All observatories located on the territory of Crimea are not only a refuge for scientists engaged in the physics of the Sun, stars and galaxies, gamma- and radio astronomy, maintenance of radio telescope RT-22 and the staff of the Solar Service, but also one of the most original local attractions. There are plenty of former royal palaces, dolphinariums and mind-boggling landscapes, but few white domes hiding valuable equipment. Naturally, the most famous observatory is considered to be a bunch of hemispheres located on Ai-Petrinskaya yayla. They are crowned with one of the peaks of the plateau — Mount Bedene-Kyr, and from afar they look like anything but the creation of human hands. Alien city, «alien» eggs, military base — unknown tourists guess, admiring and photographing the white domes.
The metal construction of Simeiz Observatory, located between the village of Katsiveli and the village of the same name, opposite the mountain Koshki, looks more earthly, but the same mysterious. But if you dig deeper and find out where the information flows and who owns these mysterious hemispheres, the name of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory or KRAO. It is located on the lands of the village of Nauchny, between Simferopol and Bakhchisarai, at a distance of 25 and 12 kilometers from the cities respectively. It houses the Alien’s think tank, the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory research institute. Snow-white, reflecting sunlight, hemispheres of the observatory are elevated above sea level at a height of 600 meters and decorate the top of Sel-Bukhra of the Outer Ridge of the Crimean Mountains.
The employees of KRAO live near their place of work — in a specially created for them village Scientific. It is similar to the American Silicon Valley, only in the Ukrainian way. Half a thousand people live there, one third of them are scientific workers of the observatory. The local hotel-restaurant, park, beech-oak forests on the slopes, fantastic views of the Crimean mountains and positive astroclimate could easily decorate any climatic resort.
The main Crimean Astrophysical Observatory appeared in 1945, when the amount of research conducted by the Simeiz Observatory ceased to satisfy the Soviet Union, which was emerging from a military corkscrew. After the arrangement, KRAO became the coolest scientific center in the USSR, and in Europe was second only to the most famous Heidelberg Observatory. Proof of this can be seen in the long list of discoveries made by the residents of the Nauchny settlement: 2 comets, 1,500 asteroids, as well as the study of volcanism on the Moon and the creation of a photometer for the «Lunokhod-2».
KRAO owns a lot of unique equipment — tower solar telescopes, coronographs and the unique Shaina telescope. The pearl of the local collection of instruments is a reflector produced by Carl Zeiss and taken as a trophy from Babelsberg Observatory.
For true romantics or failed astronauts, vacation in Bakhchisaraj can give a touch of Dream. The fact that the staff of the KRAO willingly give lectures on astronomy, conduct excursions on the territory of their research institute and the village of Nauchny, as well as «bring» guests to the stars, using the unique equipment of the observatory.