Zweibrücken Observatory (), or the Zweibrück Observatory of the Natural Science Association, is a public observatory in
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken (; ; , ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach (Blies), Schwarzbach River.
Name
The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; older forms of the name include Middl ...
, Germany. Its dome was painted to resemble the Star Wars character
R2-D2
R2-D2 () or Artoo-Detoo is a fictional robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. He has appeared in ten of the eleven theatrical ''Star Wars'' films to date, including every film in the " Skywalker Saga", which inclu ...
in 2018.
Construction
The observatory is located on a hill in the Zweibrücken campus of the
University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserslautern. In 1999, the Zweibrücken scientific association was founded, with plans to construct an observatory. In 2002 the diameter dome was erected. The construction was an initiative of Professor
Peter Pokrowsky.
The dome houses a
Celestron
Celestron, LLC is a company that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories manufactured by its parent company, the Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan.
History
The predecessor ...
C14 optical telescope, with a diameter of , as well as a
Coronado SolarMax solar telescope with a diameter of and a focal length of .
R2-D2
In September 2018, the telescope dome was painted to resemble the
R2-D2
R2-D2 () or Artoo-Detoo is a fictional robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. He has appeared in ten of the eleven theatrical ''Star Wars'' films to date, including every film in the " Skywalker Saga", which inclu ...
robot from Star Wars by a team led by
Hubert Zitt. It was the second observatory dome to be painted in such a way, following from
Goodsell Observatory in 2010.
The repainting took 120 man-hours.
It gained internet fame after a post on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
by Star Wars actor
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor. He is best known for starring as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, and the Joker (character), Joker in various animated DC Comics projects, starting with ''Batm ...
.
See also
*
List of astronomical observatories
This is a partial list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no lon ...
References
External links
{{Official site
Astronomical observatories in Germany
Star Wars