Nikolaev Astronomical Observatory

(the Nikolaev division of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR), a scientific research institution located in the city of Nikolaev. It was founded in 1821 as a naval astronomical observatory for the purpose of providing the navy with nautical charts, certifying chronometers and navigational equipment, training naval officers in celestial navigation, and conducting astronomical research (compilation of star maps and catalogs, determination of the coordinates of comets, planets, and satellites). Since 1912 it has been the southern astrometrical branch of the Pulkovo Observatory.

The principal instruments are a transit instrument, a vertical circle, a meridian circle, an astrograph, and a device for determining astronomical time and maintaining an atomic (uniform) time scale. The observatory compiles and studies catalogs of the coordinates and proper motions of stars for general and special purposes, carries out systematic determinations of the precise coordinates of the bodies in the solar system with the purpose of refining the theory of the motion of planets and planetary satellites, and studies irregularities in the revolution and rotation of the earth.