Description of the attraction
On the southern border of Austria, near the town of Villach, in the mountains above Treffen rises an astronomical solar observatory called Kanzelhoch. She collaborates with the Institute of Geophysics, Astrophysics and Meteorology, based at the University of Graz. The task of the staff of the observatory is to observe our luminary and study it. The Solar Observatory website regularly publishes images of the Sun, created with the help of powerful equipment. Several telescopes are installed at the observatory, with the help of which daily monitoring of solar activity is possible.
The Kantselhokh Observatory was one of four observatories built in the mountains of Carinthia in 1941-1943 by order of the command of the German Luftwaffe. They were needed to study solar flares and their effects on radio communications. At the beginning of the 20th century, wireless technology for transmitting data over a distance was widely developed. During the Second World War, radio communications were actively used for military purposes. Of particular importance was shortwave radio with a frequency range of 3 to 30 MHz. Antennas and equipment for short-wave communications made it possible to transmit signals over long distances and communicate with the whole world. In the early 1930s, scientists Hans Megel in Germany and John H. Dellinger in the United States came to the same conclusion: solar flares interrupt shortwave communications. Therefore, the German military recruited specialists to study the sun and predict activity on it, in order to gain an advantage in transmitting data over a distance.
The Kantselhokh Solar Observatory can be reached by cable car.
