* Astronomy

If you are visiting Prague over the summer, then remember to check out the Štefánik Observatory on Petřín Hill which is holding an exhibition on Prague monuments connected to astronomy.

"There are some monuments which are, maybe surprisingly, bound to astronomy or astronomical symbolism, for example the famous Charles Bridge and its tower. The tower of Charles Bridge is constructed in a way which reflects ideas about the universe in the 13th and 14th century."

The exhibition lists many buildings in Prague connected to astronomy.

"The most famous and most significant were Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. He published in Prague his first two laws of celestial mechanics. Later, the famous Christian Doppler lived here who also published his famous principle in Prague, and many other astronomers and physicists, for example, the most famous of them Albert Einstein."

The exhibition will be open until the end of August, but of course, the monuments in Prague can be seen all year round.

The Štefánik Observatory is located in the very heart of Prague, in Petřín´s parks at the Hunger Wall which was built during the reign of Charles IV in the 14th century. The observatory was opened on June 24th, 1928. In the middle of the 70s, a full-scale reconstruction gave the building its current appearance and it was reopened for the public in 1976. Since 1979 the Štefánik observatory is a part of the Observatory and Planetarium of Prague.
The main telescopes of the observatory are a double Zeiss astrograph after the Viennese selenographer König placed in the main dome (bought in 1928) and a mirror Maksutov-Cassegrain installed in the western dome in 1976. The eastern dome of the observatory is only being used for scientific observations and since 1999 equipped with a 40 cm mirror telescope by Meade.

Nowadays the observatory specializes above all in popularisation of astronomy and related natural sciences. Doubtless the most interesting thing the observatory can offer are public day and night observations of the sky which are run whenever the weather is suitable during the whole year.

Read more