Hungarian astronomers and space scientists

Erzsébet Illés
Erzsébet Illés (Hungarian: Illés Erzsébet; published internationally as Erzsébet Illés-Almár or E. Illes-Almar; Szekszárd, 15 November 1936 – 2 April 2026) was a Hungarian astronomer, space researcher and planetologist. She was an emerita researcher at the Konkoly Thege Miklós Astronomical Institute and a Candidate of Physical Sciences.[1][2][6] She was the first Hungarian woman space researcher and the second Hungarian woman astronomer.[3][4]
In 1958 she was a member of the small group of researchers who, after the launch of the first artificial satellites, established space research based on space-borne instruments in Hungary.[5] In 1961 she wrote the first computer program of the Astronomical Institute, for the study of the motion of artificial satellites. From the late 1950s she and Márton Ill obtained internationally significant results in upper-atmosphere research.[7] Her main results include the study of ring-current heating. She worked on the couplings between the neutral upper atmosphere and the ionosphere and between the upper atmosphere and the troposphere, and demonstrated the north–south asymmetry of the neutral upper atmosphere.[2][9] She later helped establish the teaching of comparative planetology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), where she taught for more than three decades.[2][9] In 2010 the Club of Science Journalists awarded her the Popular Science Scientist of the Year Award.[8][9] In 2011 the minor planet 191857 Illéserzsébet was named in her honour.[8]

Early life and education
She was born in Szekszárd into a peasant family.[5] In an interview published by the Hungarian Astronautical Society in 2014 she recalled that she was about eleven years old when popular-science booklets by Gedeon Róka and György Kulin drew her to astronomy.[9] She completed secondary school in Szekszárd. She wrote to the journal Élet és Tudomány for advice on how to become an astronomer. The reply was arranged through Iván Almár: she was advised to study mathematics and physics in Budapest. She then applied to university in Budapest.[9]
Between 1955 and 1959 she studied mathematics and physics at Eötvös Loránd University,[5] and obtained a secondary-school teaching degree in mathematics and physics.[1][5][9] After graduation she joined the Astronomical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, where László Detre initially assigned her to variable-star observations.[9][5] In 1960 she and Iván Almár showed that BP Vulpeculae, previously thought to be an RR Lyrae type pulsating variable, is in fact an eclipsing binary. In the early 1960s she also observed the cepheid TU Cassiopeiae.[7][9]

Research career
Satellite observations and upper-atmosphere research
She was among the first Hungarian astronomers and space researchers to use computers. From the beginning she led the group processing optical observations of artificial satellites; the data were used to study the neutral upper atmosphere.[2] In 1961 she completed a programming course on the Ural-1 computer. Her first program calculated the grid points of a conformal map projection used in processing observations of artificial satellites. According to her own account, this was the first computer program written in Hungary for an astronomical or space-research purpose,[9] and also the first computer program of the Astronomical Institute.[7]
The work grew out of an international cooperation that began in 1957, when the Soviet Union requested systematic satellite observations at multiple locations.[5, 22] The Hungarian Academy of Sciences assigned the task to the Astronomical Institute. The observations were later used to study atmospheric drag and the density variations of the neutral upper atmosphere.[9][2][5]
In a 2014 interview she said that her path into space research began with the need to calculate satellite orbits from synchronized observations. Discussions with the programmers of the Elliott 803 computer at the Ministry of Light Industry did not produce a usable specification, so she concluded that it would be simpler to write the required program herself.[9]
Her atmospheric-density studies dealt with the interactions between the neutral upper atmosphere and the ionosphere and between the upper atmosphere and the troposphere, as well as with the modelling of density variations of the neutral upper atmosphere. This work was the subject of her candidate's dissertation, defended in 1994.[2][1][9]
Her most important results:[2][9]
- the discovery of ring-current heating;
- demonstrating an additional, solar-wind-related heating source outside the auroral zone;
- demonstrating the interaction between the neutral atmosphere and the ionosphere;
- identifying the asymmetry of the neutral upper atmosphere.
Later research on ionospheric storms continued to cite her 1987 paper on thermosphere–ionosphere interaction.[10]

Comparative planetology
From the 1990s the focus of her interest shifted to comparative planetology, including the comparison of the geophysical and surface processes of different planetary bodies – the Earth included. She discussed comparative planetology through geophysical phenomena. From 1994 she taught the subject at Eötvös Loránd University, at the Department of Astronomy and the Department of Physical Geography, and from 2006 within the Cosmic Materials Space Research Group.[2][9]
Her planetary science publications dealt with a possible corona structure on Mars,[11] possible terrestrial analogues of Triton's "cantaloupe terrain"[12] and the possibly layered structure of Phobos.[13][2]
She was also a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms [14][16].

Science communication and legacy
She published more than one hundred scientific papers and around fifty review and popular-science articles.[2] Her popular-science writings appeared in journals including Csillagászati évkönyv, Magyar Tudomány, Természet Világa, Élet és Tudomány, Meteor, Föld és Ég, Andromeda and Földgömb.[17][18]
She was an honorary member of the Hungarian Astronautical Society.[2] In 2026 the society launched a fundraising campaign for a motivational children's book for girls about her life and work. The book is edited by Miklós Vincze and Anna Krisztina Székely and is in press [3][4]

Awards and honours
1985: Award of Merit (Nívódíj) of the Central Astronautical Section of the Federation of Technical and Scientific Societies (MTESZ KASZ).[19]
1987: Kiváló Munkáért (For Excellent Work) award, in recognition of her science communication.[9]
2002: Albert Fonó Award, as a member of the ELTE Planetology Circle, for her long-standing international and national work.[20][9]
2004: "Article of the Year 2004" award for her article "Sarki fény Magyarország felett" (Aurora over Hungary; Élet és Tudomány, 2004/3–4), awarded by the Hungarian Patent Office and Élet és Tudomány.[9]
2010: Popular Science Scientist of the Year Award (Az Év Ismeretterjesztő Tudósa díj) of the Club of Science Journalists.[8][9]
2011: Krisztián Sárneczky named the minor planet 191857 Illéserzsébet (provisional designation 2004 VA70), which he had discovered, in her honour. The name was approved by the International Astronomical Union on 9 December 2011.[8][9]
2016: Zoltán Bay Award, the highest professional recognition in Hungarian space research.[2]
2017: Imre Szabó Award of the Senior Club of the Scientific Society of Energy Economics (ETE).[21]

Personal life
She was married to the astronomer and space researcher Iván Almár. They married in 1959 and had two children.[9] They were married for more than 65 years.[4]

Selected scientific publications
Illés-Almár, E.; Almár, I.; Bencze, P.; Horváth, A. (1987). "Investigation of the thermosphere-ionosphere interaction by means of the neutral post-storm effect". Advances in Space Research 7 (8): 53–57. Bibcode: 1987AdSpR...7h..53I. doi: 10.1016/0273-1177(87)90189-X.
Illés-Almár, E.; Almár, I.; Bencze, P.; Horváth, A. (1989). "On a possible ring current effect in the density of the neutral upper atmosphere". Advances in Space Research 9 (12): 205–208. Bibcode: 1989AdSpR...9l.205I. doi: 10.1016/0273-1177(89)90330-X.
Illés-Almár, E.; Almár, I.; Bencze, P.; Horváth, A.; Jakowski, N.; Jungstand, A. (1992). "Similar behaviour of the thermosphere and the ionosphere in the recovery phase of geomagnetic disturbances". Advances in Space Research 12 (6): 175–178. Bibcode: 1992AdSpR..12f.175I. doi: 10.1016/0273-1177(92)90052-Y.
Illés-Almár, E. (1997). "Alba Patera: A possible trace of a corona structure on Mars". Advances in Space Research 20 (8): 1561–1564. Bibcode: 1997AdSpR..20.1561I. doi: 10.1016/S0273-1177(97)00878-8.
Illés-Almár, E.; Almár, I.; Bencze, P. (1998). "Neutral density depletions attributed to plasma bubbles". Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 103 (A3): 4115–4116. Bibcode: 1998JGR...103.4115I. doi: 10.1029/97JA02963.
Almár, I.; Illés-Almár, E. (2004). "A proposal to improve the CIRA '86 model in the equatorial region: the ddMSIS model". Advances in Space Research 34 (8): 1768–1772. Bibcode: 2004AdSpR..34.1768A. doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2003.04.060.
Illés-Almár, E. (2004). "Two distinct sources of magnetospheric heating in the atmosphere: the aurora and the ring current". Advances in Space Research 34 (8): 1773–1778. Bibcode: 2004AdSpR..34.1773I. doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2003.04.059.
Illés-Almár, E.; Almár, I. (2006). "A North–South asymmetry in thermospheric density". Advances in Space Research 38 (11): 2461–2464. Bibcode: 2006AdSpR..38.2461I. doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2006.04.031.
Illés-Almár, E. (2007). "Comet Borrelly and the two kinds of cometary sub-nuclei". Advances in Space Research 39 (3): 468–471. Bibcode: 2007AdSpR..39..468I. doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2007.04.001.

References
1. "Illés Erzsébet". Hungarian Academy of Sciences (in Hungarian). Retrieved 3 June 2026.
2. "Illés Erzsébet (1936–2026)". Hungarian Astronautical Society (in Hungarian). 4 April 2026. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
3. "Egy magyar űrkutatónő története a lányoknak – adománygyűjtés". Hungarian Astronautical Society (in Hungarian). 25 April 2026. Retrieved 2 September 2026.
4. "Motivációs könyv lányoknak az első magyar űrkutatónőről". Adjukössze, NIOK Foundation (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2 September 2026.
5. Horváth, András (2026). "Búcsú egy planetológustól". Aeromagazin (5) (in Hungarian).
6. "Erzsébet Illés-Almár". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
7. Balázs, Lajos; Szabados, László. A csillagászati kutatás és oktatás újjászervezése az 1945–1960 közötti másfél évtizedben (PDF) (in Hungarian). Hungarian Academy of Sciences. p. 39. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
8. "Illés és Almár elnevezésű kisbolygók a világűrben". Űrvilág (in Hungarian). 12 December 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
9. Elek, László (2014). "Illés Erzsébet". In: Tudomány születik: Elek László beszélgetései a magyar űrkutatás megteremtőivel (PDF) (in Hungarian). Hungarian Astronautical Society. pp. 153–181. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
10. Berényi, K. A.; Heilig, B.; Urbář, J.; Kouba, D.; Kis, Á.; Barta, V. (24 April 2023). "Comprehensive analysis of the ionospheric response to the largest geomagnetic storms from solar cycle 24 over Europe". Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 10: 1092850. Bibcode: 2023FrASS..1092850B. doi: 10.3389/fspas.2023.1092850.
11. Illés-Almár, E. (1997). "Alba Patera: A possible trace of a corona structure on Mars". Advances in Space Research 20 (8): 1561–1564. Bibcode: 1997AdSpR..20.1561I. doi: 10.1016/S0273-1177(97)00878-8.
12. Illés-Almár, E. (1994). "A Possible Terrestrial Analogy of the 'Cantaloupe Terrain' on Triton's Surface". In: Evolution of Extraterrestrial Materials and Structures. Budapest. pp. 102–103. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
13. Illes, E.; Horvath, A.; Horvath, F.; Gesztesi, A. (1983). "A recommendation to check the layered structure of Phobos by in situ measurements". Budapest International Astronautical Federation Congress. Bibcode: 1983buda.iafcQ....I. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
14. Illés-Almár, E.; Hargitai, H. (13 June 2024). "Atmospheric Blast Feature". In: Hargitai, H.; Kereszturi, Á. (eds.): Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer. pp. 1–4. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_666-1. ISBN 978-1-4614-9213-9. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
15. Illés-Almár, E.; Hargitai, H. (6 May 2025). "Splotch (Radar)". In: Hargitai, H.; Kereszturi, Á. (eds.): Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_541-2. Retrieved 2 September 2026.
16. Illés, Erzsébet (2004). "Bolygótestek a Naprendszerben" (PDF). Magyar Tudomány CXI (6): 710–722 (in Hungarian). Retrieved 3 June 2026.
17. Illés, Erzsébet. "A Naprendszerről alkotott kép változása Galileitől napjainkig". Természet Világa (in Hungarian). Retrieved 3 June 2026.
18. Horvai, Ferenc (2006). Egyesületünk 50 éves története (in Hungarian). Hungarian Astronautical Society.
19. "Magyar Űrkutatási Nap 2002". Origo (in Hungarian). 22 November 2002. Retrieved 2 September 2026.
20. "Szabó Imre-díj, Energiagazdálkodási Tudományos Egyesület" (PDF). Hungarian Astronautical Society (in Hungarian). 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
21. Illés, Erzsébet; Almár, Iván (2009). "Felsőlégköri kutatásaink az űrkutatás hajnalától napjainkig". Magyar Tudomány (3): 311–322 (in Hungarian).
 

Zoltán Bay
(Gyulavári, 24 July 1900 – Washington, 4 October 1992)
In 1938, with the support of Tungsram, he established the Department of Atomic Physics at the Budapest University of Technology. On 6 February 1946 he carried out a successful lunar radar experiment. Historians of radar astronomy regard and call Bay the "father" of this branch of science.
In early 1946 he carried out solar echo experiments. In 1948 he left Hungary, and between 1948 and 1955 he was a professor at George Washington University. He exchanged ideas with John von Neumann on the development of computers.
Between 1955 and 1972 he worked at the US National Bureau of Standards (on the new definition of the metre, based on the speed of light).

László Detre
He was born on 19 April 1906 in Szombathely. He studied at the University of Budapest, and in 1929 he was appointed assistant at the Svábhegy Observatory. After returning from a study trip to Germany, in the early 1930s he began to study short-period variable stars, the so-called RR Lyrae type stars. In 1943 he was appointed director of the Observatory, a post he held until his death. In 1955 he was elected corresponding member, and in 1973 full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1970 he received the State Prize, first class. Between 1970 and 1973 he was president of the Variable Star Commission of the International Astronomical Union.
He collected observational material of unparalleled value, and published numerous papers on the period changes of RR Lyrae type stars. In the early 1970s he showed that one of the periods of the star RR Lyrae corresponds to the magnetic cycle also observed in the Sun.
He also carried out significant teaching work: from 1964 until his death he was a professor at the Department of Astronomy of Eötvös Loránd University.
He died in Budapest on 15 October 1974.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)
 

Loránt Dezső
(Budapest, 7 May 1914) Astronomer, member of the Astronomical Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, university professor, Doctor of Physical Sciences (1962). The organiser of modern solar research in Hungary. He studied at Pázmány Péter University in Budapest and then in Zurich. In 1941–45 he organised and directed the university observatory in Kolozsvár (Cluj). From 1948 he headed the solar physics department of the Svábhegy Astrophysical Observatory. From 1958 he was director of the then independent Debrecen Heliophysical Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was a permanent member of the IAU solar commission, and a constant supporter of Hungarian amateur astronomers. For decades he edited the tables of the Csillagászati Évkönyv (Astronomical Yearbook), and wrote many popular-science articles. He received the Academy Prize. His research areas: the motion of prominences, statistical properties of sunspots, history of astronomy.
At the time of writing he lived in Debrecen.

Gyula Fényi S.J.
Astrophysicist. He was born in Sopron on 8 January 1845. (He was born as István Finck; he chose the name Julius as a Jesuit, and as a young teacher he Magyarised his family name to Fényi with the permission of the Minister of the Interior.)
He passed his school-leaving examination with distinction at the Benedictine grammar school in Sopron in 1864, then joined the Society of Jesus. From 1871 he taught physics at the Archiepiscopal Grammar School in Kalocsa.
He was ordained a priest on 31 July 1877. In 1880 he was appointed assistant at the newly equipped Haynald Observatory. From 1882 to 1885 he taught at the college in Pozsony (Bratislava), then took over the direction of the Kalocsa observatory, which he led until 1913.
His most important work was the observation of the Sun, in particular of solar prominences. His meteorological and geophysical studies should also be mentioned. From 1916 he was a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
He died in Kalocsa on 21 December 1927.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)
 

Albert Fonó
(1881–1972)
He did valuable work in the field of thrust jet engines and jet propulsion. The medal named after him is awarded by the Hungarian Astronautical Society to those who have achieved outstanding work in astronautics.
Source: Katalin Pribusz: Space Research on the Internet (in Hungarian)
 

Jenő Gothard
He was born on 31 May 1857 in Herény near Szombathely. He studied at the Technical University of Vienna and also worked in the observatories there. In 1881 he set up a private observatory on the family estate in Herény; its main instrument was a 26 cm reflecting telescope. He worked mainly on astronomical photography and spectral analysis. He proved that in astrography bright reflectors can be used more advantageously than refractors. He demonstrated this spectacularly by discovering the central star, of only 14th magnitude, of the Ring Nebula in Lyra (M57 = NGC 6720), which, because of ultraviolet absorption, could hardly be recorded even with larger lens telescopes. He also achieved great merit in photographing faint, diffuse objects – comets, gaseous and spiral nebulae.
In 1884 he discovered the periodic variation of the hydrogen alpha emission line in the spectrum of the eclipsing variable β Lyrae. This phenomenon was only explained fifty years later by O. Struve. In 1891 he demonstrated the similarity between the spectra of novae and planetary nebulae, and confirmed it again in 1901. He thereby showed that after the outburst a dispersing gas shell forms around the star. He also established that the dispersing gas shell is not identical with the so-called "aureole" that can be detected shortly after the nova outburst. He was among the first to photograph the fine details of cometary spectra. For his work he was elected honorary member of the British Astronomical Association (1886) and corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1890).
He was also engaged in art photography; many of his successful photographs won prizes abroad. As an electrical engineer he took part in the design of the Ikervár power plant, unique in Hungary at the time, and later in the construction of the Szombathely and Sopron tramways. In his workshop he built numerous astronomical observing instruments, some of which went abroad.
At the end of his life he assembled a valuable collection of old rarities of books on the history of astronomy and physics.
He died in Herény on 27 May 1909.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)
 

Miksa Rudolf Hell S.J.
(Maximilian Hell)
He was born on 15 May 1720 in Selmecbánya (Banská Štiavnica). (His original family name was Höll; he changed it to Hell in 1760.)
He studied at the grammar school in Selmecbánya, and in 1738 he joined the Jesuit order in Besztercebánya (Banská Bystrica). He spent his novitiate in Trencsén (Trenčín), and from 1741 he studied in Vienna.
By 1744 he was already publishing his own astronomical observations. From 1745 he taught at the grammar school in Lőcse (Levoča), and from 1748 to 1752 he studied theology in Vienna, where he wrote a small scientific encyclopaedia for his fellow students. He was ordained a priest in 1751.
He was sent to Besztercebánya, from where he directed the construction of the observatory in Nagyszombat (Trnava); he then went to Kolozsvár (Cluj) as a teacher and to direct the construction of the observatory there.
In 1755 Maria Theresa appointed him court astronomer at the Vienna Observatory. The greatest astronomers of the age recognised his conscientious work. He also took part in the design and equipment of the observatories in Eger and Buda.
King Christian VII of Denmark invited Hell to Vardø to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun on 3 June 1769.
Together with János Sajnovics he set out in April 1768; they made wide-ranging natural-science observations during their journey. They successfully carried out the measurement that was the purpose of the expedition, and in the meantime Sajnovics discovered the relationship between the Hungarian and Sami languages.
After the suppression of the order in 1773 Hell lost his support, so he joined the secular clergy. Despite the difficulties he continued his scientific research in astronomy, geography, ethnography, history, physics and theology. In 1776 he published an astronomical calendar.
In the spring of 1792 he caught a cold and never recovered from the illness. He died on 18 April.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)

Péter Hédervári
(Budapest, 29 April 1931 – Budapest, 27 June 1984)
Journalist and writer. He finished secondary school in Budapest in 1950, then joined the staff of the children's magazine Pajtás. From 1952 to 1963 he worked at the Geophysical Institute, first as a technician and, after graduating from ELTE, as a senior research fellow. In 1963 he joined the editorial office of Gamma Geofizika, where he worked as a technical documentalist until 1967. From 1968 he was a staff member and later column editor of the journal Élet és Tudomány. He published natural-science articles and books on astronomy, palaeontology, geography and meteorology.

Imre Gyula Izsák
He was born in Zalaegerszeg on 21 February 1929. He attended primary school in Zalaegerszeg, then went to the military secondary school in Kőszeg. His teachers soon noticed his outstanding mathematical abilities and sent him to the Artúr Görgey Technical Cadet School in Esztergom. He studied there until 1944, when during the war he was taken to Germany with his class. On 3 May 1945 he became an American prisoner of war, and so was able to return to Zalaegerszeg in early autumn. He enrolled in the sixth class of the Ferenc Deák Grammar School, which he completed with distinction. In the following school year he completed two classes in one year, thus making up the year lost because of the war. From the autumn of 1947 he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Budapest and lived in the Eötvös College. He graduated with excellent results; already as a student he published scientific papers and did research at the Observatory of the Konkoly-Thege Foundation. From 1951 he worked at the Astronomical Research Institute. Combining his knowledge of mathematics, physics and astronomy, he soon turned to problems of celestial mechanics. He was occupied with the mathematical analysis of rocket trajectories and with theoretical and practical questions of artificial satellites. As this was not possible in Hungary in the 1950s, he left for the West through Austria during the 1956 revolution. For a while he worked at the Zurich observatory, but in 1958 he already received a job offer in America. In Cincinnati he was able to work on the theory of the motion of artificial satellites and published papers in English. In 1959 he was already working at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, the centre for processing incoming satellite observations in the United States. After numerous papers, in 1961 he announced his calculations for the precise determination of the shape of the Earth and of the positions of points on its surface, which made his name world-famous. (From photographs of artificial satellites he calculated that the Earth is not spherical but bulges by 1400 feet along a line from the middle of the South Atlantic to Brazil, from the Admiralty Islands to Australia, and at points between Southern California and Iran.) He worked, wrote and lectured a great deal. He was a department head at NASA and taught at Harvard University. On 21 April 1965 he travelled to a satellite geodesy symposium in Paris, where he suffered a heart attack on 21 April 1965. His grave is in Cambridge. There is a memorial plaque on his house in Zalaegerszeg, and since 1994 a primary school in his home town has borne his name.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)

Theodore von Kármán
(1881–1963)
His research in aerodynamics and rocket technology is known worldwide. In 1944 he founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was also its first director. He was the founder and first president of the International Academy of Astronautics; craters on the Moon and on Mars bear his name.
Source: Katalin Pribusz: Space Research on the Internet (in Hungarian)
 

Miklós Konkoly-Thege
He was born in Budapest on 20 January 1842. In 1864 he passed the examinations for ship's captain and marine engineer.
In 1871 he established an observatory on his estate in Ógyalla (Hurbanovo), which he equipped partly with modern instruments of his own making. In 1898 he handed over his estates and the observatory to the Hungarian state, with the request that he should remain director of the institute.
His scientific work belongs primarily to astrophysics. By the end of 1913 he had measured the spectra of 29 comets. He also made regular meteor observations and sunspot observations, and was among the first to observe meteor spectra. In 1876 he took part in the preparation of a spectral catalogue of the sky, and later extended the Potsdam catalogue of stellar spectra to the zone south of the celestial equator. He was highly skilled in astronomical instrumentation. His book Praktische Anleitung zur Anstellung astronomischer Beobachtungen (1883) was for a long time the generally used handbook in the field. He summarised his observations in 16 volumes. He worked extensively on photography and in 1891 wrote a book entitled Bevezetés a fotográfiába (Introduction to Photography). In 1890 he was also entrusted with the direction of the National Institute of Meteorology and Earth Magnetism. The large-scale development of the Hungarian meteorological service is associated with his name.
In 1875 he was elected corresponding member, and in 1884 honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He retired in 1911, but continued his astronomical observations until his death in 1916. The observatory on Szabadság-hegy bears his name.
Konkoly was an excellent instrument designer and played an important role in the development of modern spectroscopes. He also constructed numerous astronomical photographic devices. In 1887 he wrote the first handbook of astrography.
He died in Budapest on 17 February 1916.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)
 

György Kulin
He was born in Nagyszalonta (Salonta) on 28 January 1905. He obtained a teaching degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Budapest in 1932, after which he was unemployed for years. In 1935 he joined the Svábhegy Observatory, first working in the time service and then on minor-planet research and orbit calculation. He also discovered two comets.
In 1943 he organised the amateur astronomy section of the Society for Natural Sciences. After the Second World War he founded the Hungarian Astronomical Association. He became head of Uránia, the first public observatory, established in 1947. Scientists, writers and artists took part in the events held at Uránia.
In 1949–53 he was a teacher in Újpest. While teaching he learned the practical skills of optics. From 1953 until his retirement he was director of Uránia. In 1954 he established the optical and telescope-making workshop of Uránia, where tens of thousands of telescopes and telescope optics were made under his direction. He was in constant correspondence with amateur astronomers. The public observatories in the countryside were founded on his initiative. In 1963 he founded the Friends of Astronomy Circle. Until his death he was a member of the editorial board of the journal Élet és Tudomány. He wrote countless popular-science and encyclopaedia articles. Together with Gedeon Róka he edited the Csillagászati Kisenciklopédia (Small Encyclopaedia of Astronomy), published in 1969. He wrote science-fiction novels under the pen name Qu. G. Lynn. In 1973 he received the SZOT Prize.
He died in Budapest on 22 April 1989.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)

Károly Lassovszky
(Gyetva, 23 March 1897 – Boston, 20 December 1961) Astronomer, Candidate of Physical Sciences.
He was assistant at the Astronomical Institute of Pázmány Péter University, then senior assistant at the Astrophysical Observatory, and its director in 1938–43. He was the founder (1939) and first editor-in-chief of Csillagászati Lapok. During his study trips abroad he became acquainted with modern practical methods, and therefore promoted photometry at the Budapest Observatory as well. He worked mainly on the observation of variable stars. In 1943–49 he was head of the university department. He also took part in the gravity research of the Loránd Eötvös Geophysical Institute. From 1956, as a staff member of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, he worked on the computer-based position determination of satellites.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)
 

Miklós Marik

He was born into a family of engineers in Budapest on 28 May 1936. He attended the Ferenc Toldy Grammar School in Buda. His uncle – István Gumann – was a research fellow at the Svábhegy Observatory; he introduced him to the beauty of astronomy and the romance of observing. He finished secondary school with excellent results in 1954 and applied to study physics at ELTE. Because of his family background he was redirected to the mathematics–physics teacher programme, and so in 1958 he received a teaching degree in mathematics and physics. In 1957 and 1958, as a demonstrator, he gave the introductory astronomy lectures at the Department.
In 1959 he was appointed assistant lecturer at the Department of Astronomy of ELTE. From the autumn of 1962 he worked as a doctoral student at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute of Lomonosov University in Moscow. In 1966 he defended his candidate's dissertation in Moscow, entitled "Heating of the chromosphere above sunspots by magnetohydrodynamic waves".
Besides heading the Department of Astronomy (from 1990 until his death), he organised science mainly within the Astronomical Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, of which he was a member continuously from 1970. Between 1970 and 1976 and between 1990 and 1993 he was also secretary of the Astronomical Committee, and in this capacity regularly took part in the work of the then Section III of the Academy.
In 1995 the Minister of Culture and Education awarded him the Memorial Plaque for Hungarian Higher Education, and in 1996 the Faculty Council of ELTE Faculty of Science gave him the title Excellent Teacher of the Faculty. The certificate he received for his excellent lecture in the Gólyavár Evenings series in the Trefort Garden, and the Aranyköpet '96 ("Golden Quip '96") award he won as the most quoted lecturer in the Mondok egy… ("Let me tell you…") column of the student paper Nyúz, further refine the picture of a man who truly regarded teaching and education as his life's vocation.
He was also very active in the field of scientific qualification. From the mid-1960s there was hardly any astronomical doctoral, candidate's or university doctoral defence in which he did not take part as an opponent or member of the examining committee.
He also carried out very wide-ranging popular-science activity, as shown by many articles, a whole series of books and an almost countless number of lectures and radio and TV appearances. For six years he was vice-president of the Astronomy Group of the Roland Eötvös Physical Society, and from 1968 he was continuously president of the Astronomy and Space Research Section of the Budapest branch of TIT (today the Budapest Society for Popular Science).
He died tragically and suddenly on 23 June 1998, in the 63rd year of his life.
The minor planet 1940 AB, discovered by Kulin, is waiting to be named after Professor Marik.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)
 

Károly Móra
He was born on 30 September 1899 in Sternberg, Moravia (as Moravecz). He was a student of Radó Kövesligethy at the University of Budapest. From 1924 he was assistant lecturer at the Department of Cosmography; in 1931–32 he worked at the Leipzig observatory, then in Hamburg and Heidelberg. In 1932 he received his doctorate in astronomy, physics and mathematics. His doctoral thesis was published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1933 he joined the Astrophysical Observatory, and after the retirement of director Antal Tass in 1935 he was entrusted with the direction of the Svábhegy Observatory. For two semesters he was deputy professor of astronomy at the University of Budapest.
His more notable papers dealt with RV Tauri type variable stars, the positions and proper motions of the stars of M67, and the motion of minor planets. He wrote several chapters of the publication A csillagos ég (The Starry Sky), published by the Society for Natural Sciences.
He died in Budapest on 29 March 1938.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)

Hermann Oberth
(1894–1989)
Hermann Oberth, born in Nagyszeben (Sibiu), was the only one of the pioneers of space research who lived to see his dreams come true. The theory of modern rocket technology was worked out by Oberth, although the Russian Tsiolkovsky and the American Goddard arrived at similar results independently of him.
Source: Katalin Pribusz: Space Research on the Internet (in Hungarian)
 

Gedeon Róka
He was born in Budapest on 7 May 1906. At the age of three he contracted polio and walked with a leg brace for the rest of his life. He studied physics and chemistry at the University of Budapest and graduated in 1929. For years he lived on casual work, then became an official in the accounts office of the kindergarten department of the Ministry of Education. After 1945 he worked at the Ministry of Public Welfare.
From 1945 he took part in popularising astronomy as vice-president of the Hungarian Astronomical Association. From 1951 he was secretary of the astronomy section of the Society for Natural Sciences, and afterwards, until his death, secretary of the Astronomy and Space Research Board of the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge (TIT). For a long time he edited the Csillagászati Évkönyv (Astronomical Yearbook). He organised astronomy lectures and trained lecturers. He launched the annual Astronomy Week. Many of his articles appeared in Csillagászati Évkönyv, Föld és Ég, Természettudományi Közlöny, Népszabadság and Világosság. He was a member of the editorial boards of Föld és Ég and Világosság. He also headed the natural science editorial office of Gondolat Publishing House.
He died in Budapest on 5 October 1974.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)

Lipót Schulhof
(1847–1921) One of the most important computing astronomers of the last quarter of the 19th century and the years around the turn of the century.
He studied in Baja between 1858 and 1866. After his school-leaving examination he continued his university studies in Vienna and Paris. In 1870 he became assistant at the Vienna University Observatory.
He worked mainly on theoretical calculations, especially the calculation of the orbital periods of planets around the Sun.
On 27 November 1872 he came home to visit relatives. At home he observed the famous "star shower", when several thousand meteors fell within a few hours. With the help of the Austrian E. Weiss he showed that recurring meteor showers originate from the disintegration of comets.
On 11 July 1875, working at the Vienna Observatory, he discovered a new minor planet, which was named Protogeneia. In 1878 he won the Academy's Vaillart Prize of 400 gold francs in Paris for his paper on perturbations in the motion of minor planets. He also succeeded in rediscovering three minor planets (Maja, Camilla, Liberatrix).
His homeland also honoured the excellent scientist: in 1878 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)
 

Béla Szentmártoni
Béla Szentmártoni was born on 6 February 1931 in Hencse. He was interested in astronomy from his early youth. In early 1956 he came to Budapest for a company training course. At that time he was mainly interested in telescope optics. In Budapest he learned the method of making telescope mirrors personally from György Kulin. After returning home he continued making mirrors. He was the first in Hungary to try making fast (short focal ratio) telescopes at home. After a description published in Föld és Ég in 1967, very many people asked him to make fast mirrors.
From 1955 he regularly followed the articles of Sky and Telescope. He began corresponding with R. E. Cox, then editor of the telescope-making column. As a result, a short piece by him and a photograph of his 15 cm RFT (rich-field telescope) appeared in the August 1967 issue of the magazine. This led directly to contacts with the Webb Society, ALPO and other foreign organisations. In 1986 the British BAA published the AAK deep-sky object catalogue compiled by Béla Szentmártoni. For years the astronomer David Allen wrote a series of articles especially for Albireo about his observations with large telescopes.
In 1971 he collected the observations of the Kaposvár amateurs in a typewritten booklet called Albireo. This was the forerunner of the magazine. Meanwhile, TIT made it possible to found a club and to publish Albireo regularly every month. In the 1970s Albireo became the leading publication of Hungarian amateur astronomy, and its great founder and developer.
More than a decade is a very long time, and Béla grew tired of all the typing, binding and posting of the magazine. Giving up active editorial work, he wanted to organise the huge amount of observational material that had accumulated. Unfortunately his eyes became seriously ill, and he recovered only slowly. This was also why he retired early in 1987. In his last months he was hopeful about the improvement of his health, but he could not realise his plans. On the night of 28 May 1988 his heart failed.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)
 

László Weinek
He was born in Buda into a German-speaking bourgeois family on 13 February 1848. With a scholarship from József Eötvös he began his higher studies in Vienna in 1865, where he studied physics, mathematics and astronomy and worked a great deal with photography. In 1869/70 he was a tutor in Gödöllő; from 1870, with a Hungarian scholarship, he continued his studies in Berlin and Leipzig, and in 1873 he was elected to the Preparatory Committee of the German Empire's Venus transit expedition. There he studied the errors of photographic measurements and the distortions of photographic plates; in recognition of this research he was elected member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1877. He took part in the work of the Venus transit observing team sent to the Kerguelen Islands (1874), as head of the photographic programme and deputy leader. As he could not find a position in Hungary worthy of his talent, in 1875 he became observer at the Leipzig observatory, and in 1883 he accepted the invitation of the Department of Astronomy of Charles University in Prague.
He first did pioneering work in identifying the errors of photometric astrometry; in Prague he began observing the Moon and made detailed and accurate drawings of the lunar surface. He developed a method of lunar mapping that combined lunar photographs and drawings, and in 1897 he published his large lunar atlas. In Prague he started measuring the variation of latitude (1889).
To the end of his life he considered himself Hungarian, and wrote several articles for Természettudományi Közlöny.
He died in Prague on 14 November 1913.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)

Franz Xaver von Zach
A German astronomer of Hungarian origin. He was born in Pest, the son of a German army doctor, on 2 June 1754. He studied in Pozsony (Bratislava) and then in Vienna, and was an officer of the engineering corps of the imperial army, where he worked on mathematics and cartography. He soon left the army and became a private tutor in London in the house of Count Brühl, the Saxon envoy, where he began to study astronomy. On the recommendation of the Saxon envoy, in 1786 he became chamberlain to Duke Ernest of Saxe-Gotha and at the same time director of the Gotha observatory.
Zach was above all an excellent organiser; he recognised that large-scale astronomical work could only be carried out through international cooperation. To this end he launched an international astronomical and geodetic journal in 1798. In the same year he convened in Gotha the first astronomical conference that was international in its aims as well.
As an observer he excelled mainly in determining geographical positions. He developed the gunpowder-signal method of measuring geographical longitude. He published several corrected and improved astronomical tables (of the positions of the Sun, the Moon and the planets); he had great merit in processing and publishing the data of the discovery of the first minor planet, and was among the first to draw attention to the importance of variable-star observations. Although he did not speak Hungarian, to the end of his life he called himself a "true Hungarian knight"; he did a great deal to promote astronomy in Hungary and to make its results widely known. He published several accurate and detailed lists of coordinates of the more important settlements of Hungary. He was one of the first "foreign" members of the Learned Society (the Hungarian Academy of Sciences).
He died in Paris on 2 September 1832.
Source: Gyula Nyerges's website (in Hungarian)