Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
The Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic was founded in 1954. Today the institute is located in the Ondřejov observatory , about 35 km southeast of Prague. The institute's place of work is also in Spořilov, in the building of the Geophysical Institute. The head of the institute is Petr Heinzel.
organization
The institute maintains several departments, including the department for sun and star research, interplanetary matter , galaxies and planetary systems , dynamics of satellite movements, and a center for astrophysics . The work of the institute is carried out in the following departments:
Department of Solar Physics
This department mainly deals with the phenomenon of solar flares . It observes the sun and its activities (e.g. sunspots ) and thereby predicts solar activity . The department uses optical telescopes and radio telescopes for the observations . The head of the department is František Fárník.
Department of Interplanetary Matter
The observation of meteors , comets and asteroids are the main activities of the institute. The department manages 10 stations for observation of racing cars throughout the republic. The meteors are also observed with a radio telescope. For the photometric observations of the asteroids the department uses an optical telescope with a diameter of 65 cm. The head of the department is Pavel Spurný.
Department of Star Physics
The department is primarily dedicated to the study of so-called hot stars (class Be), but also to the study of stellar atmospheres, the dynamics of stellar winds and relativistic astrophysics . For her work, she uses the largest telescope in the republic - a reflector with a mirror diameter of 2 m. The head of the department is Jiří Kubát.
A group for high energy astrophysics headed by René Hudec reports to this department. The group studies the release of X-rays and gamma rays from space, which can be observed, for example, when gamma-ray flashes break out.
Department of Galaxies and Planetary Systems
It is based in Prague and deals with the influence of the solar system on the earth and with the study of star formation in galaxies . The head of the department is Jan Palouš.
This department also includes the previously independent group for the dynamics of artificial satellites, which studies the movements of the satellites. Their main project is a microaccelerometer called Macek for measuring accelerations that do not have gravity origin. The instrument was brought to the MIR space station for the first time in 1996 with the space shuttle Atlantis ( STS-79 ) . After the controlled crash of the space station in 2001, a new device was installed on the Czech satellite MIMOSA in 2003 and placed in polar orbit by a Russian Kosmos rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome .
Furnishing
The main instrument of the institute since 1967 has been a 2-meter Cassegrain telescope . It was developed and built by Alfred Jensch at what was then VEB Carl Zeiss Jena . Because of the possibilities of observation in the primary, Cassegrain and Coudé focus, it was called the 2 m PCC telescope .
history
The Astronomical Institute is a direct successor to the Klementin observatory , which was founded by Jesuits in the old town of Prague at the beginning of the 18th century . The institute itself is said to have been founded in 1750. After the First World War, the observatory became state property. In the meantime, in 1898, the industrial and amateur astronomer Jan Josef Frič bought a piece of land on the Manda mountain in Ondřejov u Prahy , where he started building an observatory and donated it to the Czech government in 1928. When the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic was founded in 1954, these two observatories were combined into one astronomical institute. The first director was Bohumil Šternberk . The Ondřejov observatory was then expanded again and again. In 1967 a telescope with a diameter of 2 m and a building of the cosmic laboratory were put into operation there in the early 1980s. Today the building serves as the headquarters of the department heads.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website of the institute. Retrieved September 8, 2009 .
