Draft:Czech astronomical society

The Czech Astronomical Society (abbreviation CAS) is a voluntary association of professional and scientific astronomers, amateur astronomers and those interested in astronomy from the public. It covers mainly those areas where amateur astronomers can contribute to the development of astronomy.

Founded on 8 December 1917, it currently has about 550 members, who organize themselves into local chapters or sections, such as the Variable Stars and Exoplanets Section or the Interplanetary Matter Society. Collective members also include observatories, scientific institutes and other institutions. The Society is unique in Europe in that it brings together professionals as well as amateurs.

The highest body is the Congress, which is held once every 4 years. Between the congresses, the society is governed by a ten-member executive committee. The chairman of the society is Petr Heinzel. Its information server since 1995 is Astro.cz.

History
In 1914 - 1915, Baron Artur Kraus, who two years earlier had opened the first folk observatory in Bohemia in Pardubice, began to correspond with his Prague colleagues who were trying to establish the Czech Astronomical Society. One of the main goals was to build a similar observatory in Prague. During the war, however, some members of the Prague Astronomical Circle collaborated with Maffia and their activities were closely monitored by the police. However, the statutes of the society were approved by a decree of the C. and K. Governorate of 21 September 1917. Baron Kraus was responsible for the success of this approval. The actual foundation of the Czech Astronomical Society took place on 8 December 1917 in the lecture room of Prof. František Nušl in the building of the Czech Polytechnic Institute (today the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Czech Technical University) in Prague on Charles Square.

Soon after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, work began on finding a suitable location and later on the construction of the observatory at Petřín. It was put into operation in 1928 and opened to the public a year later.

After the closure of Czech universities in 1939, the observatory still hosted lectures, which partly replaced university studies. Thanks to this, the full activity of the CAS could be quickly restored soon after the liberation in 1945.

Back in 1945, the activist Luisa Landová-Štychová, the wife of the then deceased Jaroslav Štych, one of the founders of the society, joined the CAS leadership. Landová-Štychová had already founded the Revolutionary Committee of the Society in 1945. Without any astronomical knowledge, she began to promote, especially after February 1948, the policy of the Communist Party. However, several leading astronomers of the time, especially the non-partisan Dr. Bohumil Šternberk (1897-1983), did not leave the leadership of the Society, and therefore the communist ideology practically never prevailed over astronomy in the Society. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the CAS quickly transformed into a standard functioning democratic society. The credit for this was mainly due to the elected president of the CAS three months before, Assoc. Prof. Luboš Perek. Further development was experienced by the CAS under the chairmanship of Jiří Grygar. The abolition of the non-functioning units made the society's activities more efficient, the use of finances improved and the information server Astro.cz was established (1995).

In the following years, the society continued its standard operation and development. In 1998, the Zdeněk Kvíz Prize was introduced and a year later the František Nušl Prize was renewed. The society is committed to the fight against light pollution - excess and harmful artificial lighting in cities. Thanks to the Dark Sky Group, three dark sky areas were created in the Czech Republic between 2009 and 2014. Through press releases and other events, ČAS comments on current astronomical events - e.g. in 2012 on the prediction of the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar or in 2013 on the Chelyabinsk meteorite fall.