BOSSCHA OBSERVATORY

If we plan to spend our holiday with walking around in Bandung, especially in Lembang, West Java, we can visit to Bosscha observatory. At there, beside we can not only walking around and inhale the fresh air in Malabar tea plantation, but also enrich our knowledge about stars, meteors, planets, asteroids, lunar, sun, etc. This observatory located in Lembang, West Java, about 15 km in the Northern city of Bandung with the geographical coordinates 1070 36’East Longitude and 60 49’South Latitude. It was established on the land area of 6 hectares by the Nederlandsch Indische Vereeniging Sterrenkundige ( NISV ), and located at an altitude of 1310 meters above sea level or at a height of 630 m from plato Bandung. It is a circle-shaped building with the fingers 7 m with half a meter of selasar on the side of it. Bosscha observatory established by the Nederlandsch Indische Vereeniging Sterrenkundige ( NISV ) who want to promote Science Astronomy in Dutch East Indies. At the meeting NISV, Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha, a landowner in the Malabar tea plantation, are willing to become donors of the main building and the purchase of binocular stars. As the award for K.A.R Bosscha’s service, the observatory is the name given Bosscha Sterrenwacht. The development of this observatory took more than 5 years, from the year 1923-1928. Its international publication was in 1933. However, after the World War II, the observatory must close. And can operate again after the war and the renovation because of war damage to it. On October 17th 1951, NISV give this observatory to the government of Indonesia. And after the Bandung Institute Technology ( ITB ) was established in 1959, Bosscha observatory became part of the ITB. And since that time, Bosscha work as research institutions and formal education in Astronomy. The other facilities that we can enjoy in this place are the five large telescopes were installed in Bosscha :
1) The Zeiss double refractor.
This telescope is mainly used to observe visual binary stars, conduct photometric studies on eclipsing binaries, image lunar craters, observe planets ( Mars, Saturn and Jupiter ) and to observe comet details and other heavy bodies. Its tube was made by Carl Zeiss with 1.5 meters diameter. Iside the tube, there are two telescopes which have two objective lenses with a diameter of 60 cm ( 23.6 in ) each and a focal length of 10.7 m ( 35 ft ). Although the size of the telescope’s tube is very large, it still can be moved to any direction by just using a hand.
2) The Schmidt Telescope ( nicknamed : Bima Sakti telescope ).
This telescope is used to study galactic structure, stellar spectra, asteroid studies, supernovae, and to photograph heavy bodies. The main lens diameter is 71.12 cm ( 28 in ), the correcting bi-concave and convex lens is 50 cm ( 19.7 in ) with a spectral prism with a prime angle of 6.10 degrees for stellar spectra, a wedge sensitometer and a film recorder.
3) The Bamberg Refractor.
This telescope is used to determine stellar magnitude, stellar distance, and photometric studies of eclipsing stars, solar imaging, and others. It is equipped with a photoelectric photometer a 37 cm ( 14.6 in ) lens diameter and a 7 m ( 23 ft ) meter focal length.
4) The Cassegrain GOTO.
This was a gift from the Japanese government. This computer controlled telescope can automatically view objects from a database and this was the first digital telescope is also equipped with a photometer and spectrometer-spectrograph.
5) The Unitron refractor.
This telescope is used for observing hilal, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse and sunspot photography, and also other objects. Lens diameter is 13 cm ( 5.1 in) and a focal length 87 cm ( 34.3 in ).

Directors :
1923-1940 : Dr.J.Voute
1940-1942 : Dr.Aernout de Sitter
1942-1946 : Prof.Dr.Masashi Miyaji
1946-1949 : Prof.Dr.J.Hins
1949-1958 : Prof.Dr.Gale Bruno van Albada
1958-1959 : Prof.Dr.O.P.Hok and Santoso Nitisastro
( temporary officers )
1959-1968 : Prof.Dr.The Pik Sin
1968-1999 : Prof.Dr. Bambang Hidayat
1999-2004 : Dr.Moedji Raharto
2004-2006 : Dr.Dhani Herdiwijaya
2006-now : Dr.Taufiq Hidayat