Donich Nikolay Nikolaevich General data:
13.09.1874 - 22.11.1960
Place of birth: Petrikani village near the Chisinau city
Studied in: Imperial Novorossian University, Odessa city, Russian Empire (since 2000 I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University, Ukraine) (1895);
Key interests: solar photosphere and chromosphere, physics of comets, Saturn and its satellites, solar physics, general theory of relativity, solar-terrestrial connections, minor bodies of the Solar System, instruments and devices, astronomy, solar corona, seismology, meteorology
Biography:
He was born 1 (according to the Julian calendar and 13 on the Gregorian calendar, according to other data 25) in September 1874 (according to some data as early as 1878) in the Petrikani village in the suburbs of Chisinau city in the family of the Moldavian boyars. The great-grandson of the writer, translator and biker Oleksander Donich. His mother, Melania, died of short-lived sufforts, and his father Nicholas shot himself. The 8-year old orphan was educated by the childless sister of Elena's mother, who lived with her husband in her own estate in the Old Dubossary city.
When studying a boy at a local school it turned out that he has unusual mathematical abilities. He was the first student of exact sciences, especially fond of astronomy. At the age of 16, the young man began to build an observatory, but soon moved to Odessa, where he entered the Richelieu Gymnasium, and in 1895 (according to other data in 1897) he was already a graduate of the Imperial Novorossan University in Odessa city, graduating exams externally. Kononovich A. K. was his teacher. Upon graduation, he presented the work on the spectrum of the Grossliebenthal meteorite, published in 1898 in the magazine Astronomishe Nachrichten on six pages. A talented graduate was offered a place at the department, but he was only engaged in independent activities and he returned to the estate of his aunt.
Served at the St. Petersburg Office of the State Council until October 1917, when the office was dissolved by the Bolsheviks, simultaneously gained scientific work, collaborated with academician F. A. Bredikhin, S. M. Kostinsky, A. A. Belopolsky.
In 1904 the scientist was elected a member of the Russian Astronomical Society.
He watched the passing of Mercury on the disk of the Sun on November 14, 1907 and May 24, 1924 in Egypt.
In 1908 he built his own observatory in the village. The Old Dubossaries of the Bezarab province of the Russian Empire (now Dubesar-Vek, Criulensky district of Moldova). Subsequently, she grew up in the Institute for studying the chromosphere and prominences of the Sun with three observatories: astronomical, heliographic and meteorological.
For research, a young scientist bought a spectrogelograph - an astronomical instrument for photographing the sun, designed by a mechanic of the Odessa Observatory, Y. A. Timchenko, and then perfected its design. According to other data, this device was designed and built by Y.A. Timchenko It was the first spectrogeologist in the Russian Empire. He himself created other astronomical instruments and instruments, including the so-called "comet triplet". This is a tool that consisted of a guider refractor (D lens = 60 mm., F = 1 m.), A photographic camera (D = 82 mm., F = 1 m.) And an objective prism spectrograph (D = 61 mm, F = 27.3 cm).
For some time he was in the public service at the Office of the State Council of the Russian Empire until October 1917, when the office was dissolved by the Bolsheviks. He served as Assistant Secretary of State in the rank of Collegiate Advisor, who was awarded personal nobility.
In 1903, the astronomer photographed the Sun at the Observatory of Jules Janssen in Evian-les-Bains (Upper Savoy).
In 1912, the scientist was elected an honorary professor at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, and became the Knight of the highest state award of Cambodia for his contribution to the development of science in this country.
After the revolution of 1917 from 1918 to 1944 he worked in Romania. He worked in the Old Dubossaries and Bucharest.
During 1922-1944 he was a member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. According to other sources, until 1948 he was an honorary member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. He was also a member of the Heidelberg Astronomical Society.
Since 1922 the scientist has participated in the work of international congresses of astrophysicists and astronomers.
In 1933 they were executed from September to December observation of Saturn, which allowed to determine the period of rotation of this planet - 10 hours 17 minutes (the present value - 10 hours 14 minutes).
In 1937-1938 he was a scientist in Bucharest, where he was instructed to restore the observatory of the deceased Admiral Ursyan. In the spring of 1944 he also held in Bucharest.
Soon he traveled to Germany. After a series of vicissitudes and wandering, he and his wife were at the end of the war, in 1945, in Paris, where he began working at the Paris Observatory. Subsequently worked in Meudon and Nice.
Observed 8 solar eclipses in different parts of the world (May 28, 1900 in Elche, Spain, May 17-18, 1901 in Padang, Sumatra Island, March 16-17, 1904 in Phnom Penh, U. Cambodia, August 29-30, 1905 in the city of Alcalá de Chisvert in Spain, April 16-17, 1912 in Ovar, Portugal, August 8, 1914 in the town of Theodosius of the Tauride province of the Russian Empire, August 31 1932 Cap Porpoise in the state of Maine USA, June 19, 1936 in Inbel Island, Turkey), 8 months, showed the absence of an atmosphere on the planet Mercury, watched Halley's bright comet in 1910 with the help of a "comet triple and "while watching the bright Ponse-Vinnikee comet in 1927, the zodiac light in Egypt in 1908 and Algeria in 1947-1952, also carried out after the Second World War a study of zodiacal light in Tunisia and Dakar, Egypt and Africa as part of French expeditions.
In 1950, without a livelihood, the astronomer was in an asylum for elderly people in Nice, France, where he died around 1956. According to the results of the French astronomer Francoise Legette-Tullie and the Romanian astronomer Magda Stavinska in 2014, The grave of a scientist was found at one of the cemeteries near Nice-Puget-Théniers, Alpes-Maritimes, on which the date of death was dated November 22, 1960.
In addition to Romanian and Russian, the scientist knew French, German and English.
His scientific works relate to the astronomy of the sun, the chromosphere and planets, in the zodiacal light. He also studied the physics of meteorites and comets, in particular, their spectra in a visible range. He also was interested in the theory of relativity. The scientist also studied seismology and meteorology. He suspected that there was a connection between solar stroke and earthquakes. It is no accident that when conducting observations of solar eclipses, the team also carried out measurements of changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure on Earth. During the solar eclipse, he explored in detail the upper layers of the solar atmosphere, the photosphere and the chromosphere (including projections) and their dynamics during the solar cycle.
He is the author of about 77 scientific works.
Asteroid 9494 was named in his honor "Donici".
Main publications:
1. Influence de la brillance de ciel a l'horizon sur la forme apparente de la Lumière Zodiacalle/Donitch N.//Non publié (Unpublished) . (in French), Grâce a Françoise Le Guet Tully, a partir des archives d'Henri Chrétien, 1 page(1956)
2. Grossliebenthal/Donitch N.//Astronomishe Nachrichten.-1898
3. Éclat de la Lumière Zodiacale/Donitch N. //Non publié (Unpublished), Observatoire de la Cote d'Azure, Nice, France, 1 page. (in French) Grâce a Françoise Le Guet Tully, Copie d'un document à partir de l'archve d'Henri Chrétien.
4. Nouvelles Études Sur La Position de la Lumiére Zodiacale Dans L'Espace/Donitch N.//Bulletin Astronomique, vol. 20, pp.15-26(1955)
Sources:
1 Êîâàðñêàÿ Á. Ï. Äîíè÷ Íèêîëàé Íèêîëàåâè÷ // Èñòîðèêî-àñòðîíîìè÷åñêèå èññëåäîâàíèÿ.—2004.—Âûï. 29.—Ñ. 209—235.
2 ÂÈÄÍÛÅ ÀÑÒÐÎÍÎÌÛ – Ó×ÅÍÈÊÈ À.Ê.ÊÎÍÎÍÎÂÈ×À /Ì.Þ.Âîëÿíñêàÿ//Ñòðàíèöû èñòîðèè àñòðîíîìèè â Îäåññå", ÷.2, 1995, Îäåññà, ñ.17
3 ru.wikipedia.org
4 Êàçàíöåâà Ë. Â., Êèñëþê Â. Ñ. Êè¿âñüêå â³êíî ó Âñåñâ³ò: ²ñòîð³ÿ Êè¿âñüêî¿ àñòðîíîì³÷íî¿ îáñåðâàòî𳿠â êîíòåêñò³ ³ñòî𳿠ðîçâèòêó íàö³îíàëüíî¿ òà ñâ³òîâî¿ íàóêè. — Êè¿â: Íàø ÷àñ, 2006.—C.171
