SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE

The Astronomical Observatory in Belgrade, the unique professional astronomical observatory in Serbia, was founded in 1887, 120 years ago. This was an important moment in the history, not of astronomy only, but generally of studying natural and mathematical phenomena in Serbia. On the other hand, in Serbia, especially during recent years, an intensive activity in the field of history and epistemology of mathematical and natural sciences has been registered. This is the reason to organize a Scientific Meeting dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the Astronomical Observatory with a rather wide topic covering several related fields, such as

The reason why history of activities of Belgrade Observatory is listed as a separate topic is that, in addition to the main jubilee mentioned above, there are two minor ones: the 150th anniversary from the birth of Milan Nedeljković (1857-1950), its first Director and founder, and the 75th anniversary of building the Observatory facilities still in use. Though meetings devoted to the history of astronomy and related sciences are rather frequent in Serbia during recent time, the communications covering the history of astronomy in Serbia and the history of the Belgrade Observatory are this time specially encouraged. For the Observatory, itself, it is very important to collect as many as possible various documents which can recover some facts about its past preventing them from falling to oblivion.

Important jubilees in the beginning of this century (Einstein, Boltzmann) have indicated many problems concerning the epistemology and methodology of mathematics and natural sciences, which could be referred to as "eternal" and which also contribute to gathering of specialists in various fields encouraging multidisciplinary studies.

Serbia, due to her rather special geographical position, offers a lot of archaeological sites, known to have a special connexion to astronomy through treating various astronomical motifs on their monuments. For this reason, contributions concerning this problematics, no matter whether the sites are in Serbia or abroad, are welcome. Practically, the same is true for ethnoastronomy since it is useful in our understanding of the origins of astronomy as a scientific discipline.

Knowing that celestial bodies and phenomena have always excited human fancy we can understand easily the influence of astronomy in arts and generally in culture. In recent years the interest in this field has been strengthened very much. Therefore, any contributions of such kind are welcome also.

Astronomska opservatorija u Beogradu, jedina profesionalna astronomska opservatorija u Srbiji, osnovana je 1887. godine, pre 120 godina. To je bio važan trenutak u istoriji, ne samo astronomije, nego i prirodno-matematickih nauka uopšte u Srbiji. S druge strane, u Srbiji, narocito tokom poslednjih godina, zapažena je intenzivna aktivnost na polju istorije i epistemologije prirodnih i matematickih nauka. Ovo je i razlog da se organizuje jedan naucni skup posvecen 120. godišnjici Astronomske opservatorije sa prilicno širokom problematikom koji pokriva više, sa njom povezanih, oblasti

Razlog zašto je istorija delatnosti Beogradske opservatorije navedena kao posebna tema je da, osim glavnog gorepomenutog jubileja, imamo još dva: 150. godišnjica rodenja Milana Nedeljkovica (1857-1950), prvog direktora i osnivaca Opservatorije, i 75 godina od izgradnje današnjeg opservatorijskog kompleksa. Premda su u poslednje vreme naucni skupovi posveceni istoriji astronomije i srodnih nauka dosta cesti u Srbiji, saopštenja koja se bave istorijom astronomije u Srbiji i prošlošcu Beogradske opservatorije su ovog puta posebno dobrodošla. Za samu Opservatoriju veoma je važno da se sakupi razlicita dokumentacija u što vecem obimu, što može da pomogne da se otrgnu od zaborava izvesne cinjenice o njenoj prošlosti.

Važni jubileji s pocetka ovog veka (Ajnštajnov, Bolcmanov) su ukazali na mnoge probleme u vezi sa epistemologijom i metodologijom matematike i prirodnih nauka za koje se može reci da su ,,vecni" i koji takode doprinose okupljanju strucnjaka iz razlicitih oblasti i time podsticu interdisciplinarna proucavanja.

Srbija, zahvaljujuci svojem specificnom geografskom položaju, poseduje mnoga arheološka nalazišta za koja se zna da imaju veze sa astronomijom zbog razlicitih astronomskih motiva na spomenicima. Iz ovog razloga, saopštenja iz ove problematike, bez obzira da li se nalazišta nalaze u Srbiji ili izvan nje, su dobrodošla. Prakticno isto važi i za etnoastronomiju jer je ona od koristi u razumevanju pocetaka astronomije kao naucne discipline.

Znajuci da su nebeska tela i nebeske pojave oduvek pobudivali ljudsku maštu možemo lako da shvatimo uticaj koji ima astronomija u umetnosti i šire u kulturi. Poslednjih godina interes u ovoj oblasti je vidno porastao. Stoga, saopštenja iz ove oblasti su takode dobrodošla.