Description from Prague TV
The observatory is located on Petřín hill besides the Hunger Wall. It was opened in 1928, but its current appearance is the result of a 1976 reconstruction.

Since 1930, the observatory has had three domes.

The Maksutov-Cassegrain mirror telescope has been in the Western Dome since 1976 and can magnify by a power of between 80 and 330.

The Main Dome hosts a double Zeiss astrograph, which was built between 1905 and 1907 for Austrian astronomer Rudolf König, who used it mainly for moon mapping and sky photography. The telescope weighs more than five tonnes and is 15 meters tall, of which 7.5 meters are sunk into the ground.

The Eastern Dome is currently used only for scientific observation and since 1999 has been equipped with a 40-centimeter Meade mirror telescope.

Whenever the weather is suitable, the observatory offers public daytime and nighttime skywatching all year round, and there's also a permanent exhibition covering the basics of astronomy.

During the day, it's possible to observe the various features of the sun, such as sunspots and solar flares, through a chromospheric telescope.

At night, observation focuses on the moon and the planets of the solar system while they're at their most visible.

It's also possible to look beyond the boundaries of the solar system and observe selected stars, nebulas, star clusters or galaxies.

Irene Carpintero