Astronomical Institute of Czech Academy of Sciences
The astronomical institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic was founded in 1954. Today the Institute is based in the observatory Ondřejov, about 35 km southeast of Prague. A work of the Institute 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 solar and stellar research, interplanetary matter, galaxies and planetary systems, dynamics of the movement of the satellites, as well as a center for astrophysics. The Institute's work is perceived in the following departments:
Department of Solar Physics
This department mainly deals with the phenomenon of solar flares. They observed the sun and its activities (eg sunspots ) and predicted by the solar activity. For the observations, the department uses optical telescopes and radio telescopes. The Head of Department is František Farník.
Department of interplanetary matter
The observation of meteors, comets and asteroids are the main activities of the Institute. The Department manages 10 stations for observations of cars in the whole country. The meteors are also observed with a radio telescope. For the photometric observations of the asteroid, the department used an optical telescope with a 65 cm diameter. The head of department is Pavel Spurný.
Department of stellar physics
The department is especially devoted to the study of the so-called hot star ( class loading ), but also to the study of stellar atmospheres, the dynamics of the stellar wind and the relativistic astrophysics. To work, they used the largest telescope in the Republic - a reflector with a mirror diameter of 2 m. The Head of Department is Jiri Kubat.
This department is also a group for Astrophysics of high energies under the direction of René Hudec assumed. The group studied the release of X-rays and gamma rays from outer space, which can be observed, for example, at the outbreak of gamma-ray bursts.
Department of galaxies and planetary systems
It has its headquarters in Prague and deals with the influence of the solar system on the ground and with the study of star formation in galaxies. The Head of Department, Jan palouš.
This division also includes the formerly independent group for the dynamics of the artificial satellite, which studied the movements of the satellites. My main project is a Mikroakcelerometer with the name Macek for the measurement of accelerations, which have no gravity origin. For the first time the instrument in 1996 with the Space Shuttle Atlantis ( STS -79) was brought to the space station MIR. After the controlled crash of the space station in 2001, a new device was installed in 2003 on the Czech satellite MIMOSA and placed in a polar orbit with a Russian Cosmos rocket from Plesetsk from.
Equipment
The main instrument of the Institute is a 2 -m Cassegrain telescope since 1967. It was developed and built by the former VEB Carl Zeiss Jena. Because of the observation opportunities in primary, Cassegrain and Coude focus, it was referred to as 2- m- PCC telescope.
History
The astronomical institute is a direct successor of the observatory Klementin, which was founded in the early 18th century in the historical center of Prague by the Jesuits. The institute said to have been founded in 1750. After the First World War, the observatory was to state ownership. In between, in 1898, the industrialist and amateur astronomer Jan Josef Fric had bought a plot of land on the mountain Manda in Ondřejov on which he began the construction of an observatory. In 1928, Fric has donated the Observatory of the Czech government. At the foundation of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in 1954, these two observatories were combined to form an astronomical institution. The first director was Dr. B. Šternberk. The observatory Ondřejov was then extended again and again. In 1967 there were taken a telescope with a diameter of 2 m and the early eighties, a building of the cosmic laboratory in operation. Today the building serves as the seat of the head of department.