Ondřejov observatory

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Historic building of the observatory, designed by Josef Fanta
2-m-PCC Telescope ondřejov observatory on a Stützmontierung according Jensch

The Ondřejov Observatory ( Hvězdárna Ondřejov in Czech ) opened in 1906 and belongs to the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic . The institute was founded around 1750 by scientists from the Jesuit Order for the University of Prague . The observatory is located south of Prague.

history

In 1898 the industrialist Jan Josef Frič , who was also an amateur astronomer , bought a piece of land on Manda Mountain in Ondřejov , on which he began to build an observatory . It took eight years to level the property, erect the necessary buildings and install all of the instruments. The architect Josef Fanta provided the construction plans . On the night of July 31st to August 1st, 1906, Frič carried out the first scientific observations at the new observatory. The observations at that time were carried out on a tilting roof with a newly constructed circumzenital . In 1928 he donated the control room to Charles University in Prague .

However, it was managed by the state observatory, and when the Czech Academy of Sciences founded its astronomical institute in 1953/54 , both observatories were merged on January 1, 1954. The first director was Bohumil Šternberk , who had worked at the Berlin observatory before the war .

The Ondřejov observatory was expanded several times under him. Since 1967 their main instrument has been a huge Cassegrain telescope with an aperture of 2 meters. It was developed and built by the then VEB Carl Zeiss Jena . Because of the triple observation possibilities in the primary, Cassegrain and Coudé focus, it was called the 2 m PCC telescope . In the early 1980s a building of the cosmic laboratory was put into operation.

Today the observatory houses several departments, including for solar and star research, interplanetary matter , galaxies and planetary systems , dynamics of satellite movements, and a center for astrophysics .

  • 10 m radio telescope with Venus and Jupiter in the sky.

  • The dome of the 65 cm telescope.

  • The dome of the 2 m telescope.

Web links

Commons : Ondřejov observatory  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 54 ′ 54.6 ″  N , 14 ° 46 ′ 51.6 ″  E