243 MIKHAILOV 



MIKHAILOV, ALEKSANDR ALEKSANDRQVICH (Astronomer) 



A. A. Mikhailov was born April 26, 1888. He graduated from 

 Moscow University in 1911, and from 1918 to 1948 he was a 

 professor at the University. In 1939 he became Chairman of 

 the Astronomical Council of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences 

 and in 1947 Director of the Main Astronomical Observatory of 

 the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in Pulkovo. In 1949 Mikhailov 

 was made a member of the main editorial board of the Great 

 Soviet Encyclopedia. He was elected a Corresponding Member 

 of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences in 1943. Since 1956 he has 

 been a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 

 1934-1959 he was Chairman of the Central Council of the All 

 Union Astronomic-Geodesic Society. He was, from 1946 to 

 1948, vice president of the International Astronomical Union. 



Mikhailov is a specialist in the prediction of solar eclipses. 

 He presented a theory of solar and lunar eclipses, the occup- 

 ations of planets by the moon, the transits of planets across the 

 solar disk, and compiled a table for precalculating eclipses. 

 He headed five expeditions for observations of total solar 

 eclipses. In 1936 he investigated the deflection of light rays in 

 the field of solar gravity for which he constructed a special 

 unit. He was one of the initiators of a general gravimetric sur- 

 vey in the U.S.S.R. (1932). He developed a method of determin- 

 ing the shape of the earth from determinations of gravity. He 

 edited several stellar atlases. 

 Bibliography: 



Course on Gravimetry and the Theory on the Shape of the 

 Earth. 2nd ed. Moscow: 1939. 



Theory of Eclipses. 2nd ed. Moscow-Leningrad: 1954. 

 On the observation of the effect of Einstein. Astron. Zhur., 

 1956, 38, #6. 



Stellar Atlas of Stars up to 8.25 Magnitude. 2nd ed. Mos- 

 cow: 1959. 

 Biography: 



Molodenskii, M. A. Work of A. A. Mikhailov in the Area of 

 Gravimetry and the Theory on the Shape of the Earth. 

 Collection of Scientific-Technical and Industrial Articles 

 for Geodesy, Cartography, Topography, Aero-Photography 

 and Gravimetry, 1948, #17. 

 Office: Main Astronomical Observatory of USSR Academy 



of Sciences 

 Leningrad M-140, Pulkovo, USSR 



