Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science

The Selentschuk Observatory (Russian Зеленчукская обсерватория, officially Специальная астрофизическая обсерватория РАН, "Special Astrophysical Observatory of the RAN" ) is an observatory about 30 km south of the Staniza Selentschukskaja (Republic of Karachay -Cherkessia, Russia) in the northern Caucasus. It houses the optical telescope BTA -6 as well as the immediate Located outside Selentschukskaja radio telescope RATAN 600

BTA -6

The main instrument of this observatory, the six-meter telescope BTA -6 (Russian Большой Телескоп Азимутальный, large Azimutalteleskop ), the time of its completion in 1975 until the early 1990s, the largest telescope in the world. However, there was the 42 -ton mirror made ​​of borosilicate some problems, and so had to be this 1978 replaced due to a crack. The six-meter telescope of the Selentschuk Observatory was the first large telescope, which is not parallactic (equatorial ), but was azimuthally mounted. This brought about a considerable saving in weight, but the need for automatic image rotation in field - sky shots. For the tracking ( compensating for the Earth's rotation ) the instrument from the beginning was to a computer controller, which had been on Mount Palomar initially limited.

RATAN 600

The RATAN 600 is a radio telescope with 600 meters in diameter.