Kopal, Zdenek

▪ 1994

      Czech-born astronomer (b. April 4, 1914, Litomysl, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary—d. June 23, 1993, Wilmslow, Cheshire, England), directed an international project, financed by the U.S. Air Force, to photograph and map the entire surface of the Moon by using the refracting telescope at the Pic du Midi Observatory in southern France. He also made important discoveries concerning the transfer of matter between close binary stars. Kopal matriculated at Charles University in Prague (B.S., 1934; D.Sc., 1937) and received fellowships to the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He taught astronomy at Harvard (1940-48) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1947-51). In 1951 he was invited to England to head the new astronomy department at the University of Manchester. In 1958 Kopal took charge of the lunar mapping project, which increased scientific understanding of the Moon and paved the way for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Apollo lunar missions. He also worked as a special consultant to NASA, the U.S. Army, the space science division of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and private industry. Kopal was founding editor of three journals—Icarus, Astrophysics and Space Science, and Moon (later renamed Earth, Moon and Planets). His published works include Numerical Analysis (1955), Close Binary Systems (1959), Physics and Astronomy of the Moon (1962), Mapping of the Moon (1974), Dynamics of Close Binary Systems (1978), and Mathematical Theory of Stellar Eclipses (1990). He retired from the University of Manchester in 1981.

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