Petr Horálek

Horálek specializes in photographing rare night-sky phenomena and photographs with the night sky over terrestrial foregrounds. In January 2015, he became the 22nd Photo Ambassador of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). He focuses mostly on high-definition fulldome and panoramic images of the night sky over ESO observatories. Horálek is the Czech delegate of the International Dark Sky Association. Since 2020 he has worked at the Institute of Physics in Opava. In 2012, he recorded a bright Perseid fireball on August 12, 2012, which was analyzed by P. Spurný at al. in a study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics magazine. In 2016, he took images of the zodiacal light over the ESO La Silla Observatory which revealed structures in the zodiacal band. His image was published in the ESO Messenger 164 (June 2016) as well as the ESO Picture of the Week

Horálek's images have been used 40 times as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, ESO Picture of the Week, and Czech Astrophotography of the Month. In October 2015 the International Astronomical Union named the asteroid (6822) 1986 UO after him with the permanent designation 6822 Horálek.