A commemorative plaque placed in the courtyard of Bastion I of the Josefov Fortress, in Josefov, a part of the town of Jaroměř, commemorates the local astronomer Wilhelm von Biela (1782─1856), who discovered a comet, today named 3D/Biela, in this place during his military service.

Wilhelm von Biela was born in 1782 in the German town of Rossla into a noble family of Czech exiles, the Lords of Bílá, who had to leave Bohemia after the Battle of White Mountain. He chose a military career and studied at the military school in Dresden, after which he joined the Austrian army. He became a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars and fought in several battles, including the Battle of Leipzig, in which he was wounded. After 1815 he settled for a time in Prague and took up astronomy. During his military service, he also spent some time as part of the garrison at the fortress in Josefov, where he observed the stars and other celestial bodies on the bastion galleries. In 1826 he discovered an unknown body there, from whose orbit he calculated that it was a periodic comet with a period of 6.75 years. This comet, named 3D/Biela in his honour, had already been observed by the French astronomers Montaigne and Pons, but they were unable to determine its movement and the first place was attributed to von Biel. The memorial plaque was placed on the occasion of the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in 2006. The plaque is placed on Bastion I even though von Biel probably made his discovery on the gallery of Half Bastion XXXVII. One of the moon`s craters was also named in von Biel's honour.

Commemorative Plaque to Wilhelm von Biela