We'll continue our walk around the complex of Pulkovskaya observatory
A conference hall
I should note that excursions are organized (but only in the main building where the museum is)
Nowadays observations are not carried out because of Pushkin and St. Petersburg illumination. Apart from that there were some rumors about a mobile base station built nearby in spite of all prohibitions.
It's also sad that due to break-up of the USSR all affiliated societies of Pulkovskaya observatory, especially southern ones, were lost for Russia
Although in all pictures you can see trees covered with snow, it was a mere luck. At the end of our walk it was raining.
No wonder, it's a typical St Petersburg winter :)
The western dome with the library (where a fire was not long ago) and the director's office (?).
A high-powered air-conditioner :)
A solar- telescope
It might be the first radio-telescope in the USSR (1,5 meter in diameter)
The Large Pulkovskii Radio-telescope (LPR)
The one, at the bottom of the picture, that looks like a stripe
LPR is the first telescope in the world that has a variable type antenna
I don't know what this round mirror for. It might be an old radio-telescope.
A mirror of the Large Pulkovskii Radio-telescope (a 120 meter one). It consists of 90 flat catoptric panels, each is 3x1,5 meters. They can turn
Pulkovskii meridian runs here. It also runs almost along the axis of the Pullkovskii highway
Longitudes on maps of Russia used to be counted from the point in the center of a round hall in the main building (a point of a triangulation). The Pulkovskii meridian goes across this point
These domes make the whole complex very expressive, don't they?
"Minor basis
A--B
of Pulkovskaya geodesic school
1856-1929
Center B
rebuilt in 1989
to 150th anniversary of the opening of the Pulkovskaya observatory
protected by the State"
It is said that there used to be a Major basis but it was stolen
By the way a writer Boris Strugatskii was a research officer of the Pulkovskaya observatory
They look like mushrooms :)
"A normal astrograph" is in the nearest one. It's a combination of two 9-inch telescopes (a photographic and a visual ones) installed in one pipe. It used to be in the main building but after the war, approximately in 1948, it was transferred in a separate hall
Apart from scientific buildings the complex contains houses of research officers
Most of them were built after the war by the German prisoners of war.
It also contains a hotel for 50 people
The tablet seems to remain since those times
("The house of the exemplary maintenance")
It's very hard to carry researches living in such houses with frequent blackouts and the water being cut off
The inscription above the entrance says:
"7-Pulkovo National Astronomic Observatory of USSR Scientisic Academy"
The leaves were simply late tot fall down
That's all
These are some links to information and pictures of Pulkovskaya observatory (in Russian): [1]
, [2],
[3]
