Shamakhy Astrophysical Observatory is an observatory in the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan. It is named after Nasreddin Tusi . It is located on the eastern slope of Pirqulu, at an elevation of 1500 m. It has 150–200 clear, cloudless nights per year.
History
The Azerbaijani scientist Yusif Mammadaliyev played a significant role in the creation of the observatory. In 1991, the name of Nasraddin Tusi, a mathematician, physicist and astronomer of the Middle Ages, was adopted for the observatory. A settlement for employees was created below the observatory and was named after Mammadaliyev. The first director of the observatory was academician Hajibey Sultanov. During Sultanov's era, astrophysical observations were carried out intensively. In September 2008, the observatory underwent major repairs.
Telescopes
The observatory measured the light polarization of Comet d'Arrest during the Soviet period. Observations with the main instrument – a 2-meter reflecting telescope produced in Germany – started in 1966; at that time it was the first large telescope of the South Caucasus. In addition, the following instruments are employed in the observatory:
A chromospheric and photospheric AFR-2 telescope with dimensions of 20/13 cm, used for solar service
The AZT-8 reflector with a mirror diameter of 70 cm
The Carl Zeiss reflector, with a mirror diameter of 60 cm
A meniscus telescope of Maksutov's system, equipped with an objective prism, with an aperture diameter of 35 cm
A 90-cm AZT-15 Schmidt telescope installed in the observatory in 2013
Two-meter telescope and its devices
This telescope was installed by the German companyCarl Zeiss JENA at the following location:. The primary parabolic mirror has a diameter of 2080 mm and a focal length of 9000 mm. It combines three different optical systems:
Primary focusFocal length of the primary focus is 9360 mm with a focal ratio of F/4.5 and a plate scale of 23 "/mm. For photometric observations, the primary focus cassette has useful field 21′×21′ when using a field corrector. There is a spectrograph for primary focus with two diffraction gratings and three cameras, which are used to study faint celestial bodies.
Cassegrain focus The equivalent focal length of the Cassegrain focus is 29500 mm, it's focal ratio is F/14.5, and plate scale is 7 "/mm. For this focus, several devices can be used:
* 2x2 prism spectrographs having dispersions of 90 and 180 Å/mm, equipped with a CCD camera with a size of 1024×1536 pixels to obtain spectra of faint stars in gratings having dispersions of 29, 44, 86, and 196 Å/mm.
* Cassegrain Echelle spectrograph with 2 cameras with resolving powers of 1500 and 2500 and CCD cameras with 530×580 pixels.
* CCD camera with 3056×3056 pixels. This camera has a set of photometric filters.
Coude focus The Coude focus has the equivalent focal length of 72000 mm with a focal ratio of F/36 and plate scale 3 "/mm. Devices in Coude focus are:
* An echelle spectrograph with spectral resolution of 30000.
* A universal Coude echelle spectrograph with super high spectral resolution has three cameras, two Echelle gratings. The first Echelle grating of provides spectral resolutions of R=95000 and R=190000, while the second Echelle grating gives spectral resolution of R=260000 and R=530000 on a detector with 4000×4000 pixels.
Detectors
CCD camera with 530×580 pixels
CCD camera with 4000×4000 pixels
CCD camera with 3056×3056 pixels
CCD camera with 1024×1536 pixels
Zeiss-600 telescope
This was installed by the German company Carl Zeiss JENA in 1982. The diameter of the primary parabolic mirror is 600 mm and the focal length is 2400 mm; the focal length of the Cassegrain configuration is 755 mm. The plate scale in the Cassegrain focus is 28 "/mm. For a long time, observations were conducted with a photoelectric photometer. A CCD camera with thermoelectric cooling from the company FLI is used as a detector, that camera has 4000x4000 pixels.
AZT-8 telescope
This telescope was installed in 1970. It requires modernization.
AST-452 meniscus telescope
This telescope was installed in 1964. It requires modernization.
Azimuth Coelostat Plant ASQ-5 (Horizontal solar telescope)
This telescope was installed in 1963. İt requires modernization.
AFR-3 Chromosphere photospheric telescope
This telescope was installed in 1957. It requires modernization.
Other devices
B-240 vacuum unit It was obtained in 1986 from Germany to aluminise the surface of astronomical mirrors.
The Shamakhy Astrophysical Observatory Scientific Library was created at the same time as the observatory. It consists of two major halls. The reading room was organized in the first hall. There is an exhibition of new books, periodicals, magazines, and encyclopedias. In the second large hall, literature in Russian and other foreign languages is systematically placed. It has more than 14,000 books, more than 2500 magazines, 5 newspapers, ancient and rare editions, manuscripts, field dictionaries and encyclopedias, reference journals and other special scientific and technical literature. The library carries out the international exchange of books in more than 25 countries, exhibitions, etc., and is closely involved in organizing events. The library plays an important role in the field of astrophysics and astronomy, as well as in publishing publications and electronic editions.
Directors of the observatory
Foreign cooperation
Cooperation between Baku State University and Shamakhy Astrophysical Observatory began on April 6, 2017, with the establishment of an Astrophysics chair of Baku State University at Shamakhy Astrophysical Observatory and an agreement was signed establishing a branch of the Astrophysics Department of BSU in the observatory. The document was signed by the rector of Baku State University, academician Abel Maharramov, and the director of the observatory, Namig Jalilov. According to the relevant contract, in October 2018, the Branch of the Astrophysics Department of Physics Faculty of BSU has opened its branch in the observatory. Many employees had been elected members of the International Astronomical Union, the European Astronomical Society, and the Eurasian Astronomical Union. The Observatory is also a member of the International Astronautics Union. The staff of the observatory works together with foreign astronomers on a number of issues. During the existence of the observatory, its staff published more than 2,500 articles in foreign and local journals.The solar physics and solar-earth problems have involved close cooperation with researchers in Russia, Germany, Israel, Bulgaria, and Georgia and different astronomical organizations of other countries. Star physics research is being carried out with Russian Observatory staff. The mobile station of Stanford University operates in the observatory. Students and practitioners from many foreign countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Turkey come to the Observatory to learn how to use the telescope. Many of the results obtained in the observatory have been cited by world academics.
