1965: the glory period of the 20cm Gajdusek-Kozelsky refractor.
Will be moved to dark location again.
zdanice observatory (14)
The accessories of the large refractors and the cassegrains were hand made by Frantisek Kozelsky I the 1960’s.
He was clearly inspired by the Zeiss Jena accessories.
Strangly the eyepiece diameter is 30mm.
Two other official documents from the City of Zdanice about the observatory.
The documents are dated 1999 and 2000
To understand this documents there is some history needed.
In 1958 the idea was launched to build the observatory in the town of Zdanice. Zdanice is in South Moravia, between Brno and Vienna.
At that time Zdanice was a small town. The national communist party agreed with the observatory project under condition that the people of Zdanice build the observatory them
The archive of the Zdanice is about 90 large cardboard boxes full of documents.
When I filled the boxes at the observatory I didn’t have the time to select or to look at the documents. My time was so limited that I only could empty the cabinets ad fill the boxes
Now I have some more time and I discover box by box. Not all the documents are interesting. I don’t throw away any document. I try to find some order and logic.
I don’t speak, write or read Czech. I recognize some words.
First I ha
In 1991 the Public Observatory of Ždánice exited 25 years. At this occasion an article was written in the Czech astronomy magazine Říšehvězd (Empire of stars). The article briefly outlines the history of the observatory.
The construction of the hotel isn't mentioned in the article.
The plans for the observatory were made by Ing. Marie Kotíková and Rudolf Pavlik. |
In my research for more background information about the Gajdusek-Kozelsky telescopes from the Zdanice Observatory I found an article in the Slovak astronomy magazine about a similar 20cm refractor build by Kozelsky.
After more than two years of hard work, the famous telescope builder František Kozelský from Old Běleja (Ostrava) build a refractor for observatories in his workshop. The telescope will be installed in the observatoriy of Kysucké Nové Mesto. It is the largest device of this typ |
The public observatory of Zdanice had a library and archive of thousands books and documents. A real treasure.
A selection of the books can be found on the Anamorfose Photo Gallery website
Books about astronomy, space exploration, mathematics, science, history, ...
Various languages: Czech, Russian, German, English and French.
The books where scattered all over the building. Everywhere you could find books and documents
Since I had only limited place in the trucks I was obliged to make a selec
The 16cm f:15 Gajdusek Kozelsky refractor is installed on the Fullerscopes MK IV mount. This heavy duty mount from the 1950's carries the refractor very well.
Now it will be possible to observe more objects because the Fullerscopes has the GOTO function.
The equatorial mount will make it possible to use higher enlargements. It will also be possible to use the refractor for astrophotography
Details of the Tangent Arm of the Kozelsky mount before cleaning.
Works very smooth
First newspaper article about the building of the observatory in 1960
News paper articles from the Zdanice Observatory archive. Starting in 1960 until 1989.
It must have been a famous observatory at that time.
Artist impression of the observatory
The observatory was build by the local community
The finished observatory without the hotel.
About 15.000 people a year spend the night in the hotel. A special rail road was build to Zdanice. The observatory was famous for the research of variable and
In the boxes brought back from the Zdanice Public Observatory found a copy of the statutes of the Observatory.
Interesting historical document.
The statutes date from a couple of years before closing of the observatory.
Handmade Star Diagonal Prism for the 16cm refractors.
The eyepiece size is 30mm and not the contemporary 31,5mm.
Works very well with Leitz microscope eyepieces.
Large 2inch star diagonal prism for the 16cm refractor.
Heavy piece bud fits perfect the refractor.
There is no indication of a brand on this piece.
A family shot of the different focuser of the scopes.
On the left the Cassegrain Focuser, middle the 16cm refractor focuser and right the 20 cm focuser.
The eyepiece attachment system is very similar to the Zeiss system.
This are the 3 different eyepiece dovetails from the different focuser's. It are Zeiss style dovetails. Or are it original Zeiss dovetails?
More and more I find indications that Kozelsky knew very well the Zeiss Jena material.
The large Zeiss Jena scopes were "common" in Eastern
Vilém Gajdušek (1895–1977) was Czech optician and prominent telescope designer. Asteroid 3603 Gajdušek is named for him.
Asteroid 8229 is named in honor of František Kozelský (1913–2003 ), a Czech telescope maker well-known for his work in collaboration with V. Gajdušek. Kozelský. Kozelský made several 60cm Cassegrains and a series of 20cm refractors for observatories in Czech Republic, Slovakia and the rest of former Eastern Europe.
Hvězdárna Ždánice (1963) was the first big project by Gajdušek
