"The Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory" Top 5 Page for this destination Kazakhstan Off The Beaten Path Tip by traveldave

The Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory is set amid the Tien Shan Mountains at an altitude of about 9,000 feet (2,743 meters), and is 19 miles (30 kilometers) south of Almaty. Constructed during the Soviet era, the Russians lease the observatory from the Kazakh government and still operate it, mainly in the autumn and winter when the sky is at its clearest.

The observatory features two Richi-Cretien-Coudet telescopes, two Cassegren telescopes, an HSFA horizontal solar telescope-spectrograph, and an ACU-5 horizontal solar telescope.

Visitors, usually those on birdwatching or trekking tours, can stay in the observatory's very basic twin rooms, with a toilet and shower shared between two rooms.

The observatory's dome and radar dish can be seen among the spruce trees below the high peak (best seen by enlarging the picture).