| Petr Horálek | |
| Birth Date: | 21 July 1986 |
| Birth Place: | Pardubice, Czech Republic |
| Nationality: | Czech |
| Known For: | Astrophotographer |
Petr Horálek (born July 21, 1986) is a Czech astrophotographer, popularizer of astronomy and an artist.
He worked as a volunteer of the Pardubice observatory in 1999–2010 and studied Theoretical physics and Astrophysics at the Masaryk University in Brno (2007–2011). During this period, in 2011, he started with astrophotography.[1]
Petr specializes in photographing "rare night-sky phenomena" and TWAN style photographs with the night sky over known foreground. His images capture unique moments and views in the sky to show the importance of the fight against the global light pollution problem.[2]
However, those distant places were over his financial capacities due to medium GDP of his native country so in 2014, he bought Working holiday visa and travelled to New Zealand. Working on fruit orchards for 4 months, he was able to earn enough money for his only goal: to travel to the Cook Islands and to capture (probably) historically the first nightscape photograph with the Milky Way over the popular Aitutaki Island.[3]
In January 2015, Petr Horálek became the 22nd Photo Ambassador[4] of the European Southern Observatory. He focuses mostly on Ultra-hd fulldome and panoramatic images of the night sky over ESO observatories, which can be freely used in digital planetariums. With this work, he participates on the program of ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre.
As astrophotographer he cooperates with NSF's NOIRLab organization,[5] [6] where he participated on virtual tour[7] of all of NOIRLab sites (Kitt Peak National Observatory, Gemini Observatory, Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory). He is the Czech delegate of the International Dark Sky Association and active TWAN guess photographer.[8] Since 2020 he works in Institute of Physics in Opava.[9]
Several of his images had scientific impact. Here are some examples:
Images of Petr Horálek were chosen 40 times[18] as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, ESO Picture of the Week[19] and Czech Astrophotography of the Month.[20] In October 2015 the International Astronomical Union named the asteroid (6822) 1986 UO after him (see Asteroid 6822 Horálek).
Asteroid 6822 Horálek or (6822) 1986 UO was discovered by Zdeňka Vavrová on October 28, 1986, at Kleť Observatory, the Czech Republic. It is about 5 km wide asteroid orbiting the Sun in the Main asteroid belt with perihelion at 1.943 AU and aphelion 3.235 AU from the Sun[21]
Petr Horálek (b. 1986) is a Czech astronomer, astronomy popularizer, passionate photographer, and one of the ESO Photo Ambassadors. He travels the globe to observe solar and lunar eclipses. His breathtaking photographs capture the beauty of the night sky and its harmony with the landscape. [Ref: ''Minor Planet Circ.'' 95803]
Petr Horálek is also an artist. He focuses on sketches, especially female portraits and emotional sketches[22]