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Forty-five years ago, on July 12, 1974, first observations were carried out at the RATAN-600 radio telescope. The SAO RAS radio astronomy team decided to celebrate this event. They invited employees of the observatory who had previously worked at RATAN including those who have long been a pensioner or for some reason have changed their place of residence. A small conference was organized. The participants were shown the photos illustrating the construction of the radio telescope, the first years of its operation, and the current state of radio astronomy at SAO. Marat G. Mingaliev recalled how the first observations at the radio telescope were conducted. Vladimir M. Bogod spoke about the research of the Sun with RATAN-600. The recollections of Nikolai A. Nizhelsky dealt with studying the planets in the Solar system, the surface layer of the lunar soil, regolith. It appeared that our radio telescope "saw" (more precisely, "heard") the power systems on the Moon left by the American astronauts. During the first years, this unique instrument was of interest not only for radio astronomers from all over the world but also for the leaders of other states who visited the USSR. For example, Fidel Castro visited RATAN-600. It is remarkable that today the guests from Havana, the employees of the Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy of Cuba, also came to celebrate this small holiday with us.
Those who had worked at RATAN for forty years or more were presented with flowers and memorable gifts. Then the guests were invited to the buffet, where they were able to communicate in a relaxed atmosphere.
The final event was a seminar; the reports were made by the Deputy Director Yulia V. Sotnikova on the current state of the radio telescope, methods and objectives of observations; Vladimir M. Bogod, the head of the Sun observation group and the head of the St. Petersburg branch of SAO RAS, about the prospects of research at RATAN-600; Sergey A. Trushkin, the head of the laboratory of radio astrophysics, about new instruments and methods of terrestrial radio astronomy for the next decade; Marat G. Mingaliyev, the head of a research group, on the results of joint research at RATAN-600 and SAI MSU of the complete samples of active galactic nuclei for the period of 1996-2019.
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Photo by Nikolai A. Nizhelsky and Ekaterina E. Filippova
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