Brief News
Obituary Alex Kann
David Alexander Kann, a former researcher at IAA-CSIC and common user of the Calar Alto telescopes, has passed away on March 10th, 2023. He will be dearly missed by her/his many colleagues at the observatory and all over the world.
Dr. Kann was an expert in the field of transient phenomena (gamma ray bursts, kilonovae, ...) with hundreds of publications based on multi-wavelength data taken at many ground- and space-based facilities.
Alex was also an expert in cats and heavy metal music. One of his closest collaborators describes him as "an impressive astronomer" and "the sweetest person I've ever met".
Rest in peace, Alex.
The AMANAR project visits the Calar Alto Observatory
August 3rd 2022
A dozen of children from the Granada Association of Friendship with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic have enjoyed the facilities of the Andalusian observatory.
In 2019, the GalileoMobile international organization and the Canarian Association of Friendship with the Saharawi People (ACAPS) launched the "AMANAR: Under the same sky" project, an initiative to promote and support the scientific education of Saharawi children living in camps of refugees in Tinduf (Algeria).
AMANAR, which means Pleiades in the Berber language, emerged as an outreach project to inspire the Saharawi community through the observation of the Universe as well as to develop scientific skills, with a special emphasis on teachers, children and young Saharawi people to make them feel part of a global community.
A disintegrating rocket and commercial satellites visible from Calar Alto
May 7th 2021
On May 4th, 2021, shortly before 11 pm (Central European Summer Time), the Calar Alto webcam pointing North recorded this video showing a curious phenomenon, visible to the naked eye. Daniel Marín, an expert in astronautics, identified that it was a Falcon 9 rocket from the SpaceX company, launched from Cape Canaveral (USA) on the same day at 9 pm CEST. This partially reusable rocket carried on board 60 satellites for the Starlink broadband project.
