Astronomical Office
The Astronomical Office was founded in May 1907 by middle school professor Oswald Thomas in Kronstadt in Transylvania and moved with him to Vienna in 1913 , where Thomas accepted a teaching position at the university. After the founder's death in 1963, it was taken over by his student Hermann Mucke (“Studiosus Mucke”) and managed by him and his wife Ruth until March 2019.
The Astronomical Office initially served as a collection point for lay observations in the day and night sky and allowed Oswald Thomas to create precise orbital calculations for fireballs and meteorites from numerous vague references .
It is still the astronomical point of contact and scientific institution within the Austrian Astronomical Association . From 1957 to 2019 the office published the astronomical yearbook “ Österreichischer Himmelskalender ” and the astronomical monthly magazine “ Sternenbote ”. In addition, as part of its celestial educational tasks, it also supervised the Sterngarten am Georgenberg (Vienna 23rd), with which a celestial educational idea of the first director Oswald Thomas was developed and implemented by his successor Hermann Mucke.
The Astro Association now looks after the star garden ; the "Himmelskalender" has been continued by the association in digital form as an astronomical almanac since 2020 .
Web links
- Astronomical Office, Vienna
- 100 years of the Astronomical Office, 1907-2007
- Astronomical Almanac for Austria
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ruth Mucke, Michael KJ Heihs: Milestones of a life for the stars. CV Hermann Muckes. At Astronomisches-Buero-Wien.or.at, accessed on December 5, 2019.