Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov

Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov (Russian:Дмитрий Дмитриевич Максутов) (OldStyleDate|23 April|1896|11 April-August 12 1964) was a Soviet/Russian optician and astronomer. He is best known as the inventor of the Maksutov telescope.

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Maksutov was born in the Russian city of NikolayevFact|date=January 2008, and three years later the family moved 70 miles to the port city of Odessa. His father, a naval officer serving with the Black Sea Fleet, came from a family with a long and distinguished naval tradition. His great-grandfather, Peter Ivanovich Maksutov, was given the title of prince thereby raising the family to hereditary nobility as a reward for bravery in combat. His grandfather, Dmitri Petrovich Maksutov, was the last governor of Alaska when the United States purchased this vast territory for two cents an acre in 1867.

Dmitri Maksutov became interested in astronomy in early childhood, and constructed his first telescope (a 7.2 inch/180mm reflector) when he was twelve years of age. Later he read publications by the famous Russian optician A.A.Chikin, who became his teacher. He constructed a much better 10 inch (210mm) reflector and began serious astronomical observation. At 15 years of age he had already been accepted as a member of the "Russian Astronomical Society". Three years later he graduated from the "Military Engineering College" in Petersburg. Between 1921 and 1930 he worked at the "Physics Institute" of the University of Odessa in the field of astronomical optics.

Development of the Maksutov telescope

In 1930 he established the "Laboratory of Astronomical Optics" at the "State Optical Institute" of Leningrad and lead it until 1952. This laboratory was one of the leading astronomical research groups in the USSR. Whils there he published "Anaberrating reflecting surfaces and systems and their new testing methods" (1932), in which he analyzed aplanatic double mirror systems and introduced the "compensating method", which he proposed as early as 1924. This became the main control method of mirror study along with the "shadow method". His most well known contribution in the field of optics was made in 1941, when he invented the Maksutov telescope. Like the Schmidt telescope, the Maksutov corrects for spherical aberration by placing a corrector lens in front of the primary mirror. However, where the Schmidt uses an aspheric corrector the Maksutov uses a deeply curved spherical meniscus corrector. This method was adopted not only by his own laboratory for many of the most important observatories in the Soviet Union, but also internationally. Several commercial telescope making companies produce Maksutovs including Celestron, Meade and Questar.

He created many objective lenses, mirrors, and prisms of various size and purpose. He also created a photo-gastrograph - the instrument which is used for photographing the stomach, a needle-microscope, shadow instruments for aerodynamic tubes, telescopic spectacles and other instruments.

In 1944 he 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

ee also

*List of astronomical instrument makers

External links

* [http://soi.srv.pu.ru/about/ran/maks.htm Biography] - on the website of "Vavilov State Optical Institute"
* [http://www.telescopengineering.com/company/DmitriMaksutov.html Dmitri Maksutov: The Man and His Telescopes]