page_title: Mannheim Observatory
section_title: Move to Karlsruhe
hierarchical_section_title: Mannheim Observatory / The Baden Period / Move to Karlsruhe
caption_attribution_description: Six Stage Steinheil Refracting Telescope
context_page_description: The Mannheim Observatory was a tower observatory built between 1772 and 1774 in Mannheim, Germany, which remained in operation until 1880. The observatory was transferred to Karlsruhe and finally in 1898, was established on the Königstuhl near Heidelberg where today's successor institution the State Observatory Heidelberg-Königstuhl is located.
  The observatory tower is now owned by the city and was restored in 1905–1906, and after the Second World War. Since 1958, the tower houses studio flats.
context_section_description: In 1859 Eduard Schönfeld was appointed Director with a salary. The observatory equipment at his disposal was somewhat antiquated, his largest telescope being a small refractor of 73 lines aperture, but he selected a line of work to suit the instruments at his disposal, observing Nebulae, for which he soon made a name for himself,  and variable stars and keeping a watch on comets and new planets.
  The results of his observations of nebulae are contained in two catalogues published in the Astronomische Beobachtungen der Grossherzoglichen Sternwarte zu Mannheim, 1st and 2nd parts (1862 and 1875), and those of his variable star observations appeared in the Jahresberichte des Mannheimer Vereins für Naturkunde, Nos. 32 and 39 (1866 and 1875). His work contributed significantly to the "Bonn Survey", a star catalogue still in use today. Moreover, he organized several astronomical meetings. At one such a meeting, 28 August 1863 in Heidelberg, the Astronomische Gesellschaft, the second oldest astronomical society after the Royal Astronomical Society. was founded. Schönfeld was on the founding board. Among many other activities, he was a member of the 1871 Advisory Commission in preparation for the 1874/82 Transits of Venus.
  Schönfeld left for Bonn in 1875 and Karl Wilhelm Valentiner took over the Mannheim Directorship. The location of the Observatory in the middle of the town was no longer suitable. The Observatory was moved to a makeshift building in Karlsruhe in 1880 but no significant observations were made.  Plans to build a permanent observatory in Karlsruhe did not become a reality, very much to Valentine's annoyance, even though the first telescopes and instruments were purchased.
  During that time the desire for an observatory arose at the University of Heidelberg. The young Heidelberg astronomer Max Wolf had already built a private observatory in his parents' house in 1880. He believed firmly in the use of photography for observation and as a result he quickly made a name for himself in astronomy.
caption: Six stage Steinheill refracting telescope installed at the Mannheim Observatory in 1859. Photo circa 1900–1920
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