Antonín Bečvář, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Antonín Bečvář

Czech astronomist

Date of Birth: 10-Jun-1901

Place of Birth: Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav, Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republic

Date of Death: 10-Jan-1965

Profession: astronomer

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Antonín Becvár (Czech pronunciation: ['anto?i?n 'b?t?va?r?°]; 10 June 1901 – 10 January 1965) was a Czech astronomer who was active in Slovakia.
He was born (and died) in Stará Boleslav.
Among his chief achievements is the foundation of the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory and the discovery of the comet C/1947 F2 (Becvár) (also known by the designations 1947 III and 1947c).
His lifelong illness led him to the High Tatras where he founded the observatory.Becvár is particularly important for his star charts: he led the compilation of the Atlas Coeli Skalnate Pleso (1951), published by Sky Publishing Corporation as the Skalnate Pleso Atlas of the Heavens, which was the state-of-the-art atlas of its kind until Wil Tirion's "Sky Atlas 2000.0" in 1981.
A dozen star names in the atlas are of unknown origin,, no connection to any language or previous source has been discovered despite an extensive search.He also compiled Atlas eclipticalis, 1950.0 (1958), Atlas borealis 1950.0 (1962), and Atlas australis 1950.0 (1964). The asteroid 4567 Becvár and the crater Becvár on the Moon were named in his honour.
American Avant-garde composer John Cage used Becvár's star charts as the basis of several works: Atlas Eclipticalis (1961–62), Etudes Australes (1974–75), Etudes Boreales (1978) and Freeman Etudes (1977–80, 1989–90).