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In 1919 the post of the director of the Observatory
and the chair of astronomy have been taken by Prof.
Tadeusz Banachiewicz (1882-1954). Banachiewicz
accomplished his studies in astronomy at the Warsaw
University and obtained also there, in 1904, his degree
of the candidate of sciences; then he had two scientific
stays, one with K. Schwarzschild in Götingen and the
other in Pulkovo Observatory (Russia). In the years
1908-1909 Banachiewicz was a younger assistant at the
Warsaw Observatory; in 1910 he passed an examination to
the M. Sc. degree in astronomy at the Moscow University.
Then -- until 1915 he was an assistant at the Engelhardt
Observatory in Kazan, where he made his excellent series
of heliometric observations of the Moon. In the years
1915-1918 Banachiewicz was initially an assistant at the Dorpat
(now Tartu) University, and later he obtained -- as
Master of Science in astronomy (since 1917) -- the post
of an associated -- and finally -- of an extraordinary
professor. His 35 years' activity at the Cracow
Observatory resulted in many interesting achievements. He
furnished the Observatory with larger observational
instruments and, under his management, the Observatory
became an international center of research in the field
of eclipsing binaries and started publishing its own
ephemeris. Banachiewicz founded in 1925 a scientific
journal Acta Astronomica and was its editor in Cracow
until his death. He published about 240 papers on astronomy,
mathematics, mechanics, geodesy and geophysics; his
scientific correspondence contains some 15000 letters. In
celestial mechanics one can find the Banachiewicz-Olbers
method of determining parabolic orbits. Since 1925 Banachiewicz
developed a kind of matrix calculus, called by him the
cracovian calculus. Cracovians are matrices that are multiplied
"column by column" and their algebra is
radically different from that of matrices. Cracovian
operations essentially facilitated arithmometric
astronomical computations as well as some theoretical
considerations. Owing the cracovians Banachiewicz
discovered general formulae of spherical polygonometry,
and simplified considerably the algorithm of the least
squares method and the practice of solution the systems
of linear equations. The cracovian calculus has found its numerous
applications in spherical astronomy, celestial mechanics,
determining orbits, geodesy and even in the static of building
constructions. It is worth to note that the first orbit
of Pluto has been determined in the Cracow Observatory. Banachiewicz
had also in his scientific output many interesting ideas
and practical implementations of observational methods.
Let us note here e.g. his chronocinematographic camera
(1927) for recording eclipses of the Sun and his method of
geodedic application of positional observations of the
Moon for connecting, over seas, continental triangulation networks.
Banachiewicz was also a pioneer of radio astronomy in
Poland. In a time he acted as a vice-president of the International
Astronomical Union and of the Baltic Commission for
Geodesy, he was also the president of the Commission 17
of the IAU (Motion and Figure of the Moon), he had three
doctorates honoris causa, he was also a member of many scientific
societies. A number of Polish astronomers descended from
Banachiewicz's laboratory (J. Witkowski, J. Mergentaler,
E. Rybka, K. Kordylewski and S. Piotrowski). In 1920s
Banachiewicz organizes a station if the Cracow Observatory
on the Mt. Lubomir near Cracow. That station has been
damaged by nazi troops in 1944. In 1953 Banachiewicz
obtained from the military administration Fort Skala, a
present abode of the Cracow Observatory. Banachiewicz
died in 1954
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