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Report on the trip of Dr. Marina Romanova and Prof. Richard
Lovelace (Cornell University, USA) to Almaty, Kazakstan in frames of
the IAU TAD program 9-15 August, 2008
We visited several institutions in Almaty, gave lectures, talked to scientists. Historically,
Kazakhstan has strong scientific base due to strong ties with Russia and with the fact that
many scientists studied at Moscow and other Russian Universities. The main Astronomy
Institute named after Prof. Fesenkov was founded by academician V.G.Fesenkov in 1941
and is well known in the world. In recent years a new generation of astronomers were
trained by the earlier generation of scientists. In addition, some young scientists go
abroad for study and work and return back thus creating an additional strength to
astronomy in Kazakhstan. Recently, an Astronomy Department has been created at the
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, so that Kazakh young people can study astronomy
right in Almaty. Recently, the government of the Kazakhstan decided to unite three major
astronomical institutions (Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, Ionospheric Institute and
Space Research Institute) to one "National Centrum of Space Researches and
Technologies" (NCSRT), which is expected to enhance Kazakhstan’s Space exploration
program, though the process is not easy and demands special attention to support
astronomical scientific researchers. There are several small observatories around Almaty
which are used for observations of different astronomical objects, for training young
scholars and also to show astronomy for the public.
The Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute is the lead astronomical institution of the
Kazakhstan. It has several directions of research, including young stars and nebulae,
active galactic nuclei, stellar dynamics, planetary research and Solar studies. It is located
close to Almaty, 1400 meters above the sea level. There are several small (1-meter and
less) telescopes on the grounds of the Institute which are used for observations of bright
objects, and for training of young astronomers. Two of the telescopes are used to show
astronomical objects for public on a regular basis.
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Prof. Lovelace and Dr. Romanova – lecturers of the IAU TAD program at the entrance of
the Fesenkov Institute. They gave several lectures at the Fesenkov Institute and at the AlFarabi Kazakh National University. Lovelace gave lectures on “Modern American
Telescopes”, while Romanova gave lectures on “Numerical Modeling in Astrophysics”
and “Modeling of Young Stars”. Scientists and students were interested in both topics.
Some of them were impressed with stereoscopic visualization presented by Dr.
Romanova and planned to incorporate them in their research
Richard Lovelace gives an overview of the projected state-of-the-art US telescopes in his
lecture “Modern American Telescopes” at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.
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Marina Romanova shows results of modern numerical simulations in astrophysics in her
lecture: “Numerical Modeling in Astrophysics”.
Auditorium at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Scientists were interested in
both, modern telescopes and in modern numerical modeling in astrophysics.
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Auditorium at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.
Near the main entrance to the Departments of Physics and Mathematics of the Al-Farabi
Kazakh National University. Dr. Vladimir Oskomov stands at the right.
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Emmanuil Vilkoviskiy and Richard Lovelace (left) with scientists from the Al-Farabi
Kazakh National University: Dr. Vladimir Oskomov and Dr. Natalia Burkova in the
center.
With scientists from the Fesenkov Institute. Dr. Anatoliy Kurchakov (left) is the leader of
the group investigating young stars, Dr. Larisa Pavlova (next to him) investigates young
Ae/Be type stars.
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Richard (left) with scientists from the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute: Dr. Lubov
Shestakova next to him (Solar studies), Dr. Ludmila Kondratyeva (observer of young
stars and planetary nebulae), Dr. Edward Denissyuk (observer of AGNs) (right).
Director of the Fesenkov Institute, Prof. Leonid Chechin (left), is a positive and
very active. He is specialist in general relativity and cosmology.
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Among the theoretical investigations, the group of Prof. E.Vilkoviskyi should be noted,
which performs numerical simulations of the matter outflow from AGN and the evolution
of AGN in the compact stellar cluster (with Dr. Chingis Omarov and Prof. Rainer
Spurzem, Heidelberg).
Emmanuil Vilkoviskyi and Richard Lovelace standing at the territory of the Fesenkov
Astrophysical Institute. The telescope at the background is used for both, scientific
observations and also for Public Outreach.
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The 1.0-meter operating (left) and 1.5-meter (not operating) telescopes at the AssyTourgen observatory (2700 m above the sea level), ~100 km East from Almaty.
There are two main observatories in Kazakhstan (now belonging to NCSRT): AssyTourgen observatory and Tien-Shan Observatory. We visited the Tien-Shan Observatory
which is about 2 hours drive from Almaty. It is located at the beautiful place, 2800 meters
above the sea level. It belonged to the Moscow University in the past, but belongs to the
Kazakh government after collapse of the Soviet Union at 1990. The main telescope
represents interferometer consisting of two 1-meter telescopes. There are also many
rooms for astronomers in the adjoining buildings. Interferometer stopped working while
ago, but now it is at the stage of repair. The infrastructure has been saved during the past
15 years due to tourist business. Director of the observatory Dr. Kines Kuratov hopes that
the instrument is very close to be working. They do have financial problems which slows
the process down.
An interferometer consists of two 1-meter telescopes. One of telescopes is expected to
work soon.
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View to the Tien-Shan observatory and adjoining buildings from the nearby hill.
Director of the Tien-Shan Observatory Dr. Kines Kuratov and us on the way to the
Observatory. The place is beautiful. This is part of the Tien-Shan mountains which is
called Zailiysky Alatau. We discussed possible international collaboration in
investigation of young stars with frequent monitoring of young stars from different points
of the globe and comparisons of observations with theory/models. This project is ideal for
small telescopes, such as 1.0-meter telescopes of Assy-Tourgen observatory and TienShan Observatory.
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CONCLUSIONS: My impression is that our visit has been useful for Kazakh
scientists, both in sense of bringing of new information about modern astronomy through
lectures and through discussions with individual scientists, and in the sense of discussion
of possibilities to start new international collaborations with Kazakh scientists. We
learned that life of astronomers is hard, but the salaries seem to grow gradually. A
number of small telescopes and the 1.0-meter telescope at the Assy-Tourgen observatory
are working, while the telescope at the Tien-Shan Observatory is expected to start
working soon. Of course any money given to astronomers may accelerate this process of
repair. Unification of major astronomical institutes to the National Cosmic Center may
lead to enhancing of the space program in Kazakhstan, though some special efforts have
to be made to support the main astronomy directions of research, where Fesenkov
Astrophysical Institute is strong. Another conclusion is that Almaty may be a good place
for organizing small astronomical meeting or schools of young scientists.
Recommendations for future actions:
(1) Future similar visits with lectures on modern astrophysics are strongly
recommended.
(2) Organization of medium size scientific meetings and schools for young scientists
will be also refreshing for further developing and modernization of astronomy in
Kazakhstan.
(3) Exchange program for scientists between Kazakh astronomical institutes and
universities of other countries might be useful.
(4) It would be helpful if IAU could provide some support for small telescopes of
Kazakhstan. Even help of few thousand dollars would make a difference. In particular
they need a CCD matrix for one telescope which costs $2,000.
This Report has been prepared by Marina Romanova for the IAU TAD Program.
Dr. Marina Romanova
410 Space Sciences Building
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
USA
[email protected]
1-(607)-255-6915 or
1-(607)-351-2722
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