ŠTEFÁNIK, Milan Rastislav
* 21. 7. 1880, Košariská, Slovakia
† 4. 5. 1919, Bratislava, Slovakia
astronomer
From 1898 to 1904 Š. studied civil engineering, philosophy and astronomy in Prague, and worked at the Prague Observatory in Meudon under the direction of J. Janssen. There he observed the Sun's corona and solar spectrum, solar system planets, stars, stellar and nebular spectra, where he further developed instruments (spectroheliograf, heliometer), which he used while working.
Š. organized numerous expeditions to observe solar eclipses, including the expedition to Mont Blanc, where they observed the transit of Comet Halley over the sun's disc. He built his own observatory in Tahiti, set about the reorganization of the observatory in Quit, organized meteorological service in the French colonies in Oceania and encouraged the introduction of regular meteorological services in the French Aviation (1916).
Promising career of a young astronomer was interrupted by World War I. Š. was a pilot, diplomat and general in the French army in a joint country of Czechs and Slovaks. He was killed in an aircraft accident in May 1919. The Prague Astronomical Society was named after him between both wars. The astronomers in Brezova pod Bradlom founded the M.R.Š Society in 1990. The same year his birth house – in the former Evangelical rectory in Košariska – became the museum.
