ZdenÃÂk Kopal (; 4 April 1914 – 23 June 1993) was a Czechoslovak astronomer who mainly worked in England.
Kopal was born and grew up in LitomyÃ
¡l (Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic). In his early astronomical career, he studied variable stars and in particular close eclipsing binary stars. He attended Cambridge University in 1938 and later that year he went to Harvard College Observatory. After the war he became head of the astronomy department at the University of Manchester. He later assisted NASA with the Apollo program as an external expert.
He was editor-in-chief of the journal Astrophysics and Space Science since its foundation in 1968 until his death in 1993.
The asteroid 2628 Kopal was named in his honor.
Monographs
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: An introduction to the study of eclipsing variables. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 1946.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Close binary systems. Chapman & Hall, London 1959.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: The moon. Our nearest celestial neighbour. Chapman & Hall, London 1960.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal, Josef KlepeÃ
¡ta, Thomas W. Rackham: Photographic atlas of the moon. Academic Press, New York 1965.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Telescopes in space. Hart Publishers Co., New York 1970.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: A new photographic atlas of the moon. Hale, London 1971.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Physics and astronomy of the moon. Academic Press, New York 1971.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Man and his universe. William Morrow, New York 1972.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Zpráva o vesmÃÂru. Mladá fronta, Praha 1976.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Dynamics of close binary systems. Reidel, Dordrecht 1978.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Language of stars â a discourse on the theory of the light changes eclipsing variables. Reidel, Dordrecht 1979.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: The realm of the terrestrial planets. John Wiley, New York 1979.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Of stars and men: Reminiscences of an astronomer. Adam Hilger, Bristol 1986. 2012 pbk reprint
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: VesmÃÂrnàsousedé naÃ
¡Ã planety. Academia, Praha 1987.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: The Roche problem. The Roche problem and its significance for double-star astronomy. Kluwer, Dordrecht 1989.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: Mathematical theory of stellar eclipses. Kluwer, Dordrecht 1990.
- ZdenÃÂk Kopal: O hvÃÂzdách a lidech. Mladá fronta, Praha 1991.
References
External links