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About us

• General information

• Contacts

• History of the SAO RAS (in Russian)

• Observatory regulations

  Changes to the charter (April 6, 2015)

  Changes to the charter (July 15, 2015)

  Changes to the charter (October 26, 2015)

• Research guidelines

• Publishing activity

• Observatory in information space

• How to reach us

• Excursions

• Weather in SAO:

  SAO (meteo)

  N.Arkhyz (temperature)

  BTA (temperature, wind, forecast)

• Photo gallery

  Photo Archive SAO RAS

  Our vicinity

• Trade union

The Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS) was founded in 1966. At present it is the largest Russian astronomical center for ground-based observations of objects in the Universe.

The main instruments of the Observatory are the Big Telescope Alt-azimuthal (BTA), an optical reflector with the primary mirror 6 metres in diameter and the radio telescope RATAN-600 (abbreviated from the RAdio Telescope of the Academy of Sciences) with a 600 metre multielement ring antenna. The telescopes have the status of open public instruments, permitting broad integration with the world astronomical community. The observational time is allocated by the Time Allocation Committee (The Large Telescopes Program Committee).

The Observatory is situated in the Northern Caucasus, in the Zelenchukskiy region of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic of Russia. The BTA was built on the spur of the mount Pastukhov at the height of 2070 m above the sea level. There are two other instruments, a 1 metre Zeiss-1000 telescope and a 0.6 metre reflector, mounted in the close neighbourhood of the BTA. The RATAN-600 is located at the distance of 20 km from the BTA on the outskirts of stanitsa Zelenchukskaia at the altitude of 970 m. The base camp Nizhnij Arkhyz is constructed on the Bolshoi Zelenchuk river bank. The laboratories, premises and residential buildings of the Observatory's staff are located here.

The Observatory has two more divisions, St-Petersburg branch and Moscow branch. SAO RAS employs around 400 people; more than 100 of them are researchers.

According to executive order No. 2591-r of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 30, 2013, SAO RAS relates to the institutions within the jurisdiction of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FANO) of Russia.
Press releases of FANO.

Research guidelines

• Cosmology: the Cosmic Microwave Background, the early Universe
• The Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics, AGNs, chemical composition, the Local Group
• Interstellar medium
• Stars: evolution and chemical composition, magnetic fields, multiple stellar systems, pulsars
• Gamma-Ray Bursters
• The Sun (in the radio band)
• Methods and instruments for astrophysical investigations

• The Astrophysical Bulletin journal in Russian and English. Since 2007 the English version of the Astrophysical Bulletin is published by the International Academic Publishing Company (IAPC) Nauka/Interperiodika and distributed via subscription by the Pleiades Group Department of the Springer publishing house, where online and hard copies are available. The free online version of the Astrophysical Bulletin in Russian is available here.

• SAO's Annual Reports, from 1993 (Russian/English).