Jan Hollan's Home Page

The author is a teacher of physics, especially astronomy. He works at the Nicholas Copernicus Observatory and Planetarium in Brno and teaches (see Astrofyzika) and Fyzikální pozorování) some hours a week students of the Didactics of Physics at the Faculty of Education of the Masaryk University in Brno and of Faculty of Creative Arts of the Technical University in Brno.

As a volunteer, he is a member of environmental organization Veronica (works in its Eco-counselling programme) and of the Society for Sustainable Living (leads its regional branch in Brno).

Both fields meet at the issue of light pollution. As a member of the International Dark-Sky Association, he recommends you to have a look at least at the Good Neighbor Outdoor Lighting brochure, or its Czech translation Dobré venkovní osvětlování.

The author offers four kinds of products (see ev. his ftp directory):

• computer programmes , mostly but not only astronomical ones
• astronomical data (catalogues used by the programmes, and a star atlas)
• papers on astronomical education and visual observation (mostly Czech)
• papers on environmental issues, especially on global warming and energy issues) (all in Czech).

Package of Programmes

The bulk of package has been written by Jan Hollan and his colleagues. It includes many astronomical and general purpose programmes and the needed units. The astronomical part covers most of my needs as an astronomy teacher. Written in Borland Turbo Pascal language. Source codes, instruction booklet, example configuration and batch files, needed LaTeX input. Included are standard PStools (not written at Brno Observatory!) for handling PostScript files. Just download pas_jh.zip.

In executable form (*.exe, for MS-DOS etc.,), the programmes from the package are available exe_jh.zip ( for PCs without co-processor) or exe87_jh.zip (for PCs with mathematical co-processor), but they should be downloaded only together with the pas_jh.zip.

Moreover, if you do not have a Borland compiler, you should download Borland Graphic Interfaces BGI.zip - these are needed by several programmes running in graphic mode. This zip file is a part of Borland Turbo Pascal, that needs not to be purchased. Buy the whole Turbo Pascal to be able to modify and compile the programmes youself.

One of the programmes is offered separately as well, as it is perhaps quite unique: the programme for constructing sundials.

Astronomical data:

• BSC5dbf.zip: The Bright Star Catalogue, 5-th preliminary edition, in the form of dBase files. Converted (reproducibly) from the NASA SAC CD-ROM, Vol. 3.
• mBSC5dbf.bat: The batch file to expand and prepare the above catalog for use.
• Binaries.zip: A dBase version of the Binorbit file from NASA SAC CD-ROM --- orbits of visual binary stars.
• GCVSred.zip: A dBase version of the General Catalogue of Variable Stars.
• OTP.zip: Tom Lorenzin's 1000+ database
• Litt_Atl.zip: A Little Star Atlas (sources of six maps in LaTeX and PostScript, a Czech catalogue and description), as published in the Czech astronomy textbook Bajecny svet hvezd (Wonderful World of Stars).
• Sol_Syst.zip: Examples of elements of orbits of some comets, as used by programme Posi.

Texts on astronomy, e.g.:

• Rady začínajícím pozorovatelům. In Czech, written together with Jiří Dušek. LaTeX, *.dvi, and *.ps (for inner and outer sides of a brochure) files for print, HTML for bad viewing, PDF for good viewing and print.
• A proposal of photometry and radiometry terminology in astronomy.
• ... and some more, mosty just in Czech. Please, do not print HTML files, use Acrobat (*.pdf) or PostScript verisons instead.

Texts on environmental issues:

• See Czech translation of the brochure Good Neighbor Outdoor Lighting (regards both environment in general and the dark moonless sky for astronomers).
• Review and errata (in Czech) of Czech translation of the book Faktor 4, mentioning the translations of the Beyond the limits and Das Niedrigenergiehaus books.

The author looks forward to hints from you.