Ganskiy Alexey Pavlovich General data:
20.07.1870 - 11.08.1908
Place of birth: Odessa city, Kherson province, Russian Empire
Studied in: Imperial Novorossian University, Odessa city, Russian Empire (since 2000 I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University, Ukraine) (1894); Paris University (Sorbona), French Republic (1897-?);
Key interests: solar physics, photographic astrometry, solar corona, exploration of the Moon
Biography:
He was born on July 20 (according to the Julian calendar, or August 1 according to the Gregorian calendar) in 1870 in the Odesa city of Kherson province of the Russian Empire.
Comes from a noble family of Polish origin with the Korczak and Hozdava coats of arms. The family originates from the time of the Second Crusade, when the founder of the family moved to Poland from France and inherited the Gansk fortress near Lublin city from Prince Henry of Sandomierz. It was one of the oldest noble families of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In 1894, he graduated from the Imperial Novorossian University in Odessa and was left to prepare for a professorship, but without a scholarship. However, in 1895, O. K. Kononovych, whose student he was, succeeded in awarding a scholarship to this talented scientist specializing in astrophysics. From the beginning of 1897, he listened to lectures at the Sorbonne, where, under the guidance of the French astronomer Lowy, he photographed the moon, and worked at the Paris, Potsdam, and Medon observatories. His first work was to clarify the dependence of the type of the solar corona on the number of sunspots (1897). Gansky's next works were related to observations of various phenomena in the sun. He established, in particular, that the average lifespan of individual granules is 2-3 minutes, then they disintegrate and are replaced by new ones.
In the summer of 1895, together with F.A. Babichev and O.S. Vasyliev, he took part in drawing up an accurate map of the Andriiivskyi (Kuyalnytskyi) estuary.
In 1896, the scientist took part in an expedition to Novaya Zemlya to observe a total solar eclipse.
During 1897-1905, A. P. Gansky made nine ascents to Mont Blanc for scientific research on the solar corona and evaluation of the rotation period of Venus. A. P. Gansky went up in a hot air balloon twice in Paris and once in St. Petersburg city for scientific purposes.
In 1899-1901, he took part in the degree measurement expedition on the island of Svalbard, organized by the Russian and Swedish Academies of Sciences.
He founded the Simeiz observatory in the Crimea on the basis of the observatory of M. S. Maltsov, an amateur astronomer. For many years he worked at the Pulkovo Observatory. In 1906, on behalf of the Pulkovo observatory, he surveyed the atmospheric conditions of the southern coast of Crimea, and on his initiative the Simeiz observatory was created. It was here in 1903-1905 that he confirmed O. V. Struve's hypothesis that there is a connection between solar protuberances and flares.
In 1905, he observed a total solar eclipse in Spain, in the sketches of which he was helped by his older brother Peter, an artist by profession; and in 1907 in Central Asia.
In the spring of 1906, together with G. A. Tikhov, they conducted an expedition to the Crimea to the Ai-Petri pass near the meteorological observatory of K. F. Levandovsky to study the zodiacal light and study the quality of images. The scientist was the head of the expedition.
In 1907, he was elected vice-president of the Russian Astronomical Society, the following year he became an employee of the Pulkovo Observatory, initiated the creation of its branch in Simeiz city.
At the end of the 19th century conducted spectroscopic observations on a 6.5-inch refractor using the Bredykhin program in the light of the red hydrogen line.
He died on August 11, 1908 in Simeiz city, while swimming during a storm, the scientist drowned. Buried on the territory of the Polikuriv memorial in Yalta city.
Gansky's main research concerns the physics of the Sun. He was known for his photographic studies of the Sun. For them, in 1904, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor, the medal named after P. J. S. Jeansen of the Paris Academy of Sciences. He studied in detail the granulation of the solar surface and discovered the connection between the shape of the solar corona and the number of spots on the Sun. This discovery formed the basis of modern theories of the solar corona. Observations and photographs allowed him to establish the law of the periodicity of changes in the shape of the solar corona. Thanks to this law, astronomers can predict the shape of the corona many years ahead.
He was the secretary of the Russian branch of the International Solar Commission.
Sources:
1 Колчинский И. Г., Корсунь А. А., Родригес М. Г. Астрономы: Биографический справочник. — Киев: Наук. думка, 1986.—510 с.-С. 77-78
2 Справочный биографический материал
3 Видатний астроном Олексій Ганський // Україна: хронологія розвитку. Імперська доба. 1800-1917 рр. - К., 2011. - С. 255
4 1899-1901: Шпицберген. Градусные измерения
