Astronomical Calculation Institute (University of Heidelberg)

The Astronomisches Rechen-Institut ("Astronomical Calculation Institute"), or ARI, is a research institute in Heidelberg, Germany. The ARI is currently part of the Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg ("Center of Astronomy of the University of Heidelberg)". Formerly, the ARI belonged to the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The ARI has a rich history. It was founded in the year 1700 in Berlin-Dahlem by Gottfried Kirch. It had its origin in a patent application by Frederick I of Prussia, who introduced a monopoly on publishing star catalogs in Prussia. In 1945 the Institute was moved by the Americans nearer to their headquarters in Heidelberg. Since January 1, 2005 the ARI has been integrated into the Zentrum für Astronomie (ZAH). The other two institutes in the ZAH are the Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik (Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, ITA) and the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl (Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory, LSW).

The ARI has been responsible among other things for the Gliese catalog of nearby stars, the fundamental catalogs FK5 and FK6, and the annually-published "Apparent Places of Fundamental Stars" (APFS), stellar ephemerides that provide high-precision mean and apparent positions of over three thousand stars for each day.

Today, the ARI is not limited to publishing star catalogs but has a wide research scope, including gravitational lensing, galaxy...
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