USSR 1954 – Pulkovo Observatory
reopening
Pulkovo Observatory is some 19 km south of
St Petersburg, Russia, and takes its name from the chain of
hills called the Pulkovskiye Heights on which it lies. Opened
in 1839, the observatory soon gained an international
reputation for its work on positional astronomy and double
stars. Originally its largest telescope was a 38-cm (15-inch)
refractor, at that time the largest refractor in the world, but
in 1885 this was superseded by a 76-cm (30-inch). Neither of
these are in operation today, although the lenses remain.
Destroyed during World War II, Pulkovo Observatory was rebuilt
and reopened in 1954, when this stamp was issued.
The stamp depicts three of the
observatory’s first five directors. At the centre is the
first director, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (known in
Russian as Vasily Yakovlevich Struve) (1793–1864), who
served from 1839 to 1861; at left is Fyodor Aleksandrovich
Bredikhin (1831–1904) the third director, 1890–95;
and at right is Aristarkh Apollonovich Belopolsky
(1854–1934), fifth director, 1916–19. Bredikhin
appears again on a USSR stamp issued in 1956.
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