![[Flag]](../images/g/ge-adig.gif)
![[Coat of arms]](../images/g/ge)adig.gif)
Last modified: 2019-06-24 by ivan sache
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Flag and arms of Adigeni - Images by The State Council of Heraldry at the Parliament of Georgia, 8 December 2018
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The symbols of Adigeni are prescribed by Decree No. 10, adopted on 28 May 2010 by the Municipal Council.
The State Council of Heraldry at the Parliament of Georgia, 8 February 2011
The flag is green with a blue St. Andrew's cross outlined in white, superimposed in the centre with a blue disc fimbriated in white. The disc is charged with seven luminaries; five of the are seven-pointed white stars. The upper left luminary is a nine-rayed yellow sun, while the upper right luminary is a white crescent inscribed in a ten-pointed body. The sun and moon are bigger in size than the stars.
The luminaries are featured in the municipal coat of arms, forming an arc over a yellow telescope, the whole placed on a blue field.
The colors of the flag and arms are taken from historical documents of the 18th-19th centuries, mostly the green coat of arms designed for South Georgia by Vakhushti Bagrationi.
Green and blue express the aspiration of Adigeni residents to freedom, hope for future, dignity and honesty, also the welfare of the region.
The St. Andrew's cross recalls that the saint allegedly stayed for one night in the village of Benara.
The luminaries and the telescope the Abastumani astrophysical observatory.
[State Council of Heraldry at the Parliament of Georgia]
The Evgeny Kharadze Abastumani National Astrophysical Observatory was founded in 1932 on Mount Khanobili, around 240 km from Tbilisi, and 30 km in the north-west from Akhaltsikhe, at an altitude of 1700 meters above sea level.
Mount Khanobili is characterized by unique conditions for astronomical observations. As early as in the 1890s, prominent Russian astronomer Sergey Glazenap (1848-1937) spent two seasons in Abastumani, the renowned Caucasus winter resort. He measured locations of close double stars with a small lens telescope in a tower, which is still known as “Glazenap tower†and which is currently located in the vicinity of the observatory. Glazenap's measurements produced excellent scientific results: calm atmospheric conditions and expert observations enabled him to measure close double stars, which typically are almost indistinct under normal conditions.
Glazenap's observations immediately attracted astronomers' attention. His publication Orbites des étoiles doubles du catalogue de Poulkova was awarded the Valz Prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 1890.
Russian scientists repeatedly proposed to build a mammoth astronomical observatory near Abastumani, but only in 1930-1931 was an appropriate location for the new observatory selected is the southern part of Georgia by the members of the special expedition of the Leningrad Astronomical Institute, Tbilisi Geophysical Observatory and other state institutions.
Abastumani surroundings became the focus of attention due to the peaceful atmosphere and singularly favorable conditions for observation. However, “Glazenap tower†site could not meet the requirements for the new observatory. Finding a place with more space which provided the same conditions for observation was necessary. Precisely then, Mount Khanobili, the extensive area of land with more beneficial astronomic climate, was "discovered".
The first buildings were erected, telescopes installed and the first observations conducted in the fall of 1937; these observations later became of larger scale thanks to the newly constructed observatories, as well as the implementation of new technologies and facilities.
The Abastumani National Astrophysical Observatory, now a research intitute of Ilia State University, is equipped with eoght telescopes for viewing stars and another seven solar telescopes (including a spectrohelioscope, two coronographs and two radiotelescopes). Measurements and observations yield some 30 papers in intenational, peer-reviewed journals each year.
[Ilia State University]
