The Štefánik Observatory is located in the very heart of Prague, in Petřín's parks at the Hunger Wall which was built during the reign of Charles IV in the 14th century. The observatory was opened on June 24th, 1928. In the middle of the 70s, a full-scale reconstruction gave the building its current appearance and it was reopened for the public in 1976. Since 1979, the Štefánik observatory has been a part of the Observatory and Planetarium of Prague.
Milan R. Štefánik, born 1880 in Slovakia, was a soldier, a general of the French army, a pilot, a diplomat and the co-founder of the Czechoslovakian state. He was also a scientist and an astronomer. Štefánik studied astronomy at Prague's Charles University, worked in the observatory in Meudon close to Paris, participated in many expeditions to solar eclipses all around the world, built an observatory in Tahiti and was awarded several scientific prizes. He died in an air crash in 1919.
The observatory has three domes and one observation lodge. The domes are named according to their approximate position in the building (Western, Main and Eastern).
In the Western Dome, the Maksutov - Cassegrain mirror telescope has been in place since 1976. The diameter of the main mirror is 370 mm. Its magnification power for observation varies from approx. 80 to 330 times. The total weight of the telescope is 2.5 tons.
The Main Dome hosts a double Zeiss astrograph, named after the Viennese selenographer Koenig. It was built in the years 1905 - 07 for this baron, who used it mainly for Moon mapping and sky photography. After Koenig's death in 1929 it was bought and placed here. The total weight of the telescope is 5.5 tons and the pillar of this instrument is 15 meters high, of which 7.5 meters are sunk in the ground.
The Eastern Dome is currently used only for scientific observation and since 1999 has been equipped with a 40 cm mirror telescope by Meade.
Nowadays the observatory specializes above all in popularization of astronomy and related natural sciences. Undoubtedly the most interesting thing the observatory can offer are public daytime and nighttime observations of the sky which are run whenever the weather is suitable during the whole year.