Artwork of the Month – The Browning Reflector and its Accessories
In October 1881, the ‘Herényi Astrophysical Observatory’, founded by Jenő Gothard, a mechanical engineer and landowner, began operations. The institution, which bears the founder’s name and looks back on a history of 145 years, has been the Szombathely-based astronomical research institute of Eötvös Loránd University since 1978.
Jenő Gothard was born in Herény, near Szombathely, 31 May 1857, as the first descendant of a well-to-do landowner family. Owing to his grandfather’s, Ferenc Gothard’s enthusiasm for electrical experiments, the love and cultivation of natural sciences was part of family traditions. The Gothard brothers attended the Grammar School of the Premontre Order in Szombathely for their secondary education. Their love for nature, which they brought from the family, was perfected by Adolf Kunc (1841–1905), a young teacher and scholar from the Order of Premontre. The brothers had their own physics and chemistry laboratory in their student years, along with a workshop in one of the wings of the Gothard Castle where they conducted their experiments and produced the necessary tools. After leaving secondary school, Jenő went to study at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna. He nonetheless remained in touch with the Grammar School of the Premontre Order. He conducted his experiments of national significance (1878: telephone, 1880: experiment with the Foucault pendulum, 1896: X-ray photographs) with his teachers at Premontre. Jenő founded the Herény Astrophysical Osbervatory with his brother Sándor in 1881. The observatory was designed by university professor Alajos Hauszmann. The interior of the dome was designed and equipped by Gothard himself. The first observation – a notable event for astronomical instruments and observations, the “first light” – took place on 20 October 1881. Gothard took meticulous care to select the appropriate telescope for his purposes. His verdict came upon a 26 cm Newtonian telescope by Browning offered for purchase by Konkoly. He mounted a camera for solar photography as well as spectroscopes, spectrographs and astrographs on the telescope. Initially he transformed instruments purchased from Konkoly, but shortly afterwards he used selfmade photo cameras and devices for spectroscopic observations. The aim set as early as the foundation of the Observatory was the spectroscopic analysis of comets and stars. From 1885 Gothard abandoned his visual observations almost entirely, and turned his attention to the novel techniques of the age, spectroscopy and astrophotography. From 1886 he focused on spectrophotometric analyses of star clusters, comets and gas clouds. He was the first one to photographically show the central star of Lyra Ring Nebula (M57) observable in the constellation of Lyra. In 1892, he analysed the spectra of planetary nebulae with photographic methods. When measuring the spectrum of Nova Aurigae, he discovered a fundamental relationship between novae and ring (planetary) nebulae. This discovery was the most outstanding result of Gothard’s astrophysical work.
Dr. József Kovács