The Observatory and Planetarium
The Observatory and Planetarium of Johann Palisa was founded in 1980. Its sky theater presents astronomical shows for pre-school and school children, students and general public. In addition, the sky theater offers regular musical shows featuring classical, jazz and relaxation music.
Weather permitting, visitors to the observatory can enjoy telescope observation. Visitors can also view a display of the Wall Astronomical Encyclopaedia in the sky theater corridor and enjoy art exhibitions at the Mira Minigallery.
Each year, a two-day astronomical workshop "Ostrava Astronomy Weekend" and a one-day workshop for teachers of physics are held here. Each month, at least one public talk on an astronomical topic is offered. As the Observatory and Planetarium of Johann Palisa is part of the VŠB-Technical University in Ostrava, the staff provides undergraduate course "An Introduction to Astronomy" for students of geodesy.
Johann Palisa
The Observatory and Planetarium was named after an astronomer Johann Palisa (1848-1925) in 2000, i.e. in the year of its 20th anniversary. Johann Palisa was born in the nearby town of Opava, Czech Republic. Belonging to the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, the town of Opava was called Troppau at the Palisa’s time. Although many sources state that Johann Palisa was born on December 6, 1848, the Opava’s parish register shows the date of December 7, 1848.
More information on Johann Palisa can be found on the following websites:
Johann Palisa, the most successful visual discoverer of asteroids by Herbert Raab (pdf) http://www.astrometrica.at/Papers/Palisa.pdf
Early Asteroid Research in Austria by Rudolf Albrecht, Hans-Michael Maitzen and Anneliese Schnell http://stecf.org/~ralbrech/amico/papers/albrechtr/albrechtr.html
AEIOU Encyclopedia of Austria (very short entry, photo)
http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.p/p036809.htm
on Johann Palisa in Croatian
http://public.carnet.hr/zuh/od1874/pznan/Astronok.htm#6
on Johann Palisa in Czech
planetarium.vsb.cz/palisa
on asteroids discovered by Palisa in German
Asteroid1202gg.pdf