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Ondřejov Observatory

Ondřejov Observatory

Historic cupola of the Ondřejov Observatory
Organization	Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Observatory code	557
Location	Ondřejov, Ondřejov, Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic
Coordinates	49°54′55″N 14°46′52″E / 49.915175°N 14.780994°E / 49.915175; 14.780994
Altitude	500 m (1,600 ft)
Established	1898
Website	www.asu.cas.cz
Telescopes	Ondřejov 0.65-m telescope Ondřejov 2-m telescope Ondřejov radio telescope
Location of Ondřejov Observatory
Related media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The Ondřejov Observatory (pronounced [ˈondr̝ɛjof]; Czech: Observatoř Ondřejov) is the principal observatory of the Astronomical Institute (Astronomický ústav) of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is located near the village of Ondřejov, 35 kilometres (22 miles) southeast of Prague, Czech Republic.^[1] It has a 2-metre (6 ft 7 in) wide telescope, which is the largest in the Czech Republic.

History[edit]

The facility was constructed in 1898, by Czech amateur astronomer and entrepreneur Josef Jan Frič as a private observatory. On 28 October 1928, he donated the facility to the Czechoslovak state to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its independence.^[2] The observatory, located at an altitude of 500 metres (1,600 ft), away from the air and light pollution of urban Prague, was administered by Charles University until the founding of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1953, which from then on operated it as part of its Astronomical Institute in conjunction with other Czechoslovak observatories.

In 1967, a telescope measuring 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in width was added to the observatory, which at that time was the 7th largest telescope in the world. Now it is the largest telescope in the Czech Republic and is in the second hundred in the world.^[3]

It has been responsible, among other scientific achievements, for the discovery of numerous asteroids; more recent works of astronomers from Ondřejov include examination of the trajectory and origin of the Chelyabinsk meteor. More than 700 minor planets have been discovered at this observatory.^[4] While most of these discoveries are officially credited to the astronomers who discovered them, a remaining 23 minor planets are directly credited to "Ondrejov" (the observatory itself) by the Minor Planet Center for the period 1997–2008.^[5]

The main-belt asteroid 7204 Ondřejov, discovered by Petr Pravec in 1995, was named for the village where the observatory is located.^[1]

List of discovered minor planets[edit]

Gallery[edit]

• 
  Ten-meter solar flux monitor at Ondřejov.
• 
  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.
• 
  Solar Telescope.
• 
  Solar Telescope with outer housing.
• 
  Horizontal Solar Spectrograph.
• 
  Central plain with former J. J. Frič house.
• 
  Robotic telescope BART.

See also[edit]

• Astronomical Institute of Czech Academy of Sciences
• List of asteroid-discovering observatories
• List of astronomical observatories
• List of minor planet discoverers § Discovering dedicated institutions
• List of observatory codes

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Media related to Ondřejov Observatory at Wikimedia Commons
• Astronomical Institute, responsible for the observatory
• Photos of the observatory
• News from Ondřejov Photometric Program
• Numbered asteroids discovered at Ondřejov, 1 June 2018

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