ved in cooperation with the Carl Zeiss
company at Oberkochen and other companies. In this way, a large
number of companies have acquired know-how which has helped them
to secure leading positions on the world market.
Between 1975 and 1984, the 1.2-metre reflector
financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/ German Research
Association as well as the 2.2-metre and 3.5-metre telescopes
started operation on Calar Alto (Figure I.2). The 80-centimetre
Schmidt telescope was transferred from the Hamburg Observatory.
There is also a Spanish 1.5-metre telescope on the site which
does not belong to the DSAZ: the Observatorio Nacional de Madrid
is in charge of this instrument. The original plans to construct
a southern observatory on the Gamsberg in Namibia could not be
implemented for political reasons. The 2.2-metre telescope which
was intended for this purpose has been loaned to the European
Southern Observatory for 25 years. Since 1984, it has been in
operation on La Silla Mountain in Chile, where 25% of its observation
time is available to the astronomers of the MPIA.
One aspect of the MPIA’s present task
is the operation of the Calar Alto Observatory. This includes
the constant optimisation of the telescopes’ capabilities:
now that the ALFA adaptive optical system has been commissioned,
the 3.5-metre telescope is once again at the forefront of technological
development (Chapter II.1).
Other aspects include the development
of new measuring instruments in Heidelberg, the preparation of
observation programmes and the evaluation of the data obtained
from the telescopes. A substantial part of the Institute’s
work is devoted to building new instruments for the telescopes
(Chapter III). The MPIA is equipped with ultra-modern precision
mechanics and electronics workshops for this purpose. The Calar
Alto Observatory provides the MPIA with one of the two European
observatories with the highest performance. Research concentrates
on the »classical« visible region of the spectrum and
on the infrared region.
In addition to these tasks, the MPIA has
been engaged in extra-terrestrial research ever since it was established.
This was associated with an early start on infrared astronomy
which has played a particularly important part in the Institute’s
later development as a whole. Nowadays, the MPIA has a substantial
involvement in the ISO project (Infrared Space Observatory, Figure
I.3) of the
