The program presented is preliminary. Small changes will be announced over loudspeaker. Please ask your neighbour to translate this German messages into English. The HTT starts at Thursday but you can arrive as early as Wednesday afternoon.

We have translated the titles of the lessons into English, but the language of all lessons is German. 


Friday September 18th, 6:00 p.m.:  Prof. Dr. Matthias Steinmetz belongs to the scientific leading group of th  Astrophysical Institute Potsdam)  (AIP). His lecture "The telescope - a cosmic time machine" : A view through a telescope shows distant and past things as well. With larger instruments we see more distant features and more past events. The 5-meter-telescope at Mount Palomar was the leading instrument for 25 years. The next 25 years the 6-meter-telescope at Caucasus mountains takes this place. Since the mid-90th we have larger and larger instruments in a quick succession. Our largest telescopes have 6-10 meters aperture now. The preliminary climax is the Large Binocular Telescope with two 8.4-meter-mirrors. It is locates at the Mount Graham in Arizona. The AIP takes part in erecting an using this instrument. The future will bring us even larger telescopes..."

Friday September 18th, 7:30 p.m. Laying of the foundation stone for the Elsterland observatory at the northern meadow.

Friday and Saturday, 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. A moderated sky tour takes place, the › HTT Skyguide 2009 ‹. Moderating: Uwe Pilz, selection of objects: Daniel Restemeier, Uwe Pilz, Ralf Hofner.

Friday and Saturday, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The predictive value of Sky Quality Meter (SQM) measurements: At the HTT we have suitable conditions for checking the SQM:
1) Many astronomers are at the place. We hope to have a sufficient number of SQM devices at the site.
2) Very good night sky, as well astronomical and meteorological. We will be able to investigate the influence of the milky was and the zodiacal light on SQM measurements. Bernhard Engeser collects such values since 2006 and will be offer the results in a database. The most important results will be published in astronomical periodicals. We ask all astronomers to join this project. If you own a SQM please have it with you.

If you still observe in the morning time you will see the zodiacal light, which is 70 degrees long and quite impressive. The photograph above was taken at August 19th. At the HTT 2009 the morning star and the milky way will be located at slightly different positions. But the zodiacal light will be more steeply und will give a more spectacular view.
At the HTT 2008 this phenomenon was less impressive because of the high humidity. We saw it's cone at a lenght of only 40...50°. But if we have dry air you should not miss it.


Saturday, Spetember 19th, 11 p.m. The Orchester der Bergarbeiter Plessa (Miners' orchestra) will play for us. It is one of the best  orchestras of the region. You will not believe that they are complete amateurs. By the way... last year our Erhard played Guitar at Saturday afternoon look here.  If you play an instrument please take it with you. May be a jam session is formed.

Saturday, 1 p.m. ... 3 p.m.   Our astronomical marketplace  AstroTechnik- und Vereinsmesse (ATV) will take place. The large companies will not be represented, but some local (German) manufacturers:
- Gerd Neumann jr.
- Astro Electronic Michael Koch
- ASTROTECH Daniel Arndt
- Wolfgang Lille - Optical devices, sun observing equipment.
Some clubs and observers show their activities and projects:
- Thomas Heising: Optic tests with the Ronchy and Foucault method. He owns a 12 inch flat mirror.
- Uwe Pilz represents the VdS Fachgruppe Kometen (Comet section of the German astronomical association) and presents his new book.
- the Bundesdeutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Veränderliche (German group for Variable stars) has an information point there. You will meet Peter Lehmann, who also holds a lecture.
- Elisabeth Dietze (Astroclob Radebeul) presents her youth project: Observing of variable stars with digital cameras.
- The HTT team and  astronmical club Astroteam Elbe Elster e.v. presents the project of erecting an observatory at the HTT site.

Saturday from 3 p.m.(please follow the announcements via loudspeaker):
Workshops - our experts give help:
- Uwe Pilz: Calibrating Newton telescopes
- Thomas Heising: course in mirror grinding
- Marin Fiedler: Processing of astronomical images with the help of Giotto & Avistack.

Saturday, 6 p.m. after the workshops   Decoration of the most impressive self constructed telescope
At the HTT we found more and more self constructed instruments. In this year we decorate the best ones for the first time. We offer prices in three categories:
- the most interesting self constructed telescope
- the best photograph or sketch produced at the HTT 
- the best nightly overview photograph which represents the HTT and the mood at the site best.
We have a jury which selects the best self made instrument. Please send your sketches and photographs not later as September 30th at  the HTT team if you compete. 

Sa., 19:00   Celebration of the HTT jubilee
The International Year of Astronomy is a ideal occasion to look back over the astronomical meetings of Brandenburg. The first observatory in this regison was erected around 1700. At 1848 the Planet neptun was detected there. Up to date this observatory is among the most important institutions of Europe.
Beside this we show the best astronomical photographs form the last years. We look back at the nine last telescope meetings and report exceptional and sometimes funny actualities. You can look at some of the photographs  in advance: