Guided Tours and Public Outreach

2023-09-28T16:12:36Z

Reichardt: /* Tours looking for a guide */

On this pages you can find all information needed to guide a tour through our observatory for public people.

At least, that's the aim of this page, so please add information if you think its missing!

= Platform =

'''The following is important:''' 
Tours are officially '''organized''' by the [http://foerderverein-sternwarte-bamberg.de Foerderverein of the observatory], but '''operated''' by the observatory staff to be insured through the university!

The main platform for the general public is [http://foerderverein-sternwarte-bamberg.de/fuehrungen http://foerderverein-sternwarte-bamberg.de/fuehrungen].

Here, tours can be ordered in two different ways:
* single persons and smaller groups can directly book public and regular guided tours via our webform at https://www.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de/guided-tours/
* larger groups may directly ask for a tour at a separate date either by email to [mailto:fuehrungen@foerderverein-sternwarte-bamberg.de fuehrungen@foerderverein-sternwarte-bamberg.de] or by phone. The email address is a forwarding to a certain person of the mailing list (see below).

The source code of the webform for booking a public tour can be found in the GIT repository at 
[https://www.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de/gitlab/webmaster/guided-tours https://www.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de/gitlab/webmaster/guided-tours]. 
All pushes to the master branch are automatically deployed at the official URL above!

== Mailing List / Current "staff" ==

All people interested in giving guided tours are member of the mailing list 
[mailto:astro-fuehrungen@lists.fau.de astro-fuehrungen@lists.fau.de] 
Please '''do not share''' this address with anybody outside of the observatory!
If you're not on the list but interested in giving tours, just ask Max to add you :-)

New tours without a guide yet are usually announced via this list. See [[Mailing lists]] for the list administrator.

In charge of organization:
* Katrin

Currently, the following people give tours on a regular basis:
* Dominic
* Ole
* Steven
* Christian
* Aafia
* Amy
* Julia
* Philipp T.

= Tip policy =

The group is informed beforehand about the rule of tip.
For the guides the following applies for the money you get during the tour:
During the week (Monday till Friday) the factor for the donation, which goes directly to the Foerderverein, is 1/3 (33%), the rest (2/3) is your personal tip.
For weekend tours (Saturday, Sunday) the factor for the donation is 1/4 (25%).

Make sure to hand in the donations immediately after your tour. Put the money on Ingos desk with a note stating which tour you gave, how much you received and how many people were there.

= Offering Tours =

At some point you're perhaps asked to give a tour or if it is possible to have one on a specific date. The latter might occur if Edith is out of her office and her telephone is redirected. In those cases you should know ''and'' check following things:
* '''Who is asking''' for a tour? If you're on the phone ask for a name and write down the phone number where the person can be called!
* The '''number of people should be between 15 and 25'''. Of course, the boundary conditions depend on the person guiding the tour. In a case of doubt, ask the guide or, if none is found yet, you simply can't promise that there will be a tour! In that case you may offer to look for a guide giving the tour anyway (and call the person back), but again don't make any promises! A list of people offering tours can be found below.
* What is the '''average age of the persons attending''' the tour? That's an important point since the content of a tour differs between children and adults, of course. Furthermore some guides have favorite age groups!
* Carefully check the '''date and time of the tour'''!
** It's most likely to find a guide if the weekday of a tour is '''between Monday and Thursday'''. Friday might work if it is before noon, otherwise people might be on the way into the weekend. In all other cases you may offer to look for a guide giving the tour anyway (see the point about the group size above).
** Make sure that there is '''no tour scheduled already'''! For that look into our online calendar (the link can be found below) and on the whiteboard in the copying machine office.
** Related to the last point ensure that there is '''no lab course''' running at the date! The lab course is also marked in our online calendar.
** Usually, a tour will take '''about 1.5 to 2 hours'''.
* Clarify the '''costs for a tour''' beforehand!! Unfortunately, we are '''not allowed to ask for money''' for giving a tour! The only way for getting money is to tell the people that they are welcomed to '''donate money to the [http://foerderverein-sternwarte-bamberg.de/| Foerderverein der Sternwarte]'''. In nearly every case the people or the one asking for a tour will pay something. A rule of thumb is that '''every person donates 3 EUR''' (for children 2 EUR are alright as well). __For your ears only__: 1 EUR per attended person of the donated money will be transferred to the Förderverein (the current treasurer is Ingo, leave the money on his desk with a short note stating the number of people and what kind of a tour this was), the rest is for the guide! There will be a contact phone-number available, best would be to call the contacts-person before the tour to tell them these infos...
* '''Observing with our telescopes''' is possible, of course, but only in case of '''night and cloudless weather'''! No kidding, some people are not aware of these facts... ("The day is too bright to see stars.", "I'm sorry, we can't look trough the clouds.", "The weather forecast is too uncertain, we can't promise.") Please check if someone else has already signed in for one of the telescopes on the day/night of the guided tour!
* If all the above points are clarified '''mark the tour''' in our [https://www.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de/calendar/ online calendar] and the whiteboard in the copying machine office. You have to be at a machine at the observatory to have access to the online calendar (to be more precisely: you're machine has to have an internal IP-address). The entry into the online calendar, besides the date and time, should include "for whom is the tour and the group size, contact person and phone number, name of the guide giving the tour". The whiteboard template is as follows: "date, for whom is the tour, time, guide"

= Giving a tour =

Each tour has several stations, where you can show things or talk to the people. Useful information and experiences about that is listed below. It might be helpful as well to read the article about [[intern:popular_science:start|popular science]] in case you want or have to (if somebody asks) explain scientific aspects.

== Preparation ==

'''Before the tour'''
* Shut the doors of all offices in the main building (at least on the ground level) for several reasons: people are not allowed to walk in there and some of us are still working there during tours!
* Remove the northern hemisphere from the model of the inner solar system located in the entrance hall (you may put it into the Knigge room)
* Switch the lights on you need:
** entrance hall
** meteorite showcase (switch is on the right next to it)
** hallway to the meridian building; here are multiple switches
*** main light: right next to the door of the hallway or the backdoor of the main building (labeled "Meridian")
*** info panels: on the opposite wall to the door next to the blue cupboard
*** showcases and Blinkkomparator: in the cutout box up the few stairs on the right wall close to the library, labeled "Linke Steckdosen"
* In case of observations
** carry the needed oculars into the domes (for observations with the naked eye, the 40cm telescope is strongly recommended)
** do __not__ open the domes (first, it might start raining while nobody is there, and it's more fun for you to let the people do it)
** do __not__ remove the dust covers of the telescopes (wait until the dome has been opened)
** read the [[remeis:start|guide how to operate the telescopes and mountings]]
* In case of showing nice pictures
** make sure enough chairs are available
** switch on the beamer in the library, log into the machine and start your presentation, picture-viewer, ...

'''After the tour'''
* Switch the lights off
* Shut down the telescope mounting, put the dust covers back on and close the domes
* Logout of the used machines and switch the beamer off
* Put on the dust covers of the telescopes in the hallway
* Protect the photo plates on the Blinkkomparator from getting dusty
* '''Move the entry from the whiteboard''' in the copying machine office '''to the list attached to the pin-board''' next to it

== Material and Presentations ==
*Collected information valuable for guided tours: ''/data/media/presentations_for_guided_tours'' and ''/userdata/data/beuchert/work/teaching/guidedtour/presentation/guidedtour.pdf''

*A merger of (picture/video) presentations given at guided tours: ''/userdata/data/beuchert/work/teaching/guidedtour/presentation/guidedtour.odp''

*and according videos in ''/userdata/data/beuchert/work/teaching/guidedtour/presentation/videos/''

*Research and activities at Remeis from the radio to the gamma-rays (Tobi Beuchert): ''/data/media/presentations_for_guided_tours/Andrea_tour_material/observations_allwavelength_remeisresearch_beuchert.pdf''

*A presentation showing the astrophotography done at the observatory: ''/data/media/slideshow_astrophotographie/optische_Quellen.pdf''

*A video tour with Joern: ''/data/media/presentations_for_guided_tours/Joerns_example_tour''

*A video tour with Uli (only hallway): ''/data/media/presentations_for_guided_tours/Ulis_example_tour_hall_2019''

*A complete tour by Sebastian Müller: ''/data/media/presentations_for_guided_tours/Sebastians_example_tour''

*Presentations for tours by Andrea Gokus: ''/data/media/presentations_for_guided_tours/Andrea_tour_material'' Contains presentations about the solar system (solar_system.pdf), neutrinos (neutrino_talk.pdf), overview of different objet types (impressions_universe.pdf)

*Andreas tour notes: ''/data/media/presentations_for_guided_tours/Andrea_tour_material/Sternwarten_Fuehrungsnotizen.pdf''

*Amys tour notes: ''/data/media/presentations_for_guided_tours/Guided_Tour_Information_Amy.pdf''

*Tobis tour notes: ''/userdata/data/beuchert/work/teaching/guidedtour/presentation/guidedtour.pdf''

*Information on clocks: ''/data/media/history/2009-01_KlassikUhren_Poehlmann_Max_Ort.pdf''

*Information on history of the observatory and the collection: ''/data/media/history/AstronomischeSammlung.pdf''

*History of the observatory (Litten): ''/data/media/history/Litten-1.pdf'' ''/data/media/history/Litten-2.pdf''

*Last will of Dr. Karl Remeis: ''/data/media/history/Testament_Karl_Remeis.pdf''

*Die Remeis-Sternwarte zu Bamberg 1889-1939, E. Zinner: [https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1939VeBam...4....1Z&data_type=PDF_HIGH&whole_paper=YES&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf ADS]

== Picture presentation ==

There are different modes for the beamer (e.g. presentation, videos, graphics etc.) which result in a different appearance of the images. Make sure to select a presentation mode in which the pictures appear in an appropriate brightness on the screen. (I think "graphics" was a good one).

== Telescopes in the domes ==
It's nice to show the main mirror to the people so that they can see themselves. To do so, just turn down the telescope in declination. This is only possible for the 40cm as the 50cm-Mount has a mechanical stop.

Sometimes people want to know what we do with the tiny, little telescopes attached on the side of the big ones. Those are guiding-scopes. You can attach a camera to them and let it take pictures of one star. If the star moves (what it shouldn't do) a correction signal is sent to the mount to compensate the movement of the star. Stars can "move" in an image for example due to impreciseness of the mount.

The (dusty) plate in front of the 40cm mirror is called "Schmid-Platte". It is used to improve the imaging of the telescope and to correct several errors of the mirrors like coma and field-curvature. As it is very sensitive to scratching, it won't be cleaned and left dusty. But the dust has hardly any effect on the images as it lays far outside of the focusplane. The optical design is similar to a Ritchey-Chrétien type regarding the capability, but has a spherical main mirror, an aspherical secondary mirror and a lens-corrector (=Schmidt-plate). The price of the telescope and the mount is roughly about 25.000€ altogether.

The 50cm doesn't have a Schmid-Platte but a corrector (lenses) placed in the OAZ. It has an elliptical main mirror and a spherical secondary mirror (Corrected Dall Kirkham). The price of the telescope and the mount is roughly about 65.000€. The secondary mirror is, compared to the size of the main mirror, significantly larger than the 40cm-sec. mirror. This results in a better luminosity an a larger, flat-field which is important for taking images. We can achieve tracking accuracies of about 10min without guiding.

== Monthly public tours ==
NOTE: even if there is already someone listed for a tour, please enter you availability

{| class="wikitable"
! Date
! Language
! Time
! Type
! Available Guides
! Backup

|-
| 2023/09/..
| -
| -
| no tour
| summer / lab break
| -

|-
| 2023/10/10
| English
| 7 pm
| normal tour
| Paavai
| Steven, Aafia

|-
| 2023/10/16
| German
| 6:30 pm
| normal tour
|
|

|-
| 2023/10/18
| German
| 6 pm
| Tour for children
|
|

|-
| 2023/10/24
| German
| 6:30 pm
| normal tour
| Philipp T.
| Steven

|-
| 2023/11/07
| English
| 6 pm
| normal tour
| Aafia
|

|-
| 2023/11/14
| German
| 6 pm
| Tour for children
|
|

|-
| 2023/11/28
| German
| 6 pm
| normal tour
|
|

|-
| 2023/12/05
| English
| 6 pm
| normal tour
|
|

|-
| 2023/12/12
| German
| 6 pm
| Tour for children
|
|

|-
| 2023/12/19
| German
| 6 pm
| normal tour
|
|
|}

== Tours looking for a guide ==
ATTENTION: tours are not sorted by the date of the tour, but the time when they were requested

NOTE: please enter you availability even if there is already another name listed.

{| class="wikitable"
! Date
! Language
! Time
! Organizer
! Additional information
! # People
! Observing
! Available Guides

|-
| 2023/10/19
| German
| 4 pm
| Frau Hörath
| need two guides (!)
| 30-40 adults
| no
| Philipp T. and Christian R.

|}

== Observing ==

[[Category:Internal]]

Remeis-Wiki - User contributions [en]

Guided Tours and Public Outreach