A trip to the observatory
I visited the oldest public observatory in Berlin, home to the world’s largest movable telescope, the lecture hall where Einstein presented his Theory of Relativity in 1915, and more. Realized the Earth’s retrograde’s effect on electromagnetic fields. The Cold War and Berlin’s history naturally come to mind, too.
Astrologers were just astronomers who used their eyes. The last astronomer before the invention of the telescope (1608), Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), was an eccentric Danish royal. Using what looked like a ginormous protractor, he calculated planetary motions, as astronomers had been doing for centuries, possibly millennia, before the invention of the telescope.
The Archenhold Observatory was built at the end of the 19th century. It is the oldest and largest public observatory in Germany, although Neptune was discovered in 1846, at the New Berlin Observatory, 50 years prior to Archenhold’s construction. This observatory, once in the city center, now exists in Babelsberg, next to Potsdam, a suburb just outside of the city.
The Archenhold Observatory sits ins the beautiful Treptower Park, a large stretch of land along the Spree River, dividing the greater Neukölln and Friedrichshain areas, but surrounded by its own neighborhood of Alt-Treptow. In Treptower Park, the second largest park in Berlin, there are fields where you can get a good view of the night sky. I personally can recommend Treptower Park as a spot to watch meteor showers.
It is one of the ten most powerful telescopes on the planet. Still in the top 10 even though it was built in 1896.
The Archenhold Observatory houses the world’s largest movable telescope. Sure there are other, bigger telescopes in the world. But this one’s got wheels. It is 21 meters (nearly 69 feet) long. It looks like a giant cannon. It is one of the ten most powerful telescopes on the planet. Still in the top 10 even though it was built in 1896.
The museum at the observatory is free of charge, and currently open a little later than what Google Maps has listed. In the summertime, they close at 6:30 instead of 5:00, much to my chagrin! I was able to stop in for the first time, something that I’ve been itching to do for many years now.
There are free resources for visitors, like a sky map of the Berlin sky for each month. I snagged a star map for July 2024. The map also has dates of every important lunation. Even amateur astronomers know, it’s best to look at the sky during a new moon— this way the stars shine brighter.
One hall of the museum is dedicated to pre-enlightenment, visual astronomy. Astrolabes and wooden globes. Zodiacal etchings, manuscripts of dragons, and historical reproductions of antique forms of celestial observation fill the room. Ghosts of field trips past echo in the empty halls. Some children, possibly apparitions of children, skip past.
The rooms progress, historically, to more technologically advanced forms of celestial observation. First with mathematical calculations using only the naked eye, then with the first magnifying telescope, then finally, with computers.
I must preface: I am an amateur to astronomy. I know simple things from my work as an astrologer, but the most advanced physics class I have taken was in 2009. I had a quantum physics phase, was obsessed with the “fifth dimension”, “tesseracts", and “particle-wave duality” at 16, half a lifetime ago. I have become dumber with age, thankfully.
In the most modern room of the exhibition on space observation, the technology appears to be from the 80’s, at best. I’m not confident that our beloved science museum is on the cutting edge of the post-Soviet space race. On display are different forms of computed observation using projections of UV light.
I don’t need advanced machinery to give me a dataset that counts coincidences which change according to season, I got it all up here!
What struck me the most was a “Coincidence Counting Telescope”. It registers particles from the earth’s magnetic field. The data changes according to season. I’m an astrologer, I don’t need advanced machinery to give me a dataset that counts coincidences which change according to season, I got it all up here! Although something about having measurable scientific data made me feel vindicated.
Just two days before visiting the observatory, I read news on observations of the earth’s core, which effects the electromagnetic field of the earth. Scientists are saying the earth’s core has slowed down.
Slowing down is what happens to planets as they retrograde. Does this mean that the earth is retrograde? I don’t know but saying “earth is in retrograde” just feels right, even if it’s grammatically incorrect.
The earth’s surface has been rotating slower than its mantle since 2010. They began noticing the motion in the 1990s.
This creates the appearance of the core moving backwards relative to the surface, similar to how a car that slows down appears to move backwards to a driver moving at a constant speed.
If correct, this would be the first observed slowdown in 40 years and supports the theory that the core’s speed changes in 70-year cycles.
Planetary retrogrades are defined by the cyclical appearance of moving backwards, as observed from the earth. Is it possible to say that earth is retrograde, and it retrogrades in 70 year cycles, if we can’t see it moving backwards? I need a professional’s opinion on the matter.
After visiting the room where Einstein presented his Theory of Relativity in 1915 (something we discovered at a sleepover in 2008, but ok), I passed through halls of science dioramas and interactive displays in disrepair. Before reaching the doors to the planetarium, visitors encounter a large piece of a meteorite’s debris.
The most eye-catching part of the permanent exhibition is a 283.5 kg piece of debris from the meteorite that formed the Barringer crater in Arizona. The piece is made entirely of nickel iron and visitors can even touch it.
And touch it I did! I larped as though it was a healing crystal. In the corner on display was a piece of moldavite, which is famous in the crystal healing world for its connection to extraterrestrial life.
Visitors also have free access to the roof. Here you can see the Treptow Giant Telescope up close! It is freshly painted and beautifully maintained. Rather than intimidating or overpowering, as Berlin’s Nazi architecture intended to do1, its massive gears of Prussian steel inspire wonder and hauntological hope for a space age that never happened.
Science for a greater purpose, greater than what is on earth, was both compelled and stunted by the Cold War, which Berlin found itself directly at the center of.
Science for a greater purpose, greater than what is on earth, was both compelled and stunted by the Cold War, which Berlin found itself directly at the center of. The city still holds NATO/Warsaw tension in the lives of its residents, living in the dead center of a population which never fully integrated, economically and culturally, post-Mauerfall.
When I see a drone flying overhead, I cower in fear, paranoid that I might be on the verge of experiencing a terror event, a sort of anxiety about mass murder that I thought I left behind in the United States. The drone directly speaks to weapons technology. The largest movable telescope in the world, however, leaves me sedate, transcendent, hopeful for what science could have been.
Thank you for supporting my work.
I still have availability for astrological consultations before I take a quick break to the Paris Olympics in August. Check out my calendar to book!
On July 31, I am presenting an in-person lecture “Timing With The Moon”. Visual and mundane astrology will be the central topics. Berlin, please join! You can read more and RSVP here.
I am selling artwork at the Berlin Art Market on Museum Island from August 17-18. Affordable prints that fit in your suitcase and lightweight originals worthy of checking in your luggage. Or maybe you’re a not a tourist. Either way, come buy.
And as for writing:
I’ve been working on writing a very long piece about Green Day’s performance in Berlin for weeks now. The first draft is nearly done. I am in the editing process. I have been planning to self publish, but I’m curious if any subscribers are editors for culture or music magazines, and keen to give it a read. Let me know!
xx Randon
and quite frankly does, I avoid Templehof for this reason, it makes me feel small, powerless, gives me Germania vibes.
Love this mix of history, culture, and astro observation. Wondering if this 70-year retrograde cycle commenced in 2010? So, like, am I living out the rest of my days on a retrograde earth? Also what does it mean conceptually that the core (or heart) seems to be moving backwards while the surface maintains speed? Or was it the reverse. Anyway, thank you as always!