Black Forest Observatory

Hidden inside a disused mine in the Black Forest near Schiltach, Germany, the Black Forest Observatory monitors the trembling of the Earth itself rather than the stars above it. Jointly run by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Stuttgart, it is one of Europe's quietest corners for geophysical measurement.

About Black Forest Observatory

Black Forest Observatory (BFO), also known locally as Observatorium Schiltach, sits in the Anton mine, a former ore mine that was abandoned and converted for scientific use in 1972. Its underground location shields extremely sensitive instruments from the wind, temperature swings and human noise that would otherwise drown out the faint signals it is built to detect.

History

BFO has been jointly operated by the Geophysical and Geodetic Institutes of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Stuttgart since 1971, making it one of the longest-running cooperative geophysical stations in Germany. Housing the observatory inside a repurposed mine let researchers take advantage of the rock's natural isolation instead of building a new underground vault from scratch.

Instruments & research

The observatory runs a suite of broad-band seismometers, gravimeters, tiltmeters, strainmeters and magnetometers, alongside a permanent GPS station. Together these instruments record the Earth's free oscillations, tides and tiny deformations, data used by geophysicists worldwide studying everything from distant earthquakes to the planet's own slow flexing.

Location & getting there

BFO lies at roughly 48.33° N, 8.33° E in the wooded hills around Schiltach, in the Black Forest region of Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany. It is a working research station rather than a tourist site, and its underground galleries are not laid out for casual visitors.

Visiting Black Forest Observatory

Because BFO is an active scientific facility housed in a former mine, it does not run regular public open days. Anyone curious about the site should check with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology or the University of Stuttgart geophysical institutes directly, or contact Schiltach's tourist office, before planning a trip.

See your named star from here

BFO listens to the Earth rather than the sky, so it isn't set up for stargazing. If you'd like to actually see the star named in your honour, browse the observatories near you that do offer telescope time, or start by naming a star and looking it up in the catalogue to get its exact coordinates.