Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek Soviet

a scientific research institution located in Tashkent.

The institute was created in 1966 on the basis of the Tashkent Astronomical Observatory, which was founded in 1873 in order to carry out cartographic work on astronomical observations. It is the oldest scientific research institution in Middle Asia and Kazakhstan. Before the October Revolution, research at the observatory was conducted on the study of the shape of the earth, the variability of geographic latitude, and gravimetry. At present there are five departments in the institute—time, meridian astrometry, photographic astrometry (with a station for the photographic observation of artificial earth satellites), physics of the sun, and variable stars. There is also a branch, the Ulug Beg Kitab Latitude Station, which is one of the stations of the International Polar Motion Service. This institute’s principal instruments are two transit instruments (visual and photoelectric), several quartz clocks, a meridian circle, two zenith telescopes, a standard astrograph, a spectrohelioscope, a photosphere-chromosphere telescope, a horizontal solar telescope equipped with a spectrograph, a meniscus heliograph, and a short-focus astrograph. The institute publishes Trudy and Tsirkuliary (since 1932).