Krasilnikov, Andrei Dmitrievich
Krasil’nikov, Andrei Dmitrievich
Born 1705; died Feb. 15, 1773, in St. Petersburg. Russian astronomer. Adjunct of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1753).
Krasil’nikov graduated from the Naval Academy in 1724. From 1733 to 1746 he worked in Siberia, where he determined ten astronomical points and scores of latitude points. From 1750 to 1753 he determined the position of Moscow and the third astronomical point in the Baltic Region. Krasil’nikov was the first to calculate the length of Russia from the eastern shores of Kamchatka to the western tip of the island of Dago with an error quite low for that time (about 5 minutes of arc). He was the author of the first Russian textbook on astronomy and of a number of calendars.