Baron Artur Kraus’s Observatory

20th century 

The first public observatory in this country was founded by Baron Artur Kraus in 1912, originally at the Old Post Office in Pardubice. It enabled the general public to attend educational programs and carry out astronomical observations to learn more about the latest findings about space and science at the time. It was closed after the death of its founder, and was reopened in the 1990s at the Children and Youth Home in Pardubice.

 

One of the most important deeds of this native of Pardubice and Renaissance figure, Baron Artur Kraus, was the establishment of the first public observatory in the country. He had originally set up his provate observatory at Pardubice chateau, but later moved it to his father’s building at the Old Post Office, now no. 62 on třída Míru, where Baron Kraus housed his valuable at, at that time, highly powerful Merz 150 mm refractor, which surpassed many of the professional observatories in the monarchy during that era. He made the telescope and the premises available to the public and, besides offering observations, also held popular talks and educational programs on astronomy, and established a science library there, too. In addition to this, he also published specialised works and guides on observing the heavens and corresponded with literally hundreds of enthusiasts and amateur astronomers from all over the country, who sent him details of their own observations. His own scientific work made him a professional astronomer and, thanks to his organisational skills and considerable capital, the public observatory in Pardubice became one of the most important places associated with the establishment of the Czech Astronomical Society. After his death in 1930, however, it was closed to the public and was not reopened after the war. The observatory’s equipment ended up scattered all over the country; Kraus’s ground-breaking telescope now serves its original purpose at the observatory in Úpice. Kraus’s observatory was not reopened until the 1990s, thanks to the efforts of local patriots, who followed up on the legacy of their famous townsman and set up the public Baron Artur Kraus’s Observatory at the Children and Youth Home, which still holds educational programs and carries out astronomical observations using a powerful telescope with a 45-centimetre-diameter mirror.

 

References

https://www.astropardubice.cz

KOMÁREK, P.: 160 let Artura Krause, URL: https://www.astro.cz/clanky/ostatni/160-let-artura-krause-dil-prvni.html [7. 9. 2021]

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