Project OkO
OkO (Russian: око, eye) is AISU's observation project covering solar system bodies — planets, the Moon, comets, and asteroids — as well as galaxies, nebulae, and extragalactic objects. The project was established from the observational activities at the time of AISU's re-establishment in 2014.
Background
Celestial observation has been fundamental to human understanding of the cosmos since antiquity. Data collected through observation remain indispensable to astrophysics and cosmology — and therefore central to AISU's own theoretical research goals. Project OkO provides the observational backbone for the Institute's astrophysics programme.
Activities
- Observation of solar system planets, the Moon, comets, and other bodies
- Observation of galaxies, nebulae, and extragalactic distant objects
- Construction of a celestial catalogue and observational database
Selected Observations
- Comet Lovejoy (February 2015)
- Venus and the Pleiades conjunction (April 2015)
- Orionids meteor shower (October 2016)
- Occultation of Aldebaran (April 2017)
- Partial lunar eclipse (August 2017)
- Perseids meteor shower (August 2017)
- Comet–Mars close approach (September 2017)
- Orionids meteor shower (November 2017)
- Supermoon (January 2018)
- Total lunar eclipse (January 2018)
- Perseids meteor shower (August 2018)
- Saturn observation (November 2018)
- Thin crescent Moon and Venus conjunction (February 2019)
- Supermoon (February 2019)
- Perseids (August 2019), Orionids (October 2019)
- Andromeda Galaxy (November 2019)
- Comet NEOWISE (July 2020)
- Venus and Spica conjunction (September 2021)
- Mars opposition (December 2022)
- Comet ZTF (February 2023), Comet Nishimura (September 2023)
- Beaver Moon (November 2023)
- Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (October 2024)
- Comet ATLAS (January 2025)
- Comet Lemon (October 2025)