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The subject index / Pulkovo Observatory

Pulkovo Observatory


Categories / Science. Education/Science and Planning Institutions

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.

Persons
Backlund Oskar Andreevich
Belopolsky Aristarkh Apollonovich
Bryullov Boris Pavlovich
Kostinsky Sergey Konstantinovich
Kozlov Peter Kuzmich
Lishev Vsevolod Vsevolodovich
Neuymin Grigory Nikolaevich
Shchusev Alexey Viktorovich
Struve Vasily Yakovlevich

Addresses
Pulkovskoe Freeway/Saint Petersburg, city, house 65/1

Bibliographies
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 её вклад в мировую науку / В. В. Абалакин и др. // Петербургская Академия наук в истории академий мира: Материалы междунар. конф.. СПб., 1999

Chronograph
1839
1954


1839

5 August. M.Y. Lermontov wrote the poem "Mtsiri" in Tsarskoye Selo. The Pulkovo Main Physics Observatory was founded. Dr F.F. Zhukovsko-Volynsky, the future honoray citizen of Tsarskoye Selo
Source: Tsarskoe Selo

Bryullov A.P. (1798-1877), architect

BRYULLOV Alexander Pavlovich (1798 - 1877, St. Petersburg), architect, aquarellist, architecture theorist, specialist in construction technique. Brother of K. P. Bryullov

Delisle J.N., (1688-1768), astronomer

DELISLE Josephe Nicolas (Osip Nikolaevich) (1688-1768), French astronomer, Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Foreign Honorary Member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Lived in St. Petersburg from 1725

Kaplan Anatoly Lvovich (1903-1980), artist

KAPLAN Anatoly Lvovich (1903-1980, Leningrad), graphic artist. From 1922 he lived in St. Petersburg (Leningrad), and studied in the Academy of Arts (1922-27) under Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin and Arkady Rylov and in the experimental lithographic workshop of

Linnik V.P., (1889-1984), mathematician

LINNIK Vladimir Pavlovich (1889-1984, Leningrad), physicist, Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939), Hero of Socialist Labor (1969). Graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the University of Kiev

LOMO

LOMO (20 Chugunnaya Street), the largest Russian manufacturer and seller of optomechanical and optoelectronic devices. The Company began as the first Russian optomechanical plant founded by the Russian Joint-Stock Company of Optical and Mechanical

Moskovsky District

MOSKOVSKY DISTRICT is an administrative territorial unit of St. Petersburg. (Its territory administration is located at 129 Moskovsky Avenue) It was founded in 1919, and its present-day borders were established in 1965

Pulkovo area

PULKOVO, an area in the south of St. Petersburg, at the junction of Kievskoe Freeway and the road from the town of Pushkin. It is located on Pulkovo heights. Since the 15th century

Pulkovo Meridian

PULKOVO MERIDIAN, a conventional line passing from the north to the south of St. Petersburg through the telescope of the Central Pulkovo Observatory Building. it deviates 30 degrees and 19

Pulkovskiye Heights

PULKOVSKIYE HEIGHTS, a natural prominence to the south of St. Petersburg, which received its name from the village of Pulkovo that once existed in the vicinity

Pulkovskoe Freeway

PULKOVSKOE FREEWAY (until 1974, Kievskoe Freeway), from Pobedy Square to the city boundary, forms a continuation of Moskovsky Avenue, goes along the line of Pulkovsky meridian and closes on the dome of the Pulkovo Observatory

Struve V.Y., (1793-1863), astronomer

STRUVE Vasily Yakovlevich (Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von) (1793-1864, St. Petersburg), astronomer and land-surveyor, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1832). A native from Germany, he graduated from the University of Derpt in 1810

Uvarov S.S. (1786-1855), statesman

UVAROV Sergey Semenovich (1786, St. Petersburg (?) - 1855), Count (1846), statesman, Full Privy Councilor (1838), senator, Member of State Assembly (1826), Fellow of the Russian Academy (1831). Educated at home