Title: Milan Rastislav Štefánik - astronomer

Author: V. Rusin

Abstract:
Milan Rastislav Štefánik, co-founder of Czechoslovakia in 28 october 1918, 
begun his career as an astronomer. After graduating from the Czech University 
in Prague in 1904, he went on to study in Paris (France). He began (1905) 
his work under prof. J. P. Janssen, director of the Meudon Observatory. 
Janssen commissioned him to study terrestrial spectral lines in the infrared 
region of the spectrum, and, at the same time offered him to do observations 
on Mt. Blanc and the eclipse of the sun in Alcosebre (Spain). Štefánik published 
12 scientific works on optics and astronomy, especially on the Sun; in 1916, 
as a pilot,  established regular meteorological measurements in the French Air Force. 
Unfortunately, his position in Meudon  was very short - ended in 1907, although 
he continued to work in astronomy until the beginning of the First World War (1914). 
In this lecture we will try to present the results of his work.