Zdeněk Kopal (Czech pronunciation: [ˈzdɛɲɛk ˈkopal]; April 4, 1914 – June 23, 1993) was a Czech astronomer who mainly worked in England.
Kopal was born and grew up in Litomyšl (Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic). In his early astronomical career, he studied variable stars and in particular close eclipsing binary stars. He attended Cambridge University and later went to Harvard College Observatory not too long before the outbreak of World War II. After the war he became head of the astronomy department at the University of Manchester. He later assisted NASA with the Apollo program as an external expert.
He was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Astrophysics and Space Science since its foundation in 1968 until his death in 1993.
The asteroid 2628 Kopal was named in his honour.