Zweibrücken Observatory (), or the Zweibrück Observatory of the Natural Science Association, is a public observatory in Zweibrücken, Germany. Its dome was painted to resemble the Star Wars character R2-D2 in 2018.
Construction
The observatory is located on a hill in the Zweibrücken campus of the University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserslautern. In 1999, the Zweibrücken scientific association was founded, with plans to construct an observatory. In 2002 the diameter dome was erected. The construction was an initiative of Professor Peter Pokrowsky.
The dome houses a Celestron C14 optical telescope, with a diameter of , as well as a Coronado SolarMax solar telescope with a diameter of and a focal length of .
R2-D2
In September 2018, the telescope dome was painted to resemble the R2-D2 robot from Star Wars by a team led by Hubert Zitt. It was the second observatory dome to be painted in such a way, following from Goodsell Observatory in 2010. The repainting took 120 man-hours. It gained internet fame after a post on Twitter by Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.