A group of 25 students from the Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium (WOG) in Leipzig, together with two teachers, visited the Thuringian State Observatory in June 2025. Visiting an astronomical research facility is a great addition to the content taught in their astronomy class.
Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium is a public school with an in-depth STEM education (STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Astronomy courses are also offered for senior students. The idea behind the visit to the observatory was to give students a better idea how astronomers work and to show them the research facilities. Maja Mauksch, a student at WOG, is currently working on her BeLL (BeLL: Besondere Lernleistung, extraordinary learning performance) paper at the Tautenburg Solar Lab TauSoL. She connected the astronomy teachers at WOG with the scientists at TLS so that a group visit could be organized.
A group of pupils from the Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium Leipzig visits the Thuringian State Observatory. Foto Credit: TLSAstronomical telescopes and the Sun were the focus of this year's astronomy class. TLS has quite a bit to show for both topics. Shortly before the student group came to visit TLS, Maja Mauksch presented her work at her school. So when the students arrived, they came prepared and had lots of questions about the Sun and the Solar Lab. In addition to the participants in the astronomy course, interested middle school students were also able to register for the excursion. The result: A highly motivated group got off the bus at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. They were greeted by Michael Sigwarth and Eike Guenther, both scientists at TLS.
"Now I remember again", commented Petra Schupke, one of the teachers who accompanied the group, when she arrived. She had received her degree for teaching astronomy at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. As part of her studies, she had visited the observatory back then. Ronny Möbius, also a teacher at WOG and advisor of Maja Mauksch, was happy to finally visit the research institution after listening to the reports of his student and exchanging several mails to prepare the excursion.
Visiting the Solar Lab and the optical 2 meter telescope
First, Michael Sigwarth and Eike Guenther told the group details about the history of the observatory. They also described what research is being conducted there. Afterwards, the students were divided into two groups. While one group went to see the optical 2 meter telescope, the other one went to visit the Solar Lab - and vice versa. The first group coming to the solar lab was lucky: They got to see a live picture of the sun, before it disappeared behind clouds. But TLS scientists Michael Sigwarth and Hemanth Pruthvi were prepared. They used pictures to explain how research is done in the Solar Lab.
Meanwhile, Eike Guenther explained how the optical 2 meter telescope works and what it is used for. And he impressed his visitors when he made the dome turn and the telescope move. At 12 o'clock on the dot the group left to return to Leipzig (so that there was no time left for some students to lighten the cherry trees at the observatory). Too bad, especially because the Sun appeared again from behind the clouds. Hopefully, an excursion to TLS will become a permanent component of the astronomy classes at Wilhelm-Ostwald-Gymnasium in the future.
Author: Michael Sigwarth