Observatory

The Strabourg Astronomical Observatory (ObAS) is an 'Observatory for Universe Sciences' (OSU), an internal school (art. L713-9 of the Education Code) of the University of Strasbourg (Unistra), and a Joint Research Unit (UMR 7550) between the University and the CNRS.

Its OSU status (see Decree No. 85-657 of 27 June 1985) places the Astronomical Observatory at the heart of the national system implemented by INSU. It hosts two National Observation Services (SNO): the Survey Science Centre XMM-Newton (SSC-XMM) and the Astronomical Data Centre of Strasbourg (CDS). The latter has been certified "Research Infrastructure" (IR) by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The ObAS also contributes to other SNOs: SVOM, WEAVE, Gaia, and the Besançon Galaxy model.

As a component of Unistra, the ObAS is managing the astrophysics specialty of the Master (M2) of Physics specialty Astrophysics, hosted by the faculty of Physics and Engineering.

As a Research Unit, the ObAS is structured in two research teams: the GALHECOS team and the CDS.

The Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory's mission is to contribute to the advancement of knowledge through:

• the acquisition of observational data
• the development and operation of suitable resources
• the development of necessary theoretical tools

It is therefore also responsible for:

• providing services related to its research activity 
• training students and research staff 
• ensuring the dissemination of knowledge 
• International cooperation activities

The current observatory was built in 1881 and hosts the 3rd largest refractor in France by its size, and the Strasbourg Planetarium for which it was responsible from 1986 to 2008, and now part of the University of Strasbourg Garden of Sciences. It also has a rich heritage of instruments and old reference works. In addition, in one of its small domes, it has set up a pedagogical observation platform, composed of two coupled 36cm telescopes for imaging and spectroscopy.

The Observatory on the web:

• at University of Strasbourg
• on Wikipedia and Wikimedia (Photos)
• in the Strasbourg University newspaper
• on Facebook (Unofficial page)