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Heidelberg was far to the west and south of Berlin. Other than Munich and Passau, there were no German universities father away. Heidelberg lay among hills of forest and vineyard on the south bank of the River Neckar -- a tributary of the Rhine --, and about 100 kilometers south of Frankfurt-am-Main. Heidelberg had acquired considerable fame as a scientific and medical university in the middle of the 19th century. It was here in Heidelberg that Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff made the fundamental advances in spectroscopy which allowed the analysis of the composition of stars by study of their absorption spectra.
 
The university also maintained a new astronomical observatory on the Königstuhl, 335 meters above the town. Wegener signed up for the course on calculus given by Leo Königsberger, experimental physics by Georg Hermann Quincke, general astronomy by Wilhelm Valentiner and meteorology by Max Wolf. Both Wolf and Valentiner were pioneers in astronomical photography. They also had made extensive studies of near-earth objects such as comets and asteroids, though much of their later fame came from studies of double-star systems and nebulae.
 
Astronomy and meteorology were then parts of the same subject. One had to consider atmospheric conditions in every astronomical observation, and especially carefully in positional astronomy, where one was trying to determine where something was as much as what it was. These atmospheric influences meant that would-be astronomers had to learn how to measure and record temperature and humidity to correct for their effects. Moreover, weather prediction and prognostication was also useful to an astronomer. A falling barometer, high cirrus clouds at noon, and a wind backing from the south to the northwest were strong indications in Heidelberg that an evening planned for astronomical observation might well be spent instead working in the darkroom.
 
=== Winter Semester 1900 - 1901 ===
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