Antonín Bečvář (; 10 June 1901 – 10 January 1965) was a Czechoslovak

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

Biography

He was born and died in Stará Boleslav. Among his chief achievements is the foundation of the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory and the discovery of the comet C/1947 F2 (Bečvář) (also known by the designations 1947 III and 1947c). His lifelong illness led him to the

High Tatras The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains (; ; ,'' Vysoki Tatry''; ; ), are a mountain range along the border of northern Slovakia in the Prešov Region, and southern Poland in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. They are a range of the Tatra Mountains ...

where he founded the observatory. Bečvář is particularly important for his

star chart A star chart is a celestial map of the night sky with astronomical objects laid out on a grid system. They are used to identify and locate constellations, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and planets. They have been used for human navigation since tim ...

s: he led the compilation of the ''Atlas Coeli Skalnate Pleso'' (1951), published by Sky Publishing Corporation as the '' Skalnate Pleso Atlas of the Heavens'', which was the state-of-the-art atlas of its kind until Wil Tirion's "Sky Atlas 2000.0" in 1981. A dozen star names in the atlas are of unknown origin, no connection to any language or previous source has been discovered despite an extensive search. He also compiled ''Atlas eclipticalis, 1950.0'' (1958), ''Atlas borealis 1950.0'' (1962), and ''Atlas australis 1950.0'' (1964). 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 ...

4567 Bečvář and the crater Bečvář on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

were named in his honour. American

Avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

composer

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

used Bečvář's star charts as the basis of several works: ''Atlas Eclipticalis'' (1961–1962), '' Etudes Australes'' (1974–1975), '' Etudes Boreales'' (1978) and '' Freeman Etudes'' (1977–1980, 1989–1990).

References

External links

Becvar's sky atlases

Uses imagery from Becvar's Atlas of the Heavens. {{DEFAULTSORT:Becvar, Antonin 1901 births 1965 deaths People from Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav Czechoslovak astronomers Astronomers from Austria-Hungary