When it's darkest, men see the stars.

Address: 1v, Marazliyivska street

Many citizens of Odessa do not know that in the city there is the oldest functioning astronomical observatory in Ukraine. It's in Shevchenko park. There you can look into a real telescope, which, by the way, is 150 years old.

History

The construction of the Observatory began in 1870. It was part of the astronomy department and was used as a base for the educational process, and at the same time, a number of city instructions: checking navigational devices of ships, tracking the correct course of city clocks and determining the time of ignition and dimming of city lighting.

Realizing that high-quality astronomical observations require a clean atmosphere, the observatory staff began planting trees, which later became the embryo of the Alexander Park (now Shevchenko Park).

In the years 1850-1910 it became one of the largest scientific institutions of the Russian Empire's universities. In 1920, the Observatory became the Odessa State Astronomical Observatory, which at one time was called and operated as the Main State Astronomical Observatory of Ukraine. The observatory began to explore comets, meteorites and much more.

Now the Odessa Astronomical Observatory, is a unit of Odessa National University, the world's leading organization for the study of the chemical and dynamic evolution of stars and the Galaxy.

The latest techniques for observing stars, meteors, artificial Earth satellites, celestial-mechanical research are actively developing, textbooks on astronomy, the scientific journal Odessa Astronomical Publications

International collaboration

There is a close relationship between Odessa Astronomical Observatory and all astronomical organisations in Ukraine. Moreover, the Agreements on Scientific and Technological Cooperation have been worked out with P. K. Sternberg Astronomical Institute of M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow), Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pulkovo, St. Petersburg), Institute of Physics and Mathematics of Turkmenistan (Ashgabad), Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade (Serbia), Vihorlat Astronomical Observatory in Humenné (Slovakia), Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of Academy of Sciences of China, etc.

The Observatory participates in many international observation programmes, its employees often visit observatories abroad (in France, Brazil, Lithuania, USA, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, etc.) to carry out joint scientific research, observations and to participate in conferences & workshops.

In 2009-2012, RSI AO OSU conducted a series of research projects under international agreements, such as Abundances of Light and Neutron-Capture Elements in Atmospheres of Globular Cluster Giants as Testing of a Star’s and Globular Clusters’ Evolution (Lithuania); Astrometry and Photometry of the Near-Earth Objects (China) and Photometry for Efficient Study of Interaction Between Planets and Their Satellites in the Solar System (Vietnam).

You can visit observatory for:

• Lectures in a lecture hall "Planetarium" - every Sunday, 14-00. Subject: stars, planets, Galaxy, space researches, etc.
• The lecture for collective visit (classes, groups) for other days and other time can be ordered
• Excursions in the evening to the telescope: according to the preliminary arrangement

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