The general characteristics of the Cracow Astronomical Observatory since 1955 till 1999

In 1958 the new Chair of Observational Astronomy started its activity at the Jagiellonian University. Prof. Eugeniusz Rybka from Wroclaw, an astronomer well known in international astronomical forum, a vice-president of the IAU, became the head of that chair. He was also the director of the Cracow Astronomical Observatory since 1958 till 1968. Prof. E. Rybka acted in this time in the field of fundamental photometry of stars and in the history of astronomy. The former Chair of Astronomy at the Jagiellonian University changed its name to the Chair of Astronomy and of Astronomical Geophysics.

In 1964 there was celebrated in Cracow six hundred years' anniversary of the Jagiellonian University. The new, Nicolaus Copernicus' Observatory at Fort Skala started just then. There have been erected 5 domes, also the Fort itself has been renovated and a new building for administration and teaching has been built. Among new instruments let us note a 35 cm diameter Maksutov telescope (since 1965) and a 50 cm Cassegrain one (since 1970), both made by C. Zeiss works in Jena. There are also at the Fort Skala two radio telescopes with diameters of 7 m (the elder one) and 15 m.

Prof. E. Rybka retired in 1968. His successor was Prof. Dr. Konrad Rudnicki, a specialist in stellar and extragalactic astronomy, who came to Cracow from the Warsaw University Observatory. He postulated immediately to invite to Cracow Prof. Dr. Andrzej Zieba, a mathematician of Wroclaw, interested also in some aspects of theoretical astrophysics. In such a way there emerged at the Cracow Observatory some new general research topics, namely extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. The function of the director of the Observatory was held by Prof. K. Koziel in the years 1968-1974, and by Prof. A. Zieba from 1974 to 1978. In the years 1979-1984 the director's function was in the hands of Prof. Dr. Jozef Maslowski, a radio astronomer who also well contributed in other fields of astronomy. After his resignation, the director's chair was taken by Prof. K. Rudnicki for the years 1984-1989. Since 1989 till 1999 Prof. J. Maslowski kept the director's service again. From 1999 Dr. Michal Ostrowski become a new director.

At present the staff of the Cracow University Observatory consist of 25 scientists. The Observatory consists of 2 departments: that of stellar and extragalactic astronomy and the other one of radio astronomy and space physics. Since 1976 there exists an observational station of the Cracow Observatory in south-eastern corner of Poland, near Cisna, in a wild forest area of the Bieszczady mountains.

The main fields of research at the Cracow Observatory are now: systematic daily radio observations of the Sun at 10 frequences from 275 to 1755 MHz, studies on distribution and structure of radio sources, performed and realized in a close cooperation with radio astronomy centers in USA, Germany, the Netherlands and others. Also theoretical and modeling studies are continued on physics of galaxies (their structure and evolution, interstellar medium, interactions between magnetic fields and cosmic rays); finally a group of topics of theoretical cosmology is investigated. In a traditional domain of observational research in the optical spectral band there are present cometary observatrions as well as photometry of variable stars and of diffuse objects.

Serial publications of the Cracow Astronomical Observatory are: Rocznik Astronomiczny Obserwatorium Krakowskiego (a yearbook of ephemeris of eclipsing variables with some additional data for each year), Acta Cosmologica (a research journal).