At above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, the Rehberg in the

Harz mountains The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a Mittelgebirge, highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The nam ...

is the fourth highest mountain in the German state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, and the fifth-highest in the Harz.

Location and access

It is located in the

Harz National Park Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the Germany, German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg am Harz, Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern ...

immediately north of

Sankt Andreasberg Sankt Andreasberg () is a former independent city in the Goslar (district), district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2011, it has formed part of the town Braunlage. It is situated in the Harz, approximately west of Braunlage ...

. Its summit is a broad, flat dome, much of which is forested. It is not easily accessible because the route from the Rehberg 'ski cross' (''Rehberger Skikreuz'') was renaturalised several years ago by the Harz National Park as part of its nature conservation planning. In addition, in the region of the summit a marsh

biotope A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of flora (plants), plants and fauna (animals), animals. ''Biotope'' is almost synonymous with the term habitat (ecology), "habitat", which ...

has been created by artificial water damming. Along the mountain's eastern and southern sides run two tracks: the '' Rehberger Grabenweg'', with its tavern, the '' Rehberger Grabenhaus'' (checkpoint 155 in the

Harzer Wandernadel The Harzer Wandernadel is a system of hiking awards in the Harz mountains in central Germany. Hikers (or mountain bikers) can earn awards at different levels of challenge by walking to the various checkpoints in the network and stamping their ...

system. Higher up is the ''Rehberger Planweg'' which takes walkers and cross-country skiers around the mountain.

Observatory

Due to its location and the lack of habitation on and around the Rehberg, it has an almost natural dark night sky with a

surface brightness In astronomy, surface brightness (SB) quantifies the apparent brightness or flux density per unit angular area of a spatially extended object such as a galaxy or nebula, or of the night sky background. An object's surface brightness depends on ...

of 21.75 mag/arcsec². For this reason the Sankt Andreasberg Observatory Society (''Sternwarte Sankt Andreasberg e. V.'') selected a building on the southwestern part of the mountain as the site for its barrier-free observatory.

References

Utz Schmidtko
Harz Observatory
/ref>
at www.harzlandhexe.de. Retrieved 14 Jul 2017. ''Rehberg (Harz)''
at www.mountain-forecast.com. Retrieved 14 Jul 2017. Sternwarte Sankt Andreasberg – Sternpark
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029194117/http://sternwarte-sankt-andreasberg.de/sternenpark/ , date=2013-10-29 , retrieved 6 October 2014. Mountains of Lower Saxony Mountains of the Harz Mountains under 1000 metres Sankt Andreasberg

Location and access

Observatory

See also

References