Lustbühel Observatory

The OLG (Observatory Lustbühel Graz) is located in the on the outskirts of Graz in the  district of Waltendorf. It primarily serves to train students as part of their physics studies at the University of Graz and for research purposes.

Education:
In observation internships as part of their physics studies (“Astrophysics Lab” and “Astrophysics Lab 2”) at the University of Graz, students learn how to operate the telescope, the instruments and how to evaluate the data according to the current standard. Bachelor's and master's theses, based on measurements with OLG instruments, are offered and carried out regularly.

Research:
Observations on clear nights enable the recording of scientifically relevant data for research projects with national and international partners. Among other things, brightness changes of active and pulsating stars as well as exo-planet transits can be measured.

Additional installations:
For the global "e-CALLISTO" network, the sun's radio emissions are measured daily with an antenna in front of the main building. An automated radio burst detection is used for "Space Weather Monitoring".

Public relation
The Higher Regional Court is open to the public as part of the "Long Night of Research" and can be visited during current celestial events (advertised beforehand on the homepage).

Research collaborations:

IWF Graz, Luca Fossati, Exo-planets program

Christian Monstein, ETHZ

open access online journal:
Observatory Lustbuehel Graz Bulletin

Technical details:
• Geographical location: 15.49° East, 47.07° North, 493m
• 50cm aperture Cassegrain (f/9) telescope, ASA 85DDM control
• SBIG STF-8300M, ATIK 383L-Mono, cameras for filter photometry, FoV 0.23°x0.17°
• LHIRES III PF0001 spectrograph with Apogee Alta F47 camera
• WATEC WAT-910HX video camera
• Zeiss BMK 75/18/1:2.5 ballistic measuring chamber 30cm opening, Moravian C4 CMOS 16000EC camera FoV 4°x4 currently under construction
• AUSTRIA-UNIGRAZ station in the e-CALLISTO network (45-81MHz) using a linearly polarized radio antenna