Technical Departments

Observational astronomy places high demands on its tools: telescopes and instruments. New astronomical instruments are almost invariably custom developments, the result of cooperations between the researchers themselves and partners in industry. Designing and building such instruments - from highly sensitive detectors to spectrographs - has a long tradition at MPIA, which boasts a dedicated community of scientists, engineers and technicians.

Under the leadership of Heidi Korhonen, MPIA's Technical Departments with their workshops and design offices participate in the development and manufacture of cutting-edge astronomical instruments which then are mostly deployed at the telescopes of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), Calar Alto Observatory, or aboard ESA or NASA space telescopes.

Calculating, simulating and designing the mechanical and designing thermal specifications of new astronomical instruments [more]
Building the structural parts of scientific instruments from metal or plastics processing by CNC machine tools [more]
Electronics for the operation, data acquisition and testing of scientific instruments [more]
Instrument control software for various types of astronomical instruments, as well as customized observation planning and data reduction [more]
Cryo and vacuum technology, calculations of optical systems, optimizing detector arrays, and organizational support for large-scale [more]
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