RTF-32 Radio Telescope (Zelenchukskaya Observatory)

The RTF-32 radio telescope is a radio-astronomy antenna with a 32-metre main dish at the Zelenchukskaya radio astronomical observatory of the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IAA RAS), in the settlement of Khusy-Kardonik, Zelenchuksky District, Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia. The observatory was founded in 2001 and is the second of three stations in the Kvazar-KVO network, together with the Svetloe station in Leningrad Oblast and the Badary station in Buryatia.

The telescope operates at wavelengths from 1.35 to 21 cm and is used for very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) in national and international observations, including the European VLBI Network (EVN) and the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS). The station also carries out research in astrometry, astrophysics (the Sun, planets of the Solar System, galactic and extragalactic objects) and geodynamics.

This is a separate institution: it should not be confused with the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the BTA-6 optical telescope and the RATAN-600 radio telescope), which operates in the same Zelenchuksky District but in the settlement of Nizhny Arkhyz and on the outskirts of the stanitsa (Cossack settlement) of Zelenchukskaya — a different location.

A visit is possible only by prior arrangement with the staff and an organised tour. The grounds are well kept and clean, and visitors often meet a well-fed cat that lives there.