History

Among the three oldest Polish astronomical observatories belonging to the universities in Vilna, Cracow and Warsaw, the Cracow University Observatory was fortunately able to act continuously since the year of its foundation (1791-1792) until present.

Cracow hosts the longest, unbroken series of meteorological observations that have been recorded and preserved. However, the beginning of the institution was rather difficult. The idea of setting up the astronomical observatory in Cracow did not find a favourable atmosphere in the first half of 18th century. The excellent astronomical traditions of the Cracow Academy, dating back to the 15th century (cf. H. Schedel, Liber Chronicarum, Nürnberg, 1493), were then forgotten. Moreover, the further progress in astronomy was not followed there. At the Cracow University the heliocentric theory of Copernicus, its most prominent student, was not accepted and the syllabus including the lectures on astronomy according to Ptolemy and Peuerbach was obligatory till 1750 AD and later on.

In 1964 Jagiellonian University celebrated its six hundred anniversary. The new, Nicolaus Copernicus' Observatory at Fort Skala started just then. There have been erected 5 domes, also the Fort itself has been renovated and a new building for administration and teaching has been built. Among new instruments let us note a 35 cm diameter Maksutov telescope (since 1965) and a 50 cm Cassegrain one (since 1970), both made by C. Zeiss works in Jena. There are also at the Fort Skala two radio telescopes with diameters of 7 m (the elder one) and 15 m.

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The main fields

The main fields of research at the Cracow Observatory are now:  systematic daily radio observations of the Sun at 10 frequences from 275 to 1755 MHz, studies on distribution and structure of radio sources, performed and realized in a close cooperation with radio astronomy centers in USA, Germany, the Netherlands and others. Also theoretical and modeling studies are continued on physics of galaxies (their structure and evolution, interstellar medium, interactions between magnetic fields and cosmic rays); finally a group of topics of theoretical cosmology is investigated. In a traditional domain of observational research in the optical spectral band there are present cometary observatrions as well as photometry of variable stars and of diffuse objects. The Cracow Observatory take part in three projects now (H.E.S.S., LOFAR, SALT).