03.10.2026

For the first time, there was to be a citizens' festival in Osnabrück on the Day of German Unity - as a place for encounter, democracy, cohesion and commitment. Under the motto "Engaged City", associations and initiatives that volunteer for Osnabrück were able to introduce themselves. We from kosmos-os were there together with over 60 other institutions.

The city of Osnabrück assigned a tent pagoda to each institution, which was equipped with electricity, beer tent set and table. Since the entire area is secured with barriers against vehicles, as at all major events, the larger installations and preparations had to be done in advance on 02.10. Gerold, Olaf and Achim met at the pagoda on Friday afternoon and everything that could already be prepared was done. However, expensive equipment was not supposed to stay in the pagoda during the night – the area was guarded, but you never know...

Set it up the day before...

On 03.10., Gerold, Olaf and Achim continued at 09:00 a.m. The expensive equipment, such as all telescopes and electronics, expensive tripods and mounts, which had spent the night in Achim's bus, were now brought to the pagoda on foot from the nearby, still accessible IHK parking lot.

Shortly before 10:00 a.m., the official start of the festival, the first interested visitors were there – the large solar model and telescopes made many curious.

Visitors were already interested in the early morning

There was a lot going on at the H-Alpha and White Light Solar Telescopes and the solar model

During the day, Thomas G., Werner, Anja, Ulrich, Jörg and Wilhelm supported at the booth to cater for all the interested visitors.

It was eagerly observed - the sun was shining from the sky with only short cloud interruptions - a lot was explained, and there were very nice conversations. The atmosphere at the booth and at the entire festival was really exuberant and cheerful.

 From time to time the queues at the telescopes were shorter...

We had received 60 copies from the publisher of the Astronomy Magazine to pass on free of charge to our visitors – all of them were distributed and given away to those interested in astronomy.

After sunset it slowly became quieter

At 8:00 p.m., all the equipment was packed up and – once again on foot – completely brought to the IHK parking lot, where it was stowed in Achim's bus. For everyone, especially those of us who were on duty from morning to night, it was an exhausting, but very successful and pleasant day together, on which we were able to focus a little more on astronomy in Osnabrück