Max Planck Institute for Astronomy - Annual Report 2005

V.12 Farewell Colloquium in Honor of Immo Appenzeller
From June 30 th to July 1 st , the farewell colloquium in honor
of Immo Appenzeller, Director of the Landessternwarte
Heidelberg (LSW), was held in the lecture hall of the
MPIA. It was no coincidence that the scientific part of
this event organized by the LSW was presented at the
MPIA: the long-standing close cooperation between the
two astronomical institutes on the Königstuhl was largely
attributed to the guest of honor himself. From 1998
to 2000, Appenzeller was the provisional Acting Director
of the MPIA.
»From T Tauri Stars to the Edge of the Universe«
was the apt title of the colloquium on the occasion of the
forthcoming retirement of Immo Appenzeller, to which
almost one hundred invited guests, among them the 22
speakers, had come to the Königstuhl. The title of the
colloquim was »meaningful« indeed, because it illustrates
the enormous range of scientific topics Appenzeller
dealt with during his life as an astrophysicist. It was this
great scientific variety that – in addition to numerous
personal words – was the special focus of the talks.
At the beginning of his scientific career in Göttingen,
Immo Appenzeller mainly worked on stars. Later he
increasingly turned his attention to extragalactic issues,
too. Besides the fact that he tackled »his« astronomical
objects both theoretically and observationally, his intensive
involvement in the building of instruments was also
emphasized in the talks. A signature project was the construction
of fors 1 and fors 2 (fors � Focal Reducer
and Spectrograph) for the eso-VLT. This instrument,
built under eso contract by the LSW and the University
Observatories of Göttingen and Munich, provided excellent
images and spectra from the start and is generally
Fig. V.12.1: A large number of guests attended the colloquium
for Immo Appenzeller (in front to the left) in the lecture hall
of the MPIA.
Fig. V.12.2: Immo Appenzeller with a special present alluding to
his second great area of interest apart from stars: cacti.
called »the workhorse« of the VLT. Immo Appenzeller
was PI of the project and was very involved in the scientific
use of the instrument after its commissioning. One
example of this work is the fors Deep Field.
Currently, his name is also linked to the building
of the lucifer 1 and 2 instruments (LBT nir spectroscopic
Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit
for Extragalactic Research) for the Large Binocular
Telescope (LBT). Immo Appenzeller is co-PI of these
instruments, which will provide spectra and images in
the near-infrared range and are being built by the LSW
in cooperation with four other institutes, one of them
the MPIA. This project also demonstrates the close
scientific cooperation between the two institutes on the
Königstuhl.
From 1975 until 2005, Immo Appenzeller was in
charge of the fate and fortune of the Landessternwarte;
on September 30 th he retired. The colloquium held in advance
was not only an appropriate scientific setting. With
the barbecue that took place on the grounds of the LSW
in the evening of the first day, it also represented a social
highlight which will certainly be fondly remembered by
all participants.
(Klaus Jäger, Jochen Heidt)
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