Pulkovo Observatory :: ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SAINT PETERSBURG

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Pulkovo Observatory

PULKOVO OBSERVATORY, the main astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, situated at 1/65 Pulkovo Highway 19 kilometres south of St. Petersburg’s centre, on Pulkovo Heights. It was built by architect A. P. Bryullov and opened in 1839, Pulkovo meridian passing through the centre of the main building. The founder and first director was V. Y. Struve. The observatory was equipped with state-of-the-art tools. Its major activities included locating stars and astronomical constants, observing double stars, studying the geography of Russia, and developing navigation techniques. The observatory started transmitting wireless precise time signals in 1920. It was completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. Reconstruction started in 1946 by architect A. V. Shchusev et al., the observatory was restored and largely expanded in terms of equipment, staff, and activities in 1954, with the Kislovodsk Mountain Space Station as a branch from 1948. The observatory is now engaged in celestial mechanics and stellar dynamics, astrometry, the Sun and solar-terrestrial relationship, stellar physics and evolution, radio astronomy, geodynamics, and equipment and techniques for space monitoring. The observatory has been publishing News since 1905, Proceedings since 1869, Solar Data Bulletin since 1954, and Astronomical Calendar since 2002. There is an astronomer’s club on the Eastern slope of the Pulkovo Hill where O. A. Backlund, A. A. Belopolsky, S. K. Kostinsky, G. N. Neuymin, and Struve were buried. On the northern slope, there is a common grave of guardsmen who died in January 1944 when lifting the siege of Leningrad, as well as a memorial built by architect P. F. Kozlov and sculptor V. V. Lishev at the Pulkovo Military Cemetery in 1979.

References: Витинский Ю. И. Главная астрономическая обсерватория Академии наук СССР в Пулкове. Л., 1981; 150 лет Пулковской обсерватории. Л., 1989; Главная (Пулковская) астрономическая обсерватория Российской Академии наук и ее вклад в мировую науку / В. В. Абалакин и др. // Петербургская Академия наук в истории академий мира: Материалы междунар. конф. СПб., 1999. Т. 1. С. 39-58.

O. N. Ansberg.