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Hi all
Just wondering if there are any observatories at the tops of any of the mountains where I could go star gazing one night? Many thanks.
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Hi there,
I don’t know of any mountain tops with observatories where you can gaze at the stars without spending the night up there. But there are places where you could gaze through your own binoculars. One place that comes to mind is the Niesen, which overlooks Lake Thoune (Thunersee) and where there are accommodations for one to stay overnight. These are not inexpensive, as you can see at the following link: http://www.niesen.ch/de/bergh aus/uebernachtung/?oid=1867&lang=de
However, if you are anywhere near Fribourg on a Friday night, you could go to the Observatoire d’Épendes, which is a short drive from the city of Fribourg, and admission is free. I went there with friends last Fall, and we had a very clear night to observe things from two telescopes. The animator always made sure everybody had a chance to see what was in the objective (such as Saturn with its rings) before programming in the next spot in the sky to look at. He was bilingual (French and German) but the evening we were there he spoke mostly in French as pretty well all of us spoke French. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could have spoken English as well. An indication of this possibility is their website, where you can choose French, German, or English: observatoire-ependes.ch/en/home
Stay at a rural camp site or a self catering chalet away from main towns and you will get wonderful dark star lit skies above you.
Hi Peterli
Thanks so much for all that info, that’s great. We’re happy to stay up the mountain if need be, but like you say, more than likely it will end up being very expensive ‘star gazing’! Ha! I’ll definitely take a look at those links you sent. Thanks again.
Hi 1960man
Thanks for that, not a bad idea. Being such a mountainous country, I’m quite surprised that observatories aren’t everywhere. Thanks again for you input.
Hej !
Keep in mind that the difference in the distance from the top of a Swiss mountain and a city in the lower elevations to any star or planet is infinitesimal. The difference is totally insignificant. The key thing is to find a place away from the city lights so that light pollution of the air you want to look up through will be minimal. This is why Épendes, rather than the city of Fribourg, was chosen for the observatory I mentioned in my previous post.
You may be aware of the observatories in Chile, located near the Atacama Desert, far (600 km) from the city of Santiago, with probably the darkest night skies on earth. One of them, called La Silla, is located at an elevation of only 2400 metres, quite a bit lower than many Swiss mountains, but it’s the dark skies that is so important. Alas, there is no place in Switzerland that is 600 km away from city lights; the entire country is only about 350 km wide and at the most about 220 km from North to South.
If you are a star-gazer, you will notice a complete difference in our northern night sky compared to what you are used to seeing in New Zealand.
Thks for that. Just really looking forward to getting my itinerary sorted out, quite stressful when you’re trying to do your own thing in a new country and trying to avoid tours. But it will all be worth it in the long run I guess. I’ve been living in Australia now for a long time and the stars are just beautiful out in the desert too – at ground level – because of the lack of lights.
Thks again.
Oops, I figured you were from New Zealand because of the Kiwi part of your handle. Is the Crazy part because you live in Australia ?
Ha ha ha… I wondered how you knew I was a Kiwi… I didn’t even think about the Crazy Kiwi giving it away!
I’ve been in Australia a very long time but I still love my home country of New Zealand, hence the reason I want to see Switzerland so much – I just love mountains and snow!
You didn’t mention when you are planning to be in Switzerland. The mountains will be there no mattern when you visit but the amount of snow coverage will vary immensely from one part of the year to another. Here is one of the. many panoramic cameras mounted in neat places in Switzerland. This is the Roundshot camera on the Schilthorn right now (it is early morning) so you can see how much snow is still on the Eiger, Münch, and the Jungfrau, not to mention all the other surrounding mountains: schilthorn.roundshot.c o/birg/
Hi Crazy Kiwi,
You’ll find a list of very nice hotels in the mountains here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ho tels/mountaintops.
Thanks Peterli
That’s a pretty awesome round shot isn’t it!!! Wow!
Initially my friend and I really wanted to come smack bang in the middle of winter, but unfortunately we keep on coming across stumbling blocks like closures of certain hotels, activities, cogwheel railways, the alpine slide, Berggasthaus Aescher-Wildkirchli (the last two I especially wanted to experience), so we started looking at alternative times to come and were thinking maybe May… but I don’t want to spend all this money for a once in a lifetime trip, only to get there and be told that there’s still too much snow in May and we can’t access these two things. I realise that the weather is in the hands of the Gods, and that can’t be helped, but I’m just not sure when to plan our trip for now. We are also trying to avoid mid-summer because of it being a very tourist-heavy time of the year. Any advice? Or are there other things around similar to the alpine slide, Berggasthaus Aescher-Wildkirchli? Thanks.
Thanks for the info Arno. Muchly appreciated.
We once booked a mountaintop hotel on a clear night, because I really wanted to see the Milky Way. Although the night was very clear, we didn’t realize that having a full moon reflecting on nearby snow covering Alps drowned out the dark sky! We couldn’t see any stars. Keep that in mind.
Hi Gailannski,
It’s really too bad there was a full moon, but it’s good that you have pointed this out to Crazy Kiwi. Something to definitely keep in mind ! Darkness is the key. During the first part of our visit to the observatory at Épendes last Fall the farmer at the neighbouring farm had his tractor running (for some reason) and the tractor lights were shining right at the observatory building. I think that some of that light was reflecting on the top ends of the telescopes. Fortunately, he eventually shut down his tractor and went into his house.
Thks Gailannski, thks for the heads up.
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