Berlin Observatory
The Berlin Observatory (Berliner Sternwarte) is a German astronomical institution with a series of observatories and related organizations in and around the city of Berlin in Germany, starting from the 18th century. It has its origins in 1700 when Gottfried Leibniz initiated the "Brandenburg Society of Science″ ("Sozietät der Wissenschaften") which would later (1744) become the Prussian Academy of Sciences ("Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften"). The Society had no observatory but nevertheless an astronomer, Gottfried Kirch, who observed from a private observatory in Berlin. A first small observatory was furnished in 1711, financing itself by calendrical computations.
Hoher List Observatory
Until the 1940s, Bonn astronomical observations were carried out mainly from Argelander's old observatory in Bonn itself. With more and more electrical lights in the city, the night sky in town became increasingly brighter, making observations difficult. In search for an alternative location, in 1950, the hill of Hoher List above the village of Schalkenmehren was found to be well suited for astronomical observation. The rural surrounds meant very low sky brightness. It was decided to relocate the Bonn telescopes. The new observatory was inaugurated in 1954, after the 50 cm Schmidt telescope had been installed in the first dome. A major extension in 1964 included the relocation of the Double Refractor, which dates from 1899. The final dome to be erected contains a 1 m Cassegrain telescope, the largest and most modern of the observatory's telescopes. Today, there are six telescopes at the observatory. The Double Refractor aside, there is also the 16 cm Schröder Refractor, which was used for the Cordoba Durchmusterung (the southern extension of the Bonner Durchmusterung).