Abastumani

Abastumani (Georgian აბასთუმანი, also Abastuman ) is a spa town in southern Georgia, Samtskhe - Javakheti in the region, in the municipality Adigeni. It is situated in a gorge of the Adscharisch - Imeretischen of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains on the river Ozche to 1,720 meters above sea level. The town has 3,600 inhabitants and belongs to the region of Samtskhe - Javakheti.

Abastumani has soda and sulphurous thermal springs, whose temperature is between 30 ° and 39.9 ° C. In the 19th century it became a popular spa town in the Russian Empire. It originated many sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis, bronchial asthma, anemia, and heart and circulatory diseases. Following Georgia's independence in 1991, the health tourists stayed away and all treatment centers had to be closed. Meanwhile, two objects are returned to service.

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On the mountain Kanobili the first astronomical observatory mountain Russia was 1892 in 1600 meters built. 1932 was supplemented by an astrophysical observatory. In the 1930s, built by a German expedition dome there is a still lasting working today built by Carl Zeiss Jena telescope with 40 cm aperture width. In 1956 the telescope was equipped with one of the largest Maksutov telescopes, this has an opening width of 70 cm. The largest instrument is the Ritchey -Chrétien telescope AZT -11 with 125 cm opening, which was put into operation in 1976.

The asteroid ( 1390 ) Abastumani was named after the place.