The 40th anniversary of putting the 6-m BTA telescope into operation
On February 4, 2016, the Jubilee conference dedicated to the 40th anniversary
of the first observations on the 6-m BTA telescope took place at SAO RAS.
The conference was opened by Valery V.Vlasyuk, the director of SAO RAS.
Then the veteran astrophysicist Yury V.Glagolevsky spoke about the
expeditions organized to find a site for building the 6-m telescope,
in which he participated. Afterwards, Igor D.Karachentsev shared his
memories of the first observations at the BTA. Iosif I.Romanyuk remembered
of the meetings with Bagrat I.Ioannisiani, the chief engineer of the
telescope, and Ivan M.Kopylov, the first director of the
observatory. The head of the laboratory of spectroscopy and photometry
of extragalactic objects Sergey N.Dodonov spoke about the construction
of the first scientific instruments for
observations at BTA and about the cooperation with French colleagues
headed by academician Georges Courtes. Nikolay A.Tikhonov talked about
the investigations carried out with the main BTA mirror. Victor L.Afanasiev
presented an informative report on the stages of development
of spectroscopy methods for faint objects with the BTA. Yury Yu.Balega
recalled how the speckle interferometry methods had been implemented at
SAO RAS. One of the first SAO RAS astronomers Eugene L.Chentsov outlined
the first steps of stellar spectroscopy at BTA and Vladimir E.Panchuk
in detail described the instruments and stellar spectroscopy technique at the
6-m telescope. The representative of the younger generation, the head
of extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology laboratory Dmitry I.Makarov
spoke about the investigations of the Local Universe at SAO RAS.
Simon A.Pustilnik presented the results of the long-term studies of
the evolution of dwarf galaxies. The senior researcher of the laboratory
of stellar physics Elena A.Barsukova being a practice student of
the Moscow State University conducted her first
observations at SAO in 1972. She shared touching memories about her
scientific supervisors - the oldest scientists of SAO and told the
history of the study of X-ray and optical transients.
Vladimir L.Plokhotnichenko, the senior researcher of the relativistic
astrophysics group, reminded how the "MANIA" experiment started.
The conference ended with the discussion.
On December 30, 1975, the State Interdepartmental commission signed the
certificate of acceptance of the Big Altazimuth Telescope (BTA), the
telescope began science observations and saw "first light".
During 40 years, the staff of the observatory keep the BTA operational,
create and develop removable equipment and radiation receivers. This year,
the 6-m mirror was aluminized, for the first time, by our workers only. The
observatory staff obtain observational material both within their own
programs and the programs of external users. Based on the observations
carried out with the BTA, a number of outstanding results have been
obtained, which are marked by the Russian Academy of Sciences, various
awards and world astronomical community. The observatory staff apply a lot
of energy and effort to upgrade the telescope and owing to this, the
telescope stays a modern astronomical tool up to this date.
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Last update: 20/02/2016
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