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 old lady is the Gajdusek-Kozelsky 16cm f:15 refractor. The telescope is mounted on the Fullerscopes MK IV
This long achromat is an excellent telescope for Moon Photography.
See some photos made with telescope in the Astrophotography section of this blog.
Centraal gelegen ruime burgerwoning met winkel en tuin.
Gebouwd in 1926 en volledige gerenoveerd in 2009:
Nieuw dak, electriciteit en centrale verwarming.
Het huis bevat nog tal van originele art déco elementen, gemaakt door de Werkstede De Coene uit Kortrijk.
Gelijkvloers bestaand uit winkelruimte, ruime hall met trap en toilet, salon, woonkeuken, wasplaats en atelier.
Eerste verdieping met ruime overloop, 4 slaapkamers, dressing en toilet.
Tweede verdieping volledig ingerichte zolder met
ATOS (Antique Telescope Observation site) is the next step in the evolution of Anamorfose and Anamorfose Curiosa.
Anamorfose was founded in 1996 as a Photo Gallery in Belgium. Anamorfose was selling vintage art photography and books worldwide as an e-commerce. After years, the focus shifted from art photography to scientific photography and more specifically astronomical photography. With the purchase of astronomical photos came also the trade in historical and antique telescopes.
This cul
One of the consequences of the horrible terrorist attacks of last Friday, 13th was that all the photo fairs in Paris were cancelled or closed.
This is only minor indirect consequence of the attacks. The Paris people suffered much more than that.
Because we weren't able to show our photos in Paris I made a video with a selection of vintage photos and quotes.
More information about the vintage photos on our Anamorfose website.
I hope you can enjoy the video.
The Reichert Zetopan was one of the most advanced professional research microscopes from the 1970's and 1980's. The Zetopan Microscope is a heavy duty and very versatile instrument.
The Zetopan can be used with transmitted, incident, epi or mixed illumination.
The version we have is the Polarisation version with Bertrand Lens.
This is a research-grade microscope for optical examination under higher magnifications. It is a Zetopan model with 3 objectives and an X-Y stage with vernier scales.
Th
Spring in November. That's the actual weather in Belgium.
Very strange weather. Mosquitoes in November...
Result of this warm weather is a lot of dew and fogging. Not the best observation conditions.
A good dew controller is needed.
Equipment
The 160mm f:15 Gajdusek-Kozelsky refractor is installed in the observatory on the Fullerscopes MK IV equatorial mount. Tracking and GOTO is now possible. The Fullerscopes MK IV is a classic heavy duty mount retrofitted with stepper motors and an FS2 c
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
First light for an experimental astrocamera made from a Zeiss Jena Tessar 250mm f4,5
The astrocamera is equiped with a 2" moonlight focuser. Makes focusing easier.
The lens is a view camera lens 250mm f:4,5 Tessar made by Carl Zeiss Jena.
Photo taken two nights ago. Moon and high nebulosity: not the best circumstances for astrophotography.
The mount is the Skywatcher Star Adventurer. A very nice traveller mount.
The Orion Nebula
Crop of the precious photo
The Pleiads
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
You want find much of them. This is SN001 of the 20" 50cm Ealing Beck. Normally Ealing made Cassegrains up to 40cm or 16". Specially for the University of Ghent Ealing made this 50cm. For some reasons the OTA was never installed on the mount.
The mount with the typical counterweight system.
The mirror cell with the baffle tube
Secondary mirror with the focusing motor.
Now the complete telescope is in our warehouse waiting for cleaning and installing new motors and controller. After this it
It's only a 15cm or 6" f:10 Maksutov telescope but it looks and feels like a much bigger instrument.
All metal, no plastic and a lot of beautiful glass made in the 1970's..
The Mk63 sits on an equatorial wedge with a motor and controller on the RA. It runs smooth.
Nice feature is the small Maksutov Guiding Scope.
The complete set with original adapters makes it easy to attach a camera to the scope.
First result: full Moon
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.
7 June 2015
Last first light for the Gajdsuek_Koselsky 16cm refractor on the Alt Azimuth mount.
I don't know when it was the last time scope saw star light?
Two photos of how I found the scope laying in one of the domes.
The other photo is the scope standing in the garden ready for observation.
Refractorphil and his son joined for the first light.
It was a little puzzling to find the right pieces to fit the eyepieces. When you use an Altaz mount it's difficult to use high power eyepieces. Betwe
