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From the opening of the Observatory by J. Sniadecki to its first crisis (1792-1824) |
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| The initial program of the Observatory included the
following observations: positions of the Sun and of the
Moon, eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter, transits of
the planets over the solar disc as well as occultations
of stars and planets by Moon. The above data were then
used to determine the geographical longitude, while the
observations of altitudes of the Sun, Moon and those of
stars in culmination as well as zenith distances of stars
culminating near the zenith were used to determine the
latitude. Positions of equinoctial points and those of
solstices were observed as well. In the program of time service
the moments of transits of the Sun and of stars were
determined. The positions of the planets were recorded in order
to make corrections to the theories of their motions and
to the corresponding tables. Sniadecki planned also observations
of comets and of variable stars; in last point he was
ahead of his time. The first list of instruments of the new Observatory was rather modest. There were: 2 brass quadrants (one of them made by Canivet in Paris and the other one made in London by Ramsden), some small achromatic refractors (the transit one made by Charité in Paris), 3 pendulum clocks (Lepaute, Shelton and a Vienna made clock of English mode), 2 small reflectors (Newton and Gregory types); there were also a set of meteorological instruments and some globes (astronomical, terrestrial, and an armillary sphere). Under the Austrian occupation of Cracow the University has been reorganized to some degree; its new faculty structure followed that of the Austrian universities, and its autonomy has been considerably limited by an extremely centralistic system of the invader state. Under those new circumstances Sniadecki decided to retire, however, he did not stop his observational activity and he agreed to supervise the first steps (until 1803) of his successor, Józef Leski, who was helped by Feliks Radwanski, professor of mechanics and hydraulics. A year later Leski was gone for Warsaw; than Józef Czech, Waclaw Voit and Franciszek Kodesch were appointed to the post of the head of the Cracow Observatory, in short, subsequent intervals of time. In 1808 the position of the director of the Observatory has been given to Johann Joseph Littrow; that change seemed to be a rather fortunate one. However, just after Napoleonic campaign of 1809, Littrow left Cracow for Kazan (Russia) in 1810. In 1811 Leski as a professor of astronomy returned to Cracow after his two years' long, Paris studies in astronomy. Then he began to equip the Observatory with new instruments, but he was out of luck with his assistants. Finally Leski resigned in 1824 |