IN GOD WE TRUST...ALL OTHERS WE MONITOR!!

Welcome to Norbert Reinecke’s

‘K E Y H O L E’ - O B S E R V A T O R Y

My name is Dr. Norbert R. Reinecke, born 1950 in Hannover (Germany). There I went to College and studied at the University of Hannover the subject of physics with masters degree. Part of that education was astrophysics (University of Göttingen) .

The Masters Degree culminated with a scientific paper on “Untersuchungen mit Laserquellen an ultraschnellen Prozessen der Chemie” “Research on laser sources for evaluation of ultra fast chemical processes.

My Thesis (Dissertation) covered the subject of “Nuklearmagnetische Impulsresonanz an Heterogenen Systemen (H an Pt) unter Ultrahochvakuumbedingungen” “ Nuclear Magnetic Impuls Resonance applied to Heterogeneous Systems (Hydrogen / Platinum) under ultra-high-vacuum conditions”.

After 5 years holding the position “Professor Assistant” as a state employee at the University I was moved to  a federal governmental post. Since 1983 I served for several agencies and tasks in Europe and abroad. 

At the age of 12 I discovered astronomy as a hobby. Catalyst at that time was a wonderful children’s book written in the US by Rose Wyler to whom I’m extremely grateful. Would I know her adress I’d like to write her a letter/mail. Hope she’s still around.

My first telescope in 1963 was a selfbuilt 50 mm refractor. Next was a 114 mm Newton Reflector from the local shopping center in 1965. Next was only work and struggle for education, profession etc. without spare time for my beloved hobby. After having returned from a long period of work in the US in 1996 I was able to reestablish my activities in that regard. Due to favourable circumstances I was able to buy my equipment for a small buck from a dear friend of mine.

My passion is twofold. Taking “pretty” pictures from the heavens and doing spectroscopy of interesting astronomical objects like Be-stars. Specifically this second subject turns out to be a very costly hobby since the equipment is extremly expensive. That gave me the push to develop und build my own astro-spectrometer with almost only shopping center parts. This is a very fruitful and synergistic mixture of experimental physics and astronomy.

My home is situated 400 m above zero altitude in the middle of the dark German woods far away from any village. Hence it is free of light-pollution.

The frienship and fairness of amateurs in that field let me feel like living on another planet. That is one more reason which makes this hobby most attractive. I don’t want to miss it anymore...

[Home] [Observatory] [Gallery] [Spectroscopy] [Private]