Pictures of historical astronomical instruments online
The historical collection of instruments from the former Eidgenössische Sternwarte (federal observatory) Zurich with its holdings of around 300 objects is now available online.
Historical collection of instruments from the former federal observatory Zurich
The Eidgenössische Sternwarte (federal observatory) was built Between 1862 to 1864 according to the plans of Gottfried Semper. The building still stands near to the University Hospital, but is no longer used as an observatory. In the early 1980s, a new Institute for Astronomy was founded in the place of the Eidgenössische Sternwarte, which later became part of the ETH Department of Physics.
The rich history of the former Eidgenössische Sternwarte Zurich is preserved and documented not least through its historical collection of instruments. That collection is now available online, where for each object several digital images, 360° views and content-related information can be accessed. The images can be downloaded for free.
The centre of the collection are the holdings of Rudolf Wolf, the first professor of astronomy at the Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum in Zurich and founder and first Director of the Eidgenössische Sternwarte Zurich. The instruments from the fields of astronomy, geodesy, chronometry and mathematics come from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.
The online catalogue also contains instruments whose provenance and function are not fully known. Visitors of the online collection are invited to contribute and help to complete the datasets by dating or describing the objects more accurately.