Kanzelhoehe Solar Observatory

The Observatory Kanzelhöhe for sun and environmental research is a special observatory for daily monitoring of solar activity. It is located in the sunny south of Austria above the pulpit height, a 1463 m above sea. A. high Vorgipfel the Gerlitz, about ten kilometers northeast of Villach in Carinthia. In the 1,909 m high summit itself is another observatory dome, which was originally built for the observation of the solar corona using a coronagraph.

The observatory was built in the Second World War 1941/42 (partly also to detect possible interference to radio communications ) and after 1945 operated by the British occupying power. The budget for the dome at the top of the Gerlitze Koronograf in 1945, before he could be put into service, seized by the Soviet Army.

For a long time it is organizationally out as a branch of the University Observatory Graz.

As the site itself Kanzelhöhe turned out to be meteorologically favorable because here particularly clear air and nearly the most days of sunshine are recorded in Austria, as well as the site was accessed by a cable car. Meanwhile, the observatory is also accessible via a well maintained toll road from meeting with the car.

In addition to the observation of the Sun in H -alpha, white light and in the calcium K line a sunspot drawing is made even daily. As part of the Austrian UVB monitoring network and the UV -B radiation is measured and updated at 10 minute intervals. For ZAMG a climate garden is looked after with a partially automatic weather detection system.