The Calar Alto Observatory (Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán or Deutsch-Spanisches Astronomisches Zentrum, respectively "Spanish–German Astronomical Centre" and "German–Spanish Astronomical Centre") is an astronomical observatory located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a 2,168-meter-high (7,113 ft) mountain in Sierra de Los Filabres.
Calar Alto is owned and operated jointly by the German Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, and the Spanish Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Granada, and specializes on the observation of objects in the Solar System.
The 3.5-meter telescope is the largest telescope in mainland Europe, though there are three larger telescopes on the Spanish island of La Palma at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. The minor planet 189202 Calar Alto, discovered by Felix Hormuth at Starkenburg Observatory in 2003, was named in honor of the observatory site.
The site was proposed in 1970, and was officially opened in July 1975 with the commissioning of its 1.2-meter (47 in) telescope. The site developed due German and Spanish cooperation in astronomy. Eventually four more telescopes were commissioned. The Schmidt telescope was moved to Calar Alto in 1976 from the Hamburg Observatory at Bergedorf, where it had been completed in 1954. It was decommissioned in 2000.
The Max-Planck institute owns a 3.5-meter (138-inch), 2.2 m (87 in), and a 1.23 m (48 in) telescope, and an 80 cm (31 in) Schmidt reflector. The 3.5-meter is the largest telescope on European soil with an Equatorial mount. There is also a 1.5 m (59 in) telescope that is owned and operated by the Spanish OAN.
The CALIFA Survey (Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey) is an astronomical project to map 600 galaxies with imaging spectroscopy (integral field spectroscopy (IFS)).
Close to a hundred minor planets have been discovered at Calar Alto by astronomers Luboš Kohoutek, Kurt Birkle, Ulrich Hopp, Johann Baur, Krisztián Sárneczky, Gyula Szabó, Felix Hormuth and Hermann Boehnhardt. In addition, the Minor Planet Center, directly credits "Calar Alto" with the discovery of the following minor planets:
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