Česky
In ten panels, the exhibition brings us views of amazing celestial scenery that plays with the concept of a work of art in conjunction with unusual scenery rendered by unconventional views of the largest astronomical observatories on Earth. And not only views "on", but also very unusual views "into" the bowels of astronomical instruments. We will look into places where the "ordinary" mortal gets only very rarely.
The exhibition also commemorates the 60th anniversary of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and 15 years since the Czech Republic joined this most prestigious astronomical institution in the world.
Medicine and Astronomy.
For some, perhaps a somewhat unconventional combination. And yet they are linked by a history of several millennia.
It all started at a time when medicine was not yet medicine and astronomy was not yet astronomy. Shamans, various ranchers, healers and grandmothers of spices took care of people's health more than doctors. And if knowledge wasn't enough, they often turned to the stars. Astronomy, too, was the young, immature daughter of the rich mother of astrology, who looked back to man through the planets rather than to the distant galactic distances. Like the nascent science of medicine. The human body was associated with the astrological elements, the movements of the planets across the sky were linked to the movements of the body fluids and the development of the human body. And then it was only a step to determine the timing of the administration of medicine or the performance of surgery with the appropriate celestial constellation or to determine the treatment procedures in general. This was the case not only in ancient Egypt, but also in Mesopotamia and ancient China. Names such as Paracelsus, Thaddeus of Hajek, Albík of Uničov and Křišt'an of Prachatice, or from modern times Carl Gustav Jung can be found in textbooks of astronomy as well as medicine.
We know nowadays that cosmic influences have much less and especially different effects on man than our ancient ancestors imagined, but still some of them exist. Let us think, for example, of tidal effects not only on the sea surface, or the complicated influence of the flow of charged particles from solar flares on the ions of certain elements involved in the transmission of brain impulses.
Yet even today, many elements unite the two disciplines of medicine and astronomy. One of these, for example, is precision optics. The ZEISS logo can be found not only on the pillar of the largest Czech Perk telescope with a mirror diameter of two metres, or on the top lenses used by professional and amateur astronomers, but also on microscopes and instruments in many fields of medicine.
That is why we are now able to present the exhibition The Universe Closer to People with photographs by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) photo ambassador Zdeněk Bardon. Besides the photographer, the Observatory in Úpice and ZEISS participated in its realization. The partners of the exhibition are the East Bohemian Branch of the Czech Astronomical Society (ČAS) and the Astronomical Institute of the CAS.
A big thank you to the partners and organizers, but especially to the management and people of the Multiscan Cancer Centre, who invested immeasurable effort in the realization of the exhibition. Without their support and understanding, such an extraordinary event could never have happened.
Clear skies and a nice experience.
Zdeněk Bardon and Marcel Bělík, November 16, 2022
