130 (Continued) 
Selected Staff Members: -- 
Description: 
The Institute publishes an Uchenyye Zapiski and offers courses in 
Russian language and literature, foreign language, and mathematics and 
physics. 
al sii 
Name: Ashkhabad Astrophysics Laboratory 
(Ashkhabadskaya astrofizicheskaya laboratoriya) 
Address: Ashkhabad, Sad Keshi 
Director: I. S. Astapovich, Candidate (1954) 
Deputy Director: -- 
Administrative Affiliation: Institute of Physics and Geophysics, 
Academy of Sciences, Turkmen S.S.R. (1960) 
Selected Staff Members: 
V. A. Fil'monilkhin 
K. Kalchayev, Head of Department of Stellar Astronomy 
Ye. A. Savel'yev 
Description: 
Attempts to photograph meteors on color film have been made here 
since 1949. Meteor observation cameras were operated manually until 1955, 
when V. A. Fil'monikhin and Ye. A. Savel'yev developed a system whereby 
the operation of each camera could be controlled automatically from a con- 
trol desk. This camera installation, "the automatic meteor patrol", was 
the first of its kind in the U.S.S.R. Meteors also have been observed here 
by radar, visual, and telescopic means. 
The night glow was first officially recorded by the Laboratory in 
1943. In 1957, a 100-mm astrograph was installed here. 
The Laboratory participated in IGY work on the physical state of 
the upper atmosphere (using spectral analysis) and in stellar and meteor 
astronomy. It is one of the Soviet stations for optical observations of 
artificial earth satellites. 
