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Višnjan is a small town on top of an Istrian hill. As it's citizens say: "... it has a bank, a school (even two), and one pizza place. The pizzas in Višnjan are very good. And two bars. Višnjan has a football club that always looses from its neighbors. It has a graveyard, a big church with statues of St. Kvirik and Judith, and a little church on the walk....".
The Spaceguard Foundation is an association of the most important astronomical observatories with a goal to support creation of a system for discovering celestial bodies that could potentially be a threat to life on Earth. What do these two things have in common? An observatory. Amidst the old roofs of the town, on top of a small tower a metal dome hides a 406mm telescope. The second largest in Croatia, but the best optically.
How did this machine get here? How did a sophisticated astronomical instrument find it's way to a place with one pizzeria? In 1976. a young professor, Korado Korlevic, came to teach in the Višnjan elementary school. An amateur astronomer, in love with the stars, a great enthusiast, and explorer of the universe began to spread his interests between the pupils of Višnjan. It did not take long for an astronomy club to be formed, and plans for putting up a telescope were being made, because Višnjan is one of the places of least light pollution in Europe. But the money was short, the sponsors few (one of them was the pizzeria), so the professor and his young astronomers had to find new ways of getting a telescope. And the only possibility was to build it. One of Korado's friends in Zagreb drew plans, a factory of medical glass donated the 406mm lens, and the rest was, well, improvisation. Parts were found all over the place, taken from the mechanical workshops of the young astronomers' fathers. Even parts from the then quite famous YUGO automobile have been used. And in time Korado and his kid astronomers really finished the telescope. Kids watched the stars, learned, grew up, and went college. Some of them are well know astronomers, physics and scientist all around the world. But Korado stayed with his pupils, and together they watched the stars. The time spent during the long nights watching the stars had results. The Višnjan observatory became well known in the astronomical society. The amateur as well as the professional. Up till now Korado and his kids discovered more then 500 new small celestial objects, asteroids and comets. Even some new stars like the variable light star "Mira". During the passage of the Hyakutake comet Višnjan was one of the 8 referral observatories in the world. Today, using a very sophisticated computer program developed by one on Korado's kids, Višnjan can watch for, and track celestial bodies witch could eventually become dangerous to the life on Earth, as we know it. Because of that this, small and poor, observatory is part of the global Spaceguard Foundation together with some of the best known, biggest and richest observatories in the world.
And what is going to happen when they put up the 1 meter giant telescope Korado and his kids managed to virtually save from a junk yard?
