Chernov Viktor Mikhailovich General data:
02.11.1902 - 1984
Place of birth: Novogeorgiivsk city, Kherson Province, Russian Empire
Studied in: Alexandria Pedagogical Technical College (now V. O. Sukhomlynskyi Alexandria Pedagogical College) ();
Key interests: solar physics, observational astronomy, instruments and devices, solar corona, exploration of the Moon, meteorology, popularization of astronomy
Biography:
November 2, 1902 in the Novogeorgiivsk city of Kherson province of the Russian Empire, in a family of teachers. He studied at the Oleksandria Boys' Gymnasium, later at the Oleksandria Pedagogical College (now the district center of the Kropyvnytskyi region), after which he received the title of teacher.
While still a high school student, he became interested in astronomical observations. This was facilitated by a total solar eclipse, which the young man witnessed on August 21, 1914. Since then, every evening he climbed into the attic and looked at the stars through theater binoculars, studied works on astronomy.
In 1917, he began systematic observations of sunspots, lunar eclipses, and variable stars using a self-made telescope. On June 8, 1918, independently of other observers, he observed the outburst of a "New Star" in the constellation Eagle. With this message to the Russian Society of Cosmology amateur, the cooperation of amateur astronomers with professional scientists begins.
Since 1923 to 1937 and since 1943 to 1962 he worked as a librarian, for some time a teacher of the German language and mathematics.
His astronomical research lasted six decades. The special interest of the amateur astronomer was the Moon with its phenomenal and still unsolved phenomena. And meteorologists were interested in his works devoted to optical phenomena in the atmosphere, thanks to which they got the opportunity to expand the so-called local weather predictors.
In the 1920s and 1930s, scientist took part in two scientific congresses in Nizhny Novgorod city. At the last of them, he gave a report on the results of his observations.
In 1937, V. M. Chernov moved to professional scientific work at the Tajik Astronomical Observatory as a research associate. In addition to astronomical observations, he performed the duties of technical editor of the observatory.
At the beginning of 1941, he returned to Zaporozhye city, due to a serious health condition, hoping to get a job in Ukraine at some observatory. But this was prevented by the Great Patriotic War of the USSR against Hitler's Germany, which is part of World War II. During the war years, he continued astronomical observations, saved the funds of the library in which he worked from robbery (now the O. Shlyakhova branch library of the Zaporozhye city Central Library for adults is located in this building).
After the liberation of Zaporozhye city from the fascist occupiers, V. M. Chernov carried out extensive educational work among schoolchildren and young people, giving lectures in dormitories and schools, and developed a short instruction for observing the Moon in the school observatory.
From the first days of creation in 1967 of the Zaporizhzhia branch of the All-Union Astronomical and Geodetic Society of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, V. M. Chernov was the permanent head of the astronomical section.
At the end of 1980, in Alma-Ata, at the VII Congress of the All-Union Astronomical Geodetic Society, he was elected an honorary member of the society.
He died in 1984 Zaporozhye city.
The scientist was fluent in French, German, Latin, Greek, Bulgarian, Polish, and Czech languages. This helped him to get personally acquainted with foreign periodical literature, to be published in foreign magazines. Dozens of his scientific works published in authoritative domestic and foreign publications ("Myrovedenie", "Bulletin VAGO", "Peremennye zvjedi", "Astronomicheskiy Vestnik"). He published 140 observations, notes, articles in domestic and about 135 in foreign scientific publications, often in co-authorship with famous scientists.
Main publications:
1. Хекало А.А., Чернов В.М. О прогнозировании яркости лунных затмений // Астроном. вест..- 1986.- № 2.- С. 152 – 155
2. Флоренский П.В., Чернов В.М. Наблюдения нестационарных явлений на Луне: Перечень пятый // Астроном. вест.- 1979.- № 1.- С. 62 – 63
3. Чернов В.М., Бахарев А.М. Прохождение Меркурия по диску Солнца 10 ноября 1973 г. // Земля и Вселенная.- 1973.- № 5.- С. 79 – 80.
4. Бахарев А.М., Чернов В.М. Яркость будущих лунных затмений // Астроном. вест..- 1972.- № 4.- С. 249 – 251.
Sources:
1 АСТРОНОМ-БІБЛІОТЕКАР (Чернов Віктор Михайлович)/Нагорна Г. М.// Журнал Запорізької обласної організації Національної Спілки краєзнавців України, № 2 2017
2 Нейман В. Б. Виктор Михайлович Чернов (1902-1984): Некролог / В. Нейман // Циркуляр ВАГО. – 1985. – № 38. – С. 72-74.
3 АСТРОНОМ-БІБЛІОТЕКАР (Чернов Віктор Михайлович)/Нагорна Г. М.// Краєзнавство Запоріжжя, №2, 2017, С.140-141
4 ОКРЕМІ ЗНАМЕННІ ТА ПАМ'ЯТНІ ДАТИ І ВІДОМОСТІ ПРО НИХ
