Kleť Observatory ( Czech : Hvězdárna Kleť ; obs. code : 046 ) is an astronomical observatory in the Czech Republic . It is situated in South Bohemia , south of the summit of Mount Kleť , near the town of České Budějovice . Constructed in 1957, the observatory is at an altitude of 1,070 metres (3,510 ft) and has around 150 clear nights per year.
8-454: Astronomer Antonín Mrkos became director of Kleť Observatory in 1965. Two main astronomers who currently work at Kleť Observatory are Jana Tichá and her husband Miloš Tichý . The observatory has two primary telescopes: As of 2015 over a thousand asteroids were discovered at Kleť Observatory, as well as comet 196P/Tichý . Asteroid 5583 Braunerova was discovered by A. Mrkos at Kleť Observatory in 1989. The asteroid 7796 Járacimrman
16-602: The bright Comet 1957d. He was the second Czech in Antarctica and the first Czechoslovak to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility as a member of the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1957–1959). The Czechoslovakian flag was the second flag raised after the flag of the USSR. He returned to Antarctica as the head of the four-member Czechoslovakian crew in the seventh Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1961–1963). He
24-468: The bright non-periodic comet C/1957 P1 (or, in the nomenclature of the time, comet 1957d). He discovered a number of asteroids (273 in total), including the Amor asteroid 5797 Bivoj and Trojan asteroid 3451 Mentor . Mrkos named asteroids 6758 Jesseowens in honour of Jesse Owens and 2747 Český Krumlov after the historic town of the same name . Another main-belt asteroid, 3357 Tolstikov ,
32-583: Was (re)discovered at Kleť Observatory on 16 January 1996 by Zdeněk Moravec and was designated 1996 BG. It was observed until April 1996 and then in June and July 1997. It was discovered to be a lost asteroid which had previously been observed twice: at the Brera-Merate Observatory in northern Italy on 12 December 1973 and at Siding Spring Observatory ( Australia ), on 8 and 9 July 1990. Asteroid 4250 Perun , provisional designation "1984 UG",
40-714: Was a Czech astronomer . Mrkos entered the University in Brno in 1938. His studies were interrupted by the onset of World War II , and in 1945 he became a staff member at the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory in Czechoslovakia (now in Slovakia ). It was from here that he carried out his extremely active cometary programme and became the discoverer of several unusual comets, the most famous of them
48-422: Was discovered by Zdeňka Vávrová on 20 October 1984. KLENOT is an initialism of KLET Observatory Near Earth and Other unusual objects observations Team and Telescope . It is limited to objects with a visual apparent magnitude of 22.0 and brighter. Anton%C3%ADn Mrkos Antonín Mrkos ( Czech pronunciation: [ˈantoɲiːn ˈmr̩kos] ) (27 January 1918, Střemchoví – 29 May 1996, Prague )
56-655: Was studying auroras among other things. He was invited for what would have been his third expedition to the Antarctic but could not participate because of an almost fatal accident. It is thought someone tried to injure or to kill him by adding a bottle of strongly concentrated detergent among his other bottles of mineral water. Since this accident he could only eat liquid meals for the rest of his life. In 1965 he became director of Kleť Observatory . Beginning in 1968 he made photographic observations at Kleť and extended this activity to minor planets in 1977. For many years he
64-754: Was the most regular contributor of data to the Minor Planet Center . He was President of Commission 6 from 1985 until 1988 (and vice president from 1982 until 1985). He was associate professor at the Charles University in Prague and the University of South Bohemia . Mrkos died in 1996 in Prague, aged 78. He discovered or co-discovered thirteen comets. Among these were the periodic comets 18D/Perrine–Mrkos , 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková , 124P/Mrkos and 143P/Kowal–Mrkos . He also discovered
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