Research Institute of Astronomy

Web site: http://astron.kharkov.ua/

The Research Institute of Astronomy at Kharkiv National University was organized in January, 2002, on the basis of the Astronomic Observatory founded in 1808. Today it is a leading Ukrainian astronomical center for fundamental and applied research in the physics of the Sun, the Moon, planets, satellites, asteroids, comets, fundamental astrometry and stellar astronomy; and development of methods for increasing angular resolution in astronomical observations. The Institute is an international station of the Sun Service, and since 1933 the observatory of the Institute has been conducting systematic observations and research within the State Time Service project.

The Institute has an observation station in the rural area and a library. It is equipped with a 70-cm reflector telescope, a Repsold meridian circle, a spectroheliograph, a meridian transit instrument, a 20-cm Zeiss refractor, a 27-cm reflector, a coherent optical image processor that is entered in the State List of Scientific Objects that constitute the National Wealth of Ukraine, and other optical equipment.

The Institute provides facilities for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate student training in Astronomy.

The Institute’s research staff, together with the University Department of Astronomy, includes 5 doctors and 22 candidates of sciences, 4 of which are laureates of the State Award of Ukraine and 4 are laureates of the M.P. Barabashov Award of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences. 22 objects of the Solar System (Lunar, Martian, Venusian craters and 12 minor planets) have been named after Kharkiv’s astronomers and graduates of the University Department of Astronomy.

Among the Institute’s research staff are members of the International Astronomical Union and the European Astronomical Society. Research is conducted in close cooperation with US, German, Italian, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, and Russian scientists.