The main attraction of the Observatory is a big planetarium made by a company Carl Zeiss Jena, type Spacemaster from 1991, which is installed in a cupola with a diameter of 17.5 meters and is able to project nine thousand stars, twenty nebulae and star clusters, and a number of solar system bodies. The planetarium is further equipped with data projectors and extensive sound and light systems. The projector is unusually placed on a hydraulic platform, so if needed it can be lowered into the basement area and it does not hinder the audience from viewing the show.

Except Prague, there is no other multiple projection adjusted in such a way in the Czech Republic. So it is no wonder that the visitors have an exceptional experience after viewing our shows. The repertory of performances in the big planetarium include educational programs for school groups, as well as performances for the public devoted to the modern view of the Earth, solar system and also the outer space. We do not forget about the youngest visitors, who will find interactive fairy tales here. The big planetarium can seat 200 people and has a wheelchair access, so it can also be used for organizing specialist lectures, concerts, thematic colloquiums or various commercial presentations.

The Observatory also has a small planetarium made by a company Carl Zeiss Jena (type ZKP-2 from 1959) with a cupola of 8 meters in diameter, which can seat 35 people. This is mainly used in the evening hours when the weather is bad.

The astronomers of the Observatory considerably contribute to the education of amateurs and students of astronomy in all the Czech Republic. We organize lectures of prominent Czech astronomers and teaching programs for the blind. We cooperate with the mass media, run an internet course of astronomy with a certified examination and organize astronomical camps in summer months. The Observatory has close relationships with the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and other culture organizations of the town of Brno.

The oldest part of the Observatory building includes two cupolas with diameters of six meters, which were built in 1953. The building with a lecture hall and the small projection planetarium was opened in autumn 1959. The big projection planetarium was put into operation in 1991. Over the last few years, the planetarium has been visited by 80 thousand people a year, so over more than five years of its existence, there have been more than two and half million visitors.

The reservations of the performance “People and Stars” must be made at least one month in advance (by phone or e-mail). If the number of visitors is greater than thirty, the admission fee is CZK 60 per a visitor (student discount CZK 35). If the number is smaller, an amount of CZK 1800 must be paid at one time. The performance “People and Stars” lasts about 60 minutes. It is not currently possible to pay in Euro.

You must book the evening observation (by phone or e-mail) at least one week in advance. The admission fee is CZK 35 per person (we do not give any discount). The observation lasts about 60 minutes. It is not currently possible to pay in Euro.

If you look into historical records, you can find that there were not many astronomers living in the town of Brno in the medieval times. In comparison with the capital Prague or other big European cities, no big observatory was ever built in Brno. If there had not been the bishopric in Olomouc, the scholars would have avoided even the whole Moravia. In spite of all of that, Brno was not completely unfamiliar with the “royal science”.

„Augustine of Olomouc, also called Moravien, careful astronomer.“ – This is the only sentence that represents the oldest remaining trace of observing the stars directly in our town. It mentions an ecclesiastical dignitary and royal penman Augustine of Olomouc, who worked in Brno towards the close of the 15th century, maybe around 1497. A few years later, he moved back to Olomouc, where he died in 1510.

Although we have only fragments of the written records from that time, it is clear that the astronomers then pursued their career mainly in horoscopes. The people believed that this way can determine the right moment for a “magical” alchemistic experiment or medical procedure, especially for very popular bleeding. There was such a great demand for astrological calendars that they were created by various charlatans and often even by the printers themselves. All those attempts to foretell the future were of course vain. And nowadays reasonable people must have the same skeptical opinion about them as well.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the town of Brno, enclosed by stone fortification walls, saw a real boom. About eight thousand people lived in a thousand stone houses and a huge tower of the Town Hall dominated the town. The town organized regular fairs, which were visited by foreign merchants. The Moravian Parliament held its meeting there. On the other hand, the health of the inhabitants at that time was threatened by epidemics and the town economically contributed to various military campaigns. The medieval town of Brno had only few paved streets and there was litter lying everywhere and dogs, cats and rats running round.

Another interesting astronomical event connected with Brno goes back to the middle of the 16th century. In 1582 a new calendar was instituted, which corrected the defects of the previous system of counting time. The Pope Gregory XIII ordered the whole Christian world to skip ten days, so that after Thursday 4 October, 1582 it was Friday 15 October. As one may expect, the reform was met with considerable antipathy. In the end, the only thing that prevented major revolts was the threat that the one who did not accept the reform would be forever excommunicated.

In spite of that, only few countries accepted the new calendar in 1582. In Bohemia it happened in January 1584, in Moravia a half year later and in Slovakia they did not accept it even until 1587. However, the emperor Rudolf II and his serfs proved to be very progressive. A lot of other countries accepted the same calendar over the course of some decades or even centuries. Nowadays it is hard to believe the reasons for delaying: Due to the coming end of the world, there was no use to accept such a radical reform.

Of course there was no end of the world. Therefore, in 1728, Ferdinand Čádecký could construct three beautiful sun dials on the walls of the New Town Hall courtyard. The well preserved frescos complement the paintings with views of Brno and you can also find here a copper gargoyle in the shape of a winged dragon. When you come by the New Town Hall some time, you must see them.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Brno had a population of thirty thousand people. Increasing industrial production and workforce inflow gradually required pulling down most of the fortification walls. There was also a rise of scientific research and a few scholarly guilds and the Moravian Museum were founded in our city.

Probably the most important person of Brno astronomical history of the 19th century was Ignác Kasián Halaška, completely forgotten nowadays. He was born in 1780 in Budišov, near the town of Odry in North Moravia, and worked as a professor of physics at Brno Philosophical Institute between 1808 and 1814. At that time, supported by his colleagues, he set up a private observatory on the west side of the building of Episcopal Seminary. It is now the seat of the Rector’s Office of the University of Technology – the oldest university in Brno.

While staying in Brno, Ignác Halaška calculated, among other things, all solar eclipses from 1813 to 1860, and drew the maps of their courses for the whole Moravia as well as Brno skyline. Even after he left for Charles University in Prague, he did not forget about our town – it was his merit that Brno got a modern physical section.

Also Johann Gregor Mendel, botanist and one of the founders of genetics, regularly observed the sky. After he entered the monastery in Old Brno, he occupied himself not only with his well-known experiments with crossbreeding plants, but he also did meteorological observations. In the 1870s and 1880s, these observations drove him to watching sunspots, which in his opinion had a significant influence on the current state of the weather. Unfortunately most Mendel’s drawings of the surface of the Sun got lost at some time in the past and there are only few fragments left nowadays. However, the Moravian Museum still keeps his simple telescope. Gregor Mendl, unlike his genetic experiments, was wrong in case of his research of the Sun: The Sun actually has hardly any influence on the current state of the weather.

More astronomers appeared in Brno at the beginning of the 20th century. In the Moravian metropolis, there were a number of scientific guilds and its role played also the University of Technology with new lectures in geodesy and cartography. At the beginning of the 20th century, even a real astronomical observatory was set up on one of the university buildings, which is about one kilometer by air from the current Observatory.

But this first Brno Observatory did not develop until Masaryk University was founded in 1919. At that time, the new Faculty of Science temporarily installed its astronomical devices in the observatory of the University of Technology. It was not only the students who came here to watch the star sky, but sometimes also the public.

It is interesting that this observatory is still used nowadays. It is equipped with modern devices for locating geographical coordinates and it is used by the students of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Technology. On the original astronomical pillar (goes through the whole building), there is a beacon TUBO, which is used by the GPS network and for research of local gravitation field of the Earth (there is no other station like this in the Czech Republic). Also thanks to this beacon, we know that the Euro-Asian continental shelf, on which the hill Kraví hora is situated, is moving at the speed of 27 mm/year towards Southeast.