ASTRONOMERS AND THE ROMANIAN UNIONS

Text and photos
(Bucharest, 2018 March 31: the Sun, the Blue Moon and Venus -
the three heavenly bodies which are reproduced on the Romanian coat of arms)
Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Design
Florin Alexandru Stancu

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-1848. The revolutionaries from the principalities of
Wallachia (the Romanian Land)
and Moldova (practically, Western Moldova)
proclaim their intention of union in only one state.



-1859. Wallachia and Moldova make their Union.

In Bucharest (Capital City of Wallachia),
Constantin Bosianu’s House was opened to the unionist meetings.
Today that building is the seat of the Library
of the Astronomical Institute of Romanian Academy.

In Iasi (Capital City of Moldova),
Neculai Culianu was arrested in 1857 for unionist enthusiasm
by the former anti-unionist government.
Then he became the chief-astronomer of the Iasi University for 40 years,
and co-founder of the Iasi Observatory in 1913.

Also in Iasi, Ecaterina Cocuta Conachi,
the daughter of the amateur astronomer Costache Conachi,
unmasked the falsification, from Ottoman order,
of the elections for the Union in Moldova.



-1877-1878. The Independence War.
In alliance with Russia and Balkan volunteers,
Romania obtains its state independence from the Ottoman Empire
and makes the union with the Dobrogea province.

-Astronomers who fought in the war:

Stefan Hepites, future founder
of the Romanian Meteorological Service (1884)
and the Romanian Exact Hour Service (1888),

Constantin Capitaneanu, the first state astronomer
and the cartographer of the first map of the Romanian Kingdom (1881),

Constantin I. Bratianu, future founder
of the Astronomic Military Observatory (1895),
where the King of Independence, Carol I,
will use to make astronomical observations,

Admiral Vasile Urseanu, future president
of the first Romanian astronomical society (1908);
he will also make a private observatory in 1910,
which will become later the Bucharest Municipal Observatory.



-Before World War I.

In 1907
Victor Anestin founded the first astronomical magazine in Romania,
Orion,
cooperating in its pages and through other ways with
the main popularizers of astronomy for the Romanians of the Habsburg Empire,
Ioan N. Corbu and Gavril Todica.

Also in 1907
Victor Anestin published “a national celestial history”,
The Chronicle of the Romanian Astronomical Observations from 1496 to 1883,
and Ion Otescu published “a guide of the Romanian folkloric sky”,
Romanian Peasants’ Beliefs in Stars and Sky.

In 1908
Nicolae Coculescu and astronomer-ministry Spiru Haret
founded the major astronomical symbol for the Romanians from anywhere,
the Bucharest Observatory.

In 1908, too,
a Romanian astronomer from the Tsarist Empire, Nicolae Donici,
laureate of Russian Academy,
preferred to make an astronomical observatory in the Basarabia province
(practically, Eastern Moldova),
among the Romanians who formed the majority over there.
Later he became the director of the Urseanu Observatory in Bucharest.

Also in 1908
the same Victor Anestin founded at Bucharest
the first astronomical society in Romania,
choosing in its staff a representative of Transylvania, Ioan N. Corbu,
and a representative of ethnical minorities, Wolfgang Pauly;

thus, Anestin united Romania through astronomy, in an official system,
even 10 years before the Great Union.



-1916-1918. The War for the Great Union:
Romania fought near the Entente against the Central Powers.
-1918. The Romanian majority from a few provinces
of the Habsburg Empire (Transylvania, Bucovina,
Satmar and Southern Maramures, Eastern Crisana,
Central and Eastern Banat)
and from a province of the Russian Empire (Basarabia)
decide their union with Romania.
-1918-1920. Romania fights against Horthyst Hungary and Soviet Bolsheviks
to consolidate the Great Union,
and obtains its recognition at Trianon (France).

Gheorghe Demetrescu was an officer in the war,
and later he co-founded the Cluj Observatory in the Capital City of Transylvania
and became the director of the Bucharest Observatory.

Constantin Parvulescu also fought in the war,
and later he became the director of the Cluj Observatory.

The unionist president of the Basarabian Parliament, Ion Inculet,
was a former teacher of astronomy in the Russian Empire.



-After 1990.

Basarabia (which had been annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II)
obtained its independence in 1991 and became the Republic of Moldova.

In 1993
Valentin Grigore founded
the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM),
the second national astronomical society in Romania’s history.

In 2009,
during the largest ever world festival of astronomy,
100 Hours of Astronomy (organized by Astronomers Without Borders),
SARM became the unique society that organized events in two states
(and morally the same country),
Romania and the Republic of Moldova.



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