A prominent statue of Johannes Kepler marks the center of the town square in Weil der Stadt, Germany.
The Carl Zeiss AG Optical Museum in Oberkochen, Germany, holds an early Newtonian reflector telescope among its numerous displays.
Three famous pioneers on display at the Carl Zeiss AG Optical Museum in Oberkochen, Germany: Ernst Abbe, Carl Zeiss, and Otto Schott.
The Carl Zeiss AG Optical Factory and Museum in Oberkochen.
In Old Town Prague, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler walked through this same ancient city gate still in use.
One of our guides in Prague to see numerous astronomical sites was Professor Martin Scholtz of the Astronomy Department of Charles University.
This plaque on a modest house in Prague’s Old Town marks the building where a young professor of physics, Albert Einstein, came to visit his friends (who included the writer Franz Kafka) often during his time in Prague.
Detail from the world-renown astronomical clock in Prague's Old Town, a device that shows numerous planetary alignments and which was built in 1410.
From inside the workings of Prague’s astronomical clock, you can look upward into the room that holds the clock’s celebrated figures, which make an appearance once each hour.
Prague's great astronomical clock is so old that it was old already when Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler stood underneath it and looked up in awe.
The Meridian in Prague's Old Town Square marks the position where the former Marian column used to cast its shadow at noon.
Near the center of Charles University stands a library building (beige color), the second floor of which hosted a famous lecture in 1842 — when Christian Doppler announced the effect he had discovered regarding the wavelength shifts of light.
A small apartment building housed Johannes Kepler in Prague in the early years of the 17th century; scholars don’t know exactly which apartment it was, but one of those at upper left in this building was it.
In Prague, Stefanik Observatory hosts regular gatherings of
astronomers and shares views of sky objects to numerous members of the public.
The primary telescope at Stefanik Observatory in Prague is a double refractor consisting of twin Zeiss instruments.
The main statue of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler in Prague stands close to the spot where each of the two lived in separate places at different times.
Our tour guide one day in Prague was Professor Vaclav Spicka, a theoretical physicist at the Institute of Physics in Prague.
Although it rained, the tour group enjoyed seeing Prague Castle, the most impressive structure in the city and home of Kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperors, and presidents of the Czech Republic.
St. Vitus Cathedral is the most magnificent structure in Prague Castle and was commenced in 1344.
St. Vitus Cathedral is the coronation place for many kings and the resting place for Bohemian greats, including King Wenceslas. It also contains the Czech Crown Jewels.
Nearby, the Czech President has offices in this building inside Prague Castle.
During World War II, Prague was ruled by the murderous Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, who occupied Prague Castle. On May 27, 1942, Heydrich was attacked and mortally wounded outside Prague by Czech partisans; he died several days later. The assassins were trapped inside the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague, where this bullet-scarred window opening shows evidence of the Nazi reprisal. Editor Dave Eicher here poses at the site.
The crypt in the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prague is where some of Reinhard Heydrich's assassins were cornered by Nazis and either killed or committed suicide.
Prague's magnificent astronomical clock at night.
The Wiener Riesenrad in Vienna, Austria, is one of the most famous tourist attractions in the city. Anyone who has seen the famous film noir movie The Third Man knows it well!
Roman ruins near Hofburg Palace in Vienna was discovered during excavations in 1995, and are under study by archaeologists.
The view from Upper Belvidere Palace to Lower Belvidere Palace in Vienna.
Astronomy magazine's tour group at the Urania Observatory in Vienna, October 28, 2011.
A Nakhla martian meteorite in the collection of the Natural History Museum, Vienna.
A superb slice of Esquel pallasite in the collection of the Natural History Museum, Vienna.
A beautiful polished chunk of Canyon Diablo meteorite in the collection of the Natural History Museum, Vienna.
The Führerbau in Munich; this innocuous building, now an art college, housed Adolf Hitler’s office and was the site of many famous scenes including the signing of the 1938 Munich Agreement with Neville Chamberlain and others.
At the Munich Mineralientage (Munich Mineral Show), the largest such gathering in the world, some 1,500 dealers present millions of minerals, gems, and rocks for collectors. Here Rob Lavinsky, a well-known dealer from the United States, shows his elite specimens.
One of the many pavilions holding dealers in the Munich Mineral Show.
One of American meteorite dealer Michael Farmer's Camel Donga specimen awaits a collector to give it a new home, Munich Mineral Show.
