The Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory (TSHAO, TSAO, or Tien Shan Observatory; obs. code: N42) is an astronomical observatory located in the Tien Shan Mountains at altitude, 30 kilometers south of the city of Almaty in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. It was assigned to the Sternberg Astronomical Institute (GAISh) until the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. The observatory is a state-owned scientific institution that belongs to the Astrophysical Institute after V.G. Fesenkov. It is often used for photometric investigations of variable stars in the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

, eclipsing systems.

History

The Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory was founded in 1957. It is located in the mountains of Tien Shan at an altitude of above sea level, near Big Almaty Lake, 30 km from Almaty city. The observatory has two 1-meter Ritchey–Chrétien telescopes in addition to a number of smaller telescopes. The biggest instrument, however, is a

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the r ...

. Between 1994 and 2008, the observatory formed part of the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute (Kazakhstan's major scientific organization for fundamental research in astronomy and astrophysics). Currently it forms part of Kazakhstan's National Center for Space Research and Technologies. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, none of the observatory's 1-meter telescopes were in working order on account of outdated equipment and lack of spare parts. In 2013 work was completed on the observatory's East 1-meter telescope, and in late spring of 2014 its second 1-meter telescope (called "West") entered service. Currently both telescopes have remote up-to-date control systems. The telescopes' remote controls are managed via Internet. The observatory has undertaken various projects since the new equipment was installed. This includes observations of

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

s (extra-solar planets), studies of faint stars in the Milky Way (that resulted in discovery of a total of 20 variable stars), studies of stars, recording of afterglow of

gamma-ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant Galaxy, galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme Electromagnetic radiation, ele ...

s, and various other projects. In collaboration with the South Korean Institute for Astronomy and Space Sciences, the Tien Shan Observatory is planning to install an automated telescope of 50 cm in diameter. The telescope will be linked to the four similar telescopes in

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, and will become part of the global network of small telescopes.Kazakhstan Steps Up Space Research
/ref>

Telescopes

* Two Ritchey-Chretien-Coudet telescopes. Their mirror diameter comprises 1-meter (Zeiss-1000), and they're equipped with semi-automatic directing system. The equipment also includes photographic device, UAGS spectrograph, focus shortening photographic system, and Fabri-Perrot interferometer. The telescopes are also equipped with two-channel polarimeter with the digital data processing system. * Two Cassegrain telescopes. Their mirror diameter is 48 cm, equipped with photoelectric photometers used for simultaneous digital data acquisition from four photometric channels. * HSFA horizontal solar telescope-spectrograph. Moreover, the observatory is also equipped with a 20 cm Coudet refractor, an ACU-5 horizontal solar telescope, a Nikolsky coronograph, a Schmidt astrograph, and an 80 cm reflector.

Gallery

File:TSAO.jpg, Panorama of Tien Shan astronomical observatory File:Radio Telescope, Tien Shan Observatory.jpg, Radio-telescope "Orbita" File:Zeiss1000 dome.jpg, Telescope dome File:Zeiss-1000.jpg, Optical telescope Zeiss-1000

References

{{commons category, Tian Shan Observatory Astronomical observatories in Kazakhstan Buildings and structures in Almaty Region Astronomical observatories built in the Soviet Union 1957 establishments in the Soviet Union