The first astronomy laboratory on the grounds of Kharkiv University was established in 1808; the observatory was opened in 1810 on the initiative of Professor Johann Gottfried Gut. Throughout the 19th century, temporary observatories were established three more times, until finally, in the 1880s, a permanent one was built on the initiative of astronomer Grigory Levitsky.

The “historic” two-story building is actually a new academic building that was constructed in 2017. Nevertheless, even the window frames here are designed to look like old-fashioned windows.

The site still features the Merz telescope tower, which, according to the plaque, was built in 1883.

Also on the research institute’s grounds, you can see monuments to Academician Barabashov and to the astronomers who lost their lives during the occupation of Kharkiv in 1941–43, as well as a sundial and the symbolic “Granite of Science.”

You can see antique astronomical instruments at the museum of the Research Institute of Astronomy.

For example, the 1886 meridian circle with a 160-mm lens manufactured by “A. Repsold & Sons” (Hamburg)

Or the Merz refracting telescope

The Institute of Astronomy is located in Shevchenko Garden (Sumska St, 35).