FOLLOWERS OF GALILEO IN SLOVAKIA

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

Normally, this “classical” image
(which I took from the speed of the bus in 24 July 2015)
with the Bratislava Castle (founded in the 10th century)
near the Danube River
should be the prologue for a visit to the Slovak Capital City.

But I had other plan for this project…

The first Slavic statal entity on the territory of current Slovakia,
the Nitra Principality,
was created in the 7th century,
soon after the Empire of Samo.

After that the Slovaks had to live their destinies in the Czech Kingdoms,
the Magyar Kingdom, the Habsburg Empire and Czechoslovakia,
before creating their own republic in 1993
and living free under the Sun.

In 2004 Slovakia became a member of the European Union,
where the borders were eliminated.

And about me, in 11 July 2015
I saw the post-morning Sun near a former border
between Hungary and Slovakia.

In 24 July 2015
I saw the pre-evening Sun near a former border
(on the Morava River)
between Slovakia and Czechia.

More people know that, after independence,
Slovakia (with only 5 million inhabitants)
won the world championships of ice hockey (once)
and football-tennis (many times).

But too few people know that the Slovak meteor observers
were, during many years,
the most active in the world.

So I opted to present a few images with mild sceneries
(also taken from the speed of the bus)
from when I crossed Slovakia (in July 2015)
on an old commercial road (with many churches and a few castles),
which connected the centre to the north of Europe,
just because it passed through the Banska-Bystrica zone,
a kind of Capital of Slovak meteor observers.

I also remembered that I had the honor to know better
3 main representatives of the Slovak meteor observers
(among many others)
at the international Meteor Conferences:
Daniel Ocenas, Peter Zimnikoval and Stanislav Kanianski,
who lived right in Banska-Bystrica.

And I made a halt in a close small village and ski resort,
Donovally (founded in the 17th century),
used sometimes by the Slovak meteor lovers for observations.

Here, under the ardor of the noon Sun,
a few wooden buildings in the Slovak traditional style
(one of them with an interesting floral-solar painting)
and a delicate Catholic church impressed me…

Finally, I saw even a hotel
named after he who founded modern astronomy
(and he also said about the Earth that
“and yet, it does move” around the Sun),
watching the sky through a lunette in 1609.

In Donovally and anywhere in the world
I can certainly say
that all the astronomers are
life after Galileo Galilei.