Aleksandar Kubičcela (1930-2017) - An Astrophysical Research Pioneer at the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade

Abstract

On January 20, 2017 Dr Aleksandar Kubičela, a doyen of astronomy in Serbia and one of the founders of astrophysical investigations at the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, passed away. Dr Aleksandar Kubičela (nickname Aks) was born on March 22, 1930 in Bela Crkva as the second child of father Djuro and mother Maria. He spent his childhood and finished his primary education in Bela Crkva (in 1941). After a break in education due to World War II, he finished high school (Gimnazija in Bela Crkva) on June 21, 1949, as an excellent student. He showed a great interest in astronomy and in the same year (1949), he moved to Belgrade, where he started to study astronomy (at the Faculty of Science of Belgrade University). However, his financial situation was very bad, and he had sought for a job (to finance his studies). Naturally, first he tried to find a job at the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade and asked the authorities of Belgrade Observatory for such an opportunity. From documents at the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade (Radovanac 2012) one can see that in the same year (1949) he was accepted upon his written request, to be employed at the Astronomical Observatory (as a student who is enrolled in the first year of the study of astronomy). He received a position of “Junior hydro-metheorogical technician” and started to work at the Observatory as well to study astronomy at the Faculty of Science of Belgrade University. In 1952, he received a position as “Hydrogeological technician”. From the archive of the Astronomical Observatory, it can be seen that he enlisted military service from September 1957 until November 1958, he again started to work at the Astronomical Observatory from November 15, 1958 as the “Technical staff” of the Observatory (Document 919/1 of the Astronomical Observatory issued on November 15, 1958), but now as a member of the Division for Solar activity. From the document (issued in 1960) about the work validation of the Astronomical Observatory staff (filled by A. Kubičela), it can be seen that he was involved in observations of variable stars, Sun