Spiridion Gopčević comes to Mali Lošinj on September 18th 1893 and starts building his Observatory “Manora”. At that time Gopčević takes his “astronomy name” Leo Brenner and starts his career as an astronomer.
Manora Sternwarte – The Observatory “Manora”
He started with his astronomical observations on May 9th 1894. using a refracting telescope with an aperture of 178 mm and focal length of 2680 mm manufactured by Reinfelder & Hertel from München (Germany) as the main astronomical instrument. His observatory was equipped with many more astronomical instruments and with a scientific library of more than 4 000 books.
The main instrument of the Observatory “Manora”
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE OBSERVATORY “MANORA”
In a very short time, thanks to his thorough observations of the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, Gopčević had become known and respected in the astronomical world.
Gopčević’s drawings of Venus – March 15th 1897
His works were published in the most important astronomical journals of the time and he had developed correspondence with several of the most important astronomers of the period (Lowell, Wolf, Palisa, Fauth, as well as with a Croatian astronomer Oton Kučera from the Observatory in Zagreb). Among his most important astronomical findings, Gopčević found the crater Triesnecker on the Moon and made a new classification of the Saturn rings system which later on was not approved by the International Astronomical Union.
Gopčević’s classification of the Satrun ring system
IT WLL BE CONTINUED…