Sonneberg Observatory, Astronomical observatory in Sonneberg, Germany

Sonneberg Observatory stands on the 638 m Erbisbühl in the Neufang district of Sonneberg. Since the 1950s it has consisted of several one- and two-storey buildings separated by green spaces, with laboratories, offices and attached domes for the instruments. The oldest building, extended with a lecture hall, houses the Astronomy Museum opened in 1998.

The observatory was founded on December 28, 1925 under the direction of Cuno Hoffmeister, supported by funds from the Carl-Zeiss Foundation. Over the following decades it grew into one of the leading centers in central Europe for tracking changes in the night sky.

The observatory's name comes from the town of Sonneberg, and public astronomy has been part of its mission since it opened as a municipal observatory in 1925. The Astronomy Museum, housed since 1998 in the oldest building on the site, shows Hoffmeister's historic refractor and a meteorite collection, and offers tours, weekly public observing sessions, and even children's birthdays and weddings on site.

The hill location means the weather can shift quickly, so bringing a warm layer is a good idea even in summer. The museum is open during the day, but observation nights happen after dark and depend on clear skies, so it is worth checking conditions before you go.

The site holds Germany's second-largest archive of astronomical glass plates, with around 300,000 photographic records of the northern sky taken over many decades. Scientists use this collection to compare how specific regions of the sky have changed over long periods, a type of research that no modern digital tool can fully replace.