Ankara Üniversitesi Rasathane Müzesi

About Ankara Üniversitesi Rasathane Müzesi

The Rasathane Müzesi is the museum of Ankara University's Kreiken Observatory (Kreiken Rasathanesi) at Ahlatlıbel, where old observing instruments once used at the observatory are on display. The observatory itself has a long history. In 1954 it was decided to set up an observatory attached to the Ankara University Faculty of Science to begin observational astronomy in Ankara. Because the faculty sat in the city centre and suffered from light pollution at night, the site chosen was Ahlatlıbel, which was easy to reach and had around 300 clear observing nights a year. The foundations of the main building and three observation buildings were laid in 1959 under the astrophysicist Prof. Dr. Egbert Adriaan Kreiken, after whom the observatory is named, and it was officially opened on 26 August 1963 with an international astronomy meeting. It began work with a radio telescope, a 15 cm astrograph and a Coude telescope. Today it has nine optical telescopes, four of them fixed, the largest being the 80 cm Prof. Dr. Berahitdin Albayrak telescope. The museum is visited as part of the observatory public programme. Public days and special evening events need no appointment: visitors simply come at the times announced on the observatory website. Past public days have combined an astronomy talk, observing through the telescopes, a museum tour and a chance to chat with astronomers, with events held outdoors and visitors taken into telescope buildings in groups of up to ten. The observatory website listed fees of 200 TL (students 100 TL), paid at the gate. Schools and groups of 20 to 50 people can book weekday daytime visits. The observatory is on İncek Bulvarı, about 2 km from the Or-An bridge on the Konya road. Check the 2026 public days calendar on the website before going.