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.
Hirsch Observatory
The Hirsch observatory finished construction in 1942. It was built to house a 12" equatorial reflector designed and constructed at RPI. The telescope appeared on the cover of the October 1942 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. Today the instrument is still operational and is stored on display in the lobby of the observatory. In 1980 the General Electric company donated the Boller and Chivens 16" Cassegrain telescope. The observatory was expanded and rededicated to celebrate the event. Then, in 1983 the observatory (reduced in size and scope) was moved to the roof of the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center to make room for construction of the Low Center for Industrial Innovation. The observatory was renamed the Hirsch Observatory, in honor of David Hirsch, Class of 1965 and Rensselaer Trustee, who donated money for the renovation. During 2006 there was a $70,000 refurbishment, in which the control system and electronics were revamped and the telescope optics collimated. The institute considered replacing the telescope with a new one, but decided not to, because the older scope is very robust and is much heavier and stable than newer scopes.