Dmitri Maksutov
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov (Russian:Дмитрий Дмитриевич Максутов) (April 23 (April 11 (O.S.)) 1896-August 12 1964) was a Soviet/Russian optician. He was born in Odessa to a family of a seaman. From early childhood he was fond of astronomy and made his first telescope (180 mm reflector) as young as 12/13 years old.
Later he read publications by the famous Russian optician A.A.Chikin, who became his teacher. He constructed a much better 210 mm reflector and began serious astronomic observations. At 15 years old he was already a member of Russian Astronomical Society. Three years later he graduated from the School of Military Engineers in Petersburg . Between 1921 and 1930 Maksutov worked at the Physics Institute of the University of Odessa in the field of astronomical optics.
In 1930 he established the Laboratory of Astronomical Optics at the State Optical Institute in Leningrad and headed it until 1952. This laboratory was one of the main units of astronomy industry of the USSR. There he published a solid work "Anaberration reflecting surfaces and systems and the new testing methods" (1932), where he analyzes aplanatic two mirror systems and introduces the compensating method, proposed by him as early as 1924. This method became the main control method of mirror study along with the shadow method.
His most well-known contribution to the field of optics was made in 1941, when he invented the Maksutov telescope which corrected for spherical aberration by placing a corrector lens in front of the mirror. This method was adopted not only by his laboratory, which built on its base many telescopes for the main observatories of the USSR, but also internationally.
Maksutov created numerous objective lenses, mirrors, lenses and prisms of various sizes and purpose. Maksutov also created a photo-gastrograph - the instrument for photographing the stomach, a needle-microscope, shadow instruments for aerodynamic tubes, telescopic spectacles and other instruments.
In 1944 Maksutov became a professor and from 1946 - a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1952 he worked in Pulkovo Observatory.
He died in Leningrad.
Awards
- USSR State Prize (1941, 1946)
- two Orders of Lenin (1945,1958)
- Order The Badge of Honour (1943)
- Grand Prix at the Expo '58 in Brussels
External links
- Biography (http://soi.srv.pu.ru/about/ran/maks.htm) - on the website of Vavilov State Optical Institute
- Dmitri Maksutov: The Man and His Telescopes (http://tec.idcomm.com/tec_us/company/DmitriMaksutov.html)
Categories: Russian people stubs | Russian scientists | Soviet scientists | 1896 births | 1964 deaths
