4. POST WAR YEARS TO 1968

After the war, the work of the observatory returned to normal and the AGK2 and Hamburger Durchmusterung catalogues were completed. When Baade was offered the post of Director in 1937, the Senate had promised the observatory a new Schmidt telescope and in 1950, despite the tough post war economic environment, this money was set aside. The order was made with Zeiss in Jena and in 1951 a new building was founded for the telescope, which was first used for observations in 1954. The delay from 1937 was most unfortunate for Bergedorf, since by the time the telescope was in operation, the Palomar Schmidt telescope in the USA had surpassed that of Bergedorf, and by 1954 light pollution in Hamburg had become a major problem. For example, exposures of more than 10-15 minutes were simply not possible owing to the level of light pollution (originally one hour exposures were planned). Had the delays and war not intervened, Schramm believes¹³ that the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS I, taken 1950 – 1957 with the 48 inch Oschin Schmidt Telescope) might have been Bergedorf’s. Eventually in 1969, work began to move the telescope to a more favourable observing location in Calar Alto.¹⁹  

Fig. 12. Walter Baade in 1956.²⁰

At the 1952 meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Rome, a successor to the AGK2 catalogue was discussed and the AGK3 project was born. It was decided that Bergedorf and Bonn observatories should perform the photographic portion of the work, but in the end Bergedorf covered the whole northern sky owing to extensive changes being made to the Bonn astrograph. The project lasted from 1956 – 1964 and the catalogue of 180,000 stars was published in 1975. AGK3 was aided by two important additions to the observatory’s data-processing armoury. In 1958, the observatory was able to use Hamburg University’s IBM 650 computer for its data processing (400,000 punched cards were loaded for AGK3!) and by 1967, Bergedorf had its own on-site computer. These instruments obviously greatly improved the speed with which the catalogues could be brought to publication.¹⁶

Fig. 13. The AGK3 team.²⁰

A few years after the AGK3 project commenced, Otto Heckmann’s career was about to take a new direction. He was appointed first director of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), founded in October 1957. The first headquarters of the ESO was in Bergedorf, to enable Heckmann to be director of both. The increasing demands of the ESO however meant that Heckmann could focus fewer of his efforts on Bergedorf, and in 1968 he was emerited so that he could focus on the ESO. In the early 1970’s, ESO headquarters were moved to Munich, and the last ESO files left Bergedorf in 1975.¹⁷

Fig. 14. Otto Heckmann, 1965.²⁰

A notable episode in professional-amateur collaboration at Bergedorf was the astonishing case of Max Beyer (1894 – 1982). Born in Hamburg, Beyer developed a lifelong passion for astronomy at a young age, and kept in touch with the professionals at Bergedorf whilst he worked as a teacher. Kasimir Graf seems to have appreciated the role amateurs might play in astronomy, and invited Beyer to informal monthly meetings at the observatory in the 1920’s. Beyer had access to various telescopes of his own and of his acquaintances and in 1950, at Graf’s persuasion, published his own star atlas, the Beyer-Graf Star Atlas. In 1960, Beyer moved to quarters close to the observatory, so as to be near the professional community, and the observatory let him have use of the 26cm equatorial, his favourite instrument. This was the beginning of an astonishing period of observation for Beyer, who specialised in comet and variable star observations and he published many valuable papers in Astronomische Nachrichten.

Fig. 15. Max Beyer.²⁰

Beyer observed at Bergedorf with the equatorial from 1946 – 1977. As an amateur his contributions were very considerable, and included a new method of determining comet magnitudes (Beyer’s method, or “Extrafocal-Extinction”).^{23, 24} Graf’s early inspirations undoubtedly played a role in the thoroughness of Beyer’s work and in 1972 the Astronomical Society of the Pacific awarded him their Comet Medal.²² His observing work at Bergedorf ended in 1977 after an accident left him unable to walk without crutches,²⁴ an event which must have been of the utmost disappointment. His enthusiasm for observing can be glimpsed by his mention in some of the annual reports of the observatory: for example, in 1968 Beyer made 2764 observations over 127 nights with the equatorial.²²

This one piece of collaboration was unique, and professional-amateur collaborations never revived after Beyer because the observational activities in Bergedorf decreased generally.