Cosmic Multicultural Bucharest in the Pandemic (46):
A Story at the Astronomical Observatory
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (astro-photo-poem-essay) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)
During Global Astronomy Month 2021
I symbolically visited the Admiral Vasile Urseanu Bucharest Municipal Observatory in mid-April (a creation of the first Romanian astronomical society, founded by Victor Anestin in 1908).
More precisely, I jumped from Capella, a yellow star, in front of the observatory, but there Alpha Aurigae looked blue because of light pollution.
Then the Sun moved into the observatory on a stained glass window.
Inside the observatory I saw:
-The busts of three Romanian legendary amateur astronomers: Victor Daimaca (a discoverer of two comets in the 1940s), Admiral Vasile Urseanu (the creator of this observatory in 1910) and Victor Anestin (the founder of the first Romanian astronomical magazine, “Orion”, in 1907).
-A scale reproduction by electric bulbs of the Big Dipper, the Plough or the Great Chariot (made by Elisabeta “Betty” Petrescu in 2016).
-The planetary hall and the star factory (made by the observatory team after the renovation in 2014-2016).
I also saw an old telescope dreaming of contemporary observations on the terrace of the municipal observatory (maybe even made by telescopist Mihai Dascalu and coordinator Adrian Sonka).
What a beautiful story
at the observatory!
Smile please!
#poetry