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Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics
A Brief
History
The Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics
was established in 1982, when the amendment 1268/1982 was approved by
the Greek Parliament. It is one of the five Sections of the
Department of Physics of the Aristoteleion
Univerity of Thessaloniki. It consists of two independent and
closely collaborating units, of The
Laboratory of Astronomy and the Division
of Mechanics. The current Director of the Section is Assoc. Professor
Loukas Vlahos.
Laboratory of Astronomy
The Laboratory
of Astronomy, or as it used to be known “The Department
of Astronomy”, was founded in 1943, four (4) years after the foundation
of the Chair of Astronomy at the University of Thessaloniki.
The Observatory, the building that hosts
the Laboratory of Astronomy, was inaugurated in 1961. The first Director
and founder of the Laboratory was the Academician John Xanthakis. He was
succeded by Professor and, later Academician, George Contopoulos, and
by Professor Basil Barbanis. Professor Sotirios Persides has also served
temporarily as Director. Currently, Acting Director of the Laboratory
of Astronomy is Professor Nikolaos K. Spyrou. Today the scientific personnel
of the Laboratory of Astronomy consists of nine (9)
Members of Staff and six (6)
Postgraduate Students. The
research activities undertaken by the
above staff include "General Theory of Relativity", "Astrophysics
(Classical and Relativistic)", "Dynamical Astronomy", "Cosmology"
and "Observational Astronomy". More than 400 scientific papers
have been published by the members of the Laboratory in international
refereed journals. The scientific, teaching and other activities of the
members of the Laboratory are published in its Annual
Report.
The Laboratory's 50th anniversary was officially celebrated
in May 1993. Details can be found in the volume "50th Anniversary
of the Laboratory of Astronomy" (eds. B.S. Barbanis, N.K. Spyrou),
Publications of the Aristoteleion University of Thessaloniki, 1994.
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Pictures of the Observatory
Division
of Mechanics
The current scientific personnel of the Division of
Mechanics, or as it used to be known “The Department of Theoretical
Mechanics”, consists of five (5) Members
of Staff and seven (7) Postgraduate
Students. The research
activities undertaken by the above staff concentrate mainly
on "Dynamical Astronomy". Currently, Acting Director of the
Division of Mechanics is Professor Ioannis Hatzidemetriou.
Instrumentation
and Facilities
The Laboratory of Astronomy operates a 20-cm refracting
telescope (made by Secretan, Paris) in a rotating 6-m diameter dome. It
is equipped with auxiliary telescopes, monochromatic Lyot filters, a 3-m
radio telescope, a photographic dark room, a microdensitometer, teaching
facilities, professional charts, and atlases of the sky. It is linked
to the "outside world" via a modern computer network consisting
of several workstations and personal computers.
Its members of staff also operate a 30-inch Cassegrain reflector at the
Stephanion Observatory, near Corinth in
southern Greece. Currently there is as ongoing initiative of the Section
aiming at the installation of a Radio
Telescope in Greece.
50
years of the Observatory
On the occasion of the 50 years since the opening
of the Observatory, a special volume was published. You can download it
here (in Greek only: Part
1, Part
2, Part
3 - each file is about 3MB).
75 years of the Faculty of Sciences
A recent description of the activities of
our section has been published in a special volume for the 75 years of
the Faculty of Sciences. You can download
it here (in Greek only).
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