Bad Münstereifel

The radio telescope on the Stockert held a record for a few months: with a diameter of 25 metres, it was the largest freely rotating radio telescope in the world. The Stockert astro-beacon was inaugurated here at an altitude of 435 metres in 1956. The site belongs to the Eschweiler district of Bad Münstereifel. However, the exposed location on the mountain proved to be unfavourable for the radio telescope:

Radio traffic at the nearby NATO airport in Nörvenich and the sometimes violent Eifel storms interfered with the measurement results. Therefore, the new Effelsberg radio telescope was built in a valley in 1971. With a mirror diameter of 100 metres, the Effelsberg radio telescope was now the largest in the world. In contrast to the radio telescope Stockert, however, it held this record for around 30 years.

DThe radio telescope Stockert ceased to be used for scientific purposes in 1979. The University of Bonn and the Max Planck Institute used the radio telescope for student training until 1993. It has been a listed industrial monument since 1999. The North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation acquired the radio telescope in 2005. A support association financially backed by the foundation succeeded in restoring the facility, modernising the technology and making the building accessible to visitors.