable faculty of the department are Yousef Saad, Vipin Kumar, Jaideep Srivastava, John Riedl, some notable alumni of the department are Ed Chi, Imrich Chlamtac, Leah Culver, Jeff Dean, Mark P. McCahill, Arvind Mithal, and Calvin Mooers. Puffed rice - Alexander P. Anderson led to the discovery of puffed rice, transistorized cardiac pacemaker - Earl Bakken founded Medtronic, where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable artificial pacemaker in 1957
9.
University of Notre Dame
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The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located adjacent to South Bend, Indiana, in the United States. In French, Notre Dame du Lac means Our Lady of the Lake and refers to the patron saint. The main campus covers 1,250 acres in a setting and it contains a number of recognizable landmarks, such as the Golden Dome, the Word of Life mural. The school was founded on November 26,1842, by Father Edward Sorin, CSC, Today, many Holy Cross priests continue to work for the university, including the president of the university. Notre Dame is a large, four-year, highly residential research university, undergraduate students are organized into four colleges, and the Architecture School. The latter is known for teaching New Classical Architecture and for awarding the globally renowned annual Driehaus Architecture Prize, the university offers over 50 foreign study abroad yearlong programs and over 15 summer programs. It maintains a system of libraries, cultural venues, artistic and scientific museums, including the Hesburgh Library and the Snite Museum of Art. Over 80% of the universitys 8,000 undergraduates live on campus in one of 29 single-sex residence halls, each with its own traditions, legacies, events, the university counts approximately 120,000 alumni. The universitys athletic teams are members of the NCAA Division I and are known collectively as the Fighting Irish, other ND sport teams, chiefly in the Atlantic Coast Conference, have accumulated 16 national championships. The Notre Dame Victory March is often regarded as the most famous, started as a small all-male institution in 1842 and charter in 1844, Notre Dame reached international fame at the beginning of the 20th century. Ever since, the University has seen growth, and under the leadership of the next two presidents, Rev. Malloy and Rev. Jenkins, many infrastructure and research expansions have been completed. In 1842, the Bishop of Vincennes, Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière, offered land to Father Edward Sorin of the Congregation of Holy Cross, on the condition that he build a college in two years. Sorin arrived on the site with eight Holy Cross brothers from France and Ireland on November 26,1842 and he soon erected additional buildings, including the Old College, the first church, and the first main building. They immediately acquired two students and set about building additions to the campus, Notre Dame began as a primary and secondary school, but soon received its official college charter from the Indiana General Assembly on January 15,1844. Under the charter the school is named the University of Notre Dame du Lac. Because the university was only for male students, the female-only Saint Marys College was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross near Notre Dame in 1844. The first degrees from the college were awarded in 1849, the university was expanded with new buildings to accommodate more students and faculty. With each new president, new programs were offered and new buildings built to accommodate them
10.
University of Virginia
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The University of Virginia, frequently referred to simply as Virginia, is a public research university and the flagship for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson, UVA is known for its foundations, student-run honor code. UNESCO designated UVA as Americas first and only collegiate World Heritage Site in 1987, the university was established in 1819, and its original governing Board of Visitors included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Monroe was the sitting President of the United States at the time of its foundation, former Presidents Jefferson and Madison were UVAs first two rectors and the Academical Village and Jefferson conceived and designed the original courses of study. The universitys research endeavors are highly recognized, in 2015, Science honored UVA faculty for discovering two of its top 10 annual scientific breakthroughs, from the fields of Medicine and Psychology. UVA is one of 62 institutions in the Association of American Universities and it is the only AAU member university in Virginia. UVA is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation, the university was the first non-founding member, and the first university of the American South, to attain AAU membership in 1904. UVAs academic strength is broad, with 121 majors across the eight undergraduate, students compete in 26 collegiate sports and UVA leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in mens NCAA team national championships with 17. UVA is second in womens NCAA titles with 7, UVA was awarded the Capital One Cup in 2015 after fielding the top overall mens athletics programs in the nation. Students come to attend the university in Charlottesville from all 50 states and 147 countries, the historic 1, 682-acre campus is internationally protected by UNESCO and considered one of the most beautiful collegiate grounds in the country. UVA additionally maintains 2,913 acres southeast of the city, the university also manages the College at Wise in Southwest Virginia, and until 1972 operated George Mason University and the University of Mary Washington in Northern Virginia. In 1817, three Presidents and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Marshall joined 24 other dignitaries at a meeting held in the Mountain Top Tavern at Rockfish Gap, after some deliberation, they selected nearby Charlottesville as the site of the new University of Virginia. Farmland just outside Charlottesville was purchased from James Monroe by the Board of Visitors as Central College, the school laid its first buildings cornerstone late in that same year, and the Commonwealth of Virginia chartered the new university on January 25,1819. John Hartwell Cocke collaborated with James Madison, Monroe, and Joseph Carrington Cabell to fulfill Jeffersons dream to establish the university, Cocke and Jefferson were appointed to the building committee to supervise the construction. The universitys first classes met on March 7,1825, another innovation of the new university was that higher education would be separated from religious doctrine. Jefferson opined to philosopher Thomas Cooper that a professorship of theology should have no place in our institution, Jefferson was intimately involved in the university to the end, hosting Sunday dinners at his Monticello home for faculty and students until his death. Thus, he eschewed mention of his accomplishments, such as the Louisiana Purchase. This was a source of frustration for Jefferson, who assembled the students during the schools first year, on October 3,1825, to such behavior
11.
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam
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Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam is a German research institute. It is the successor of the Berlin Observatory founded in 1700, the latter was the worlds first observatory to emphasize explicitly the research area of astrophysics. The AIP was founded in 1992, in a following the German Reunification. The AIP is privately funded and member of the Leibniz Association, the key topics of the AIP are cosmic magnetic fields on various scales and extragalactic astrophysics. Astronomical and astrophysical fields studied at the AIP range from solar and stellar physics to stellar, the institute also develops research technology in the fields of spectroscopy and robotic telescopes. Furthermore, work on several projects are carried out at the AIP. The history of astronomy in Potsdam really began in Berlin in 1700, initiated by Gottfried W. Leibniz, on July 11,1700 the Brandenburgische Societät was founded by the elector Friedrich III in Berlin. Two months earlier the national calendar monopoly provided the funding for an observatory, by May 18 the first director, Gottfried Kirch, had been appointed. This happened in a hurry, because the profits from the basic calendar, calculated and sold by the observatory. This kind of financing existed until the beginning of the 19th century, alexander von Humboldt was then promoting astronomy by his famous Kosmos lectures in 1827–28. He played an important role in providing the funds for both observatory and instruments, the Berlin Observatory became known worldwide when Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune in 1846. The last two events took place when Wilhelm Julius Foerster was director of the observatory, which was meanwhile attached to the University of Berlin. He prepared the basis for the observatories in Potsdam, in 1874 the foundation of the AOP on the Telegrafenberg. In the middle of the 19th century spectral analysis was developed by Gustav Kirchhoff and it enabled the acquisition of information on the physical parameters and chemical abundances of stars, by the spectral analysis of their light. This idea was extended to the whole of astrophysics. The site of the observatory was chosen on a hill south of Potsdam, the Telegrafenberg, on which had been, from 1832 to 1848, on 1 July 1874 the AOP was founded. The construction work started in 1876, the observatory building. The AOP was managed by a board of directors comprising Wilhelm Julius Foerster, Gustav Kirchhoff, in 1882 Carl Hermann Vogel was appointed as sole director of the observatory
