The Astronomical Observatory of Modra (), also known as Modra Observatory or the Astronomical and Geophysical observatory in Modra, is an

astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

located in

Modra Modra (, , Latin: ''Modur'') is a city and municipality in the Bratislava Region in Slovakia. It has a population of 9,201 as of 2013. It nestles in the foothills of the Malé Karpaty (Little Carpathian mountains) and is an excellent centre for ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. It is owned and operated by the

Comenius University in Bratislava Comenius University Bratislava () is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is named after Jan Amos Comenius, a 17th-century ...

. The scientific research at the observatory is led by the Department of Astronomy, Physics of the Earth and Meteorology, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics. The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

11118 Modra discovered at this observatory is named in the honor of the town.

About

The Astronomical and Geophysical observatory of Comenius University is located near the town of

and in the mountain range of

Little Carpathians The Little Carpathians (also: ''Lesser Carpathians'', ; ; ) are a low mountain range, about 100 km long, and part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountains are situated in Western Slovakia, covering the area from Bratislava to Nové Mesto n ...

. The 3.5-hectare area contains several buildings and scientific instruments surrounded by

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

forest. It lies on the middle trias quartzitic bedrock. It is accessible via a tourist trail or by the private paved road from Zochova chata. The main administrative building with the dome on the top contains the 0.60-metre Zeiss telescope with CCD camera and the 0.20-metre solar telescope with H-alpha filter. Within walking distance there are several buildings and pavilions with scientific devices, such as the magnetic pavilion (measurement of the

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from structure of Earth, Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from ...

), the seismic cell with the

seismograph A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground displacement and shaking such as caused by quakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The out ...

, the solar telescope dome, the dome with the

Schumann resonances The Schumann resonances (SR) are a set of spectral peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. Schumann resonances are global electromagnetic resonances, generated and excited by lightning dischar ...

registration device and the meteor pavilion of photographic and video meteor detection. The upper building with the 5-metre dome has a 0.70-metre reflecting telescope with CCD primarily for

space debris Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include dere ...

research and registration devices for

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

and forward scatter meteor

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

of the

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

network (transceiver-receiver-receiver). The lower building, standing next to the pond, consists of a small conference room and housing facility for guests. Since 1988, continuous weather and meteorological observations are done, therefore, the data provide a unique and homogeneous climate record of the site. In 2012 open-air amphitheater with seating, screen, projector and sound system was built for the public outreach purposes.

Education and research

As a part of the

Comenius University Comenius University Bratislava () is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is named after Jan Amos Comenius, a 17th-century ...

, the observatory provides research opportunity for students, and the staff offers guidance for the Master and PhD theses. The research is mainly aimed at the interplanetary matter. Until January 2014, 175 numbered and 34 unnumbered asteroids were discovered at the observatory including two Near Earth Objects 2005 GB34 and 2008 UW5. The observing time is mostly assigned for the photometry of asteroids and comets and

astrometry Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other Astronomical object, celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, th ...

. The first observation of a transiting

extrasolar planet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detect ...

was performed at the observatory. The solar physics researchers perform solar prominence and

chromosphere A chromosphere ("sphere of color", from the Ancient Greek words χρῶμα (''khrôma'') 'color' and σφαῖρα (''sphaîra'') 'sphere') is the second layer of a Stellar atmosphere, star's atmosphere, located above the photosphere and below t ...

features observations in the H-alpha line. The observatory is also a member of the European bolide network and it has been developing its own TV meteor detection grid. Besides photographic all-sky cameras, fish-eye all-sky semi-automated meteor detection devices are located at Modra observatory, near Tesárske Mlyňany and in

Kysucké Nové Mesto Kysucké Nové Mesto ( / ''Oberneustadl''; ) is a town in Žilina Region, Slovakia, near the city of Žilina. History The first signs of settlement In 1976 lumps of burnt clay and ceramics were found under Stránsky vrch, which highlighted the ...

. In addition to meteor detection, real time all-sky cameras detect other phenomena, such as atmospheric sprites and elves (TLE).

Proposed Wide Field Survey (ADAM-WFS)

Based on the study on detecting close approaching Near-Earth Asteroids scientists of the department proposed a wide-field survey called "Automated Detection of Asteroids and Meteoroids - Wide Field Survey" (ADAM-WFS)http://www.daa.fmph.uniba.sk/adam_en aimed at discovery of small asteroids in the Earth vicinity and orbital debris. In contrast to current asteroid surveys that are based on narrower field of view but deeper limiting magnitude, ADAM-WFS will observe entire visible night sky three times per night and identify moving targets. This survey is also considered as a low-cost project. It will use existing and verified methods and techniques, such as Moving Object Processing Pipeline (used by

Pan-STARRS The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1; List of observatory codes, obs. code: IAU code#F51, F51 and Pan-STARRS2 obs. code: IAU code#F52, F52) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US, consists of astronomical ...

NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and nu ...

, LSST). The proposed survey is similar to

Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) is a robotic astronomical survey and early warning system optimized for detecting smaller near-Earth objects a few weeks to days before they Impact event, impact Earth. Funded by NASA, an ...

. If funded, the telescope will be housed in the Solar dome. File:AGOModra main.jpg, Main operation and administrative building of Modra observatory. File:AGOModra winter.jpg, Winter at the Modra observatory. File:AGOModra lower.jpg, Lower building of the Modra observatory complex. File:AGOModra Leonids98.jpg, Leonid meteor shower detected at Modra observatory, bolides on single photographic plate. File:AGOModra sprite.jpg, Sprites detected above horizon at Modra observatory. File:AGOModra Sun.gif, Active solar area as seen from Modra observatory. File:AGOModra Holmes.jpg, Comet 17P/Holmes from Modra observatory. File:AGOModra Machholz.jpg, Comet C/2004 Q2 Machholz from Modra observatory. File:AGOModra aurora.jpg, Aurora borealis from Modra observatory. File:AGOw1 en.jpg, Climate record at the observatory site. File:Milky Way at Modra.jpg, Autumn Milky Way above the main dome

References

{{reflist , refs= {{cite journal , title = Search for very close approaching NEAs , author = P. Vereš , author2 = J. Tóth , author3 = L. Kornoš , volume = 36 , issue = 3 , pages = 171–180 , journal = Contributions of the Astronomical Observatory Skalnate Pleso , date = 2006 , url = http://www.ta3.sk/caosp/Eedition/FullTexts/vol36no3/pp171-180.pdf , arxiv = 0902.4018, bibcode = 2006CoSka..36..171V {{cite web , url=http://www.astro.cz/planetky/detail.phtml?number=11118 , title=Planetky - detail (11118) , access-date=2006-05-11 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927004213/http://www.astro.cz/planetky/detail.phtml?number=11118 , archive-date=2006-09-27 {{cite book , title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (11118) Modra , last = Schmadel , first = Lutz D. , publisher = Springer Berlin Heidelberg , page = 753 , date = 2007 , isbn = 978-3-540-00238-3 , doi = 10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_8231 , chapter = (11118) Modra

External links

Astronomical and Geophysical Observatory in Modra

Department of Astronomy, Physics of the Earth and Meteorology, Comenius University

Automated Detection of Asteroids and Meteoroids - Wide Field Survey

at Modra Observatory (Gallery) Asteroid surveys Astronomical observatories in Slovakia Comenius University Minor-planet discovering observatories 1988 establishments in Czechoslovakia