Ankara Üniversitesi Kreiken Rasathanesi

On the Ahlatlıbel ridge southwest of the city, at 1,256 metres, the observatory was founded in 1959 by the Dutch astrophysicist Egbert Adriaan Kreiken and formally inaugurated on 26 August 1963 during an international astronomy meeting. Today it has nine optical telescopes, among them the 800-millimetre T80 and the 406-millimetre T40 Kreiken named after its founder, a Coudé telescope for solar observation, a museum of historical instruments and a weather station. It belongs to Ankara University's Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences. Public Days, announced on its website, need no appointment and charge a fee at the door; group visits are by appointment on weekdays. EGO bus lines 190-194 from Güvenpark pass by.