Toruń Centre for Astronomy

The radio telescope is a Piwnice 1994 Piwnice ( Kujawy, Poland) finished radio telescope with an antenna diameter of 32 meters. The weight of the designed by Zygmunt Bujakowski construction is 620 tons.

History

The opening is due to the efforts and work of Prof. Władysław Dziewulski and Prof. Wilhelmina Iwanowska, scientific staff of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń Toruń. In 1947 she received the Harvard College Observatory a astrographs from the year 1891. Was decided to build an observatory in the village Piwnice, about 13 km north of Toruń. Between Piwnice and Toruń are forests that limit the influence of the city on the measurements.

Equipment

The Centre for Astronomy was housed in a historic farm buildings from the 19th century. The surrounding park was begun in the fall of 1947 with the construction of the first dome. Subsequent coupling with optical telescopes were built in the 50s and 60s of the 19th century.

Situated among others:

• A Schmidt -Cassegrain with a 90 cm diameter,
• A Cassegrain with 60 cm diameter.

In subsequent years, the academic profile of concentrated increasingly on radio astronomy. Therefore, two significant radio telescopes were set up:

• The smaller radio telescope with a diameter of 15 m was taken into operation in 1979,
• The larger radio telescope with 32 m diameter was put into operation in 1994.

Both radio telescopes working in an international VLBI network.

The observatory can also be visited.

Selected staff

• Professor Władysław Dziewulski (1878-1962) - Polish astronomer, Professor
• Professor Wilhelmina Iwanowska (1905-1999) - Polish astronomer and radio astronomer, Professor

As of 2003, the Observatory participated in the EU project FARADAY part (search of the sky at the frequency 30 GHz).