Gavriil Tikhov

Gavriil Adrianovich Tikhov (, 1 May 1875 – 25 January 1960) was a Soviet astronomer who was a pioneer in astrobiology and is considered to be the father of astrobotany. He worked as an observer at the Pulkovo Observatory from 1906 until 1941. After undertaking an expedition to Almaty to observe the solar eclipse of September 21, 1941, he remained and became one of the founders of the Kamenskoe Plateau Observatory, the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, and the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences.

Tikhov invented the feathering spectrograph by using the commonly occurring chromatic aberration to his advantage. By installing a ring-shaped diaphragm in front of the objective he enabled an observer to deduce the color and spectral class of a star very easily. He was one of the first to use color filters to increase the contrast of surface details on planets. He was appointed head of astrobotany in Alma-Ata, and investigated the possibility of life on other bodies in the Solar System.

The crater Tikhov crater on the Moon, the Martian crater Tikhov, and the asteroid 2251 Tikhov are named in his honor.