Anni Kasikov

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet!

I'm Anni, an astrophysics PhD student at University of Tartu, Estonia. I'm currently working at European Southern Observatory in Chile.

My research is in the field of massive stars, unraveling the evolution of yellow hypergiants. My supervisors are: Dr. Indrek Kolka (UT), Dr. Anna Aret (UT) and Dr. Andrea Mehner (ESO Chile).

I am a passionate observer!
I have worked at the 1.5 m telescope in Tartu Observatory and in 2021-2023 I was a student support astronomer at the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma.

Contact information

Email: anni.kasikov[at]ut.ee or anni.kasikov[at]eso.org

Anni Kasikov
Tartu Observatoorium
61602 Tõravere, Tartumaa
ESTONIA

Affiliations:

Junior research fellow, University of Tartu

Student, European Southern Observatory

Physics Of Extreme Massive Stars

EXOHOST

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Publications

My CV in the Estonian Research Information System in Estonian and in English.
Find me on ORCID.

Find all the awesome collaborations I have been a part of on ADS.

Recent work:

Screenshot of the first page of the scientific paper.

Kasikov, A., Kolka, I., Aret, A., Eenmäe, T., Borthakur, S. P. D., Checha, V., Mitrokhina, V., Yang, S., (2025) “Atmospheric dynamics of the hypergiant RW Cep during the Great Dimming”, Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 694

Kasikov, A., Kolka, I., and Aret, A., (2024) “The post-outburst evolution of RW Cep”, presentation at the conference Physics of Extreme Massive Stars.

Screenshot of the first page of the scientific paper in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Kasikov, A., Kolka, I., Aret, A., Eenmäe, T., and Checha, V., (2024) “Yellow hypergiant V509 Cas: Stable in the `yellow void'”, Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 686

Outreach activities

Presentations & press releases

Hydrodynamics and related problems (I): Convection online lecture series organised by IAU G2 commision on massive stars (2024).
"Kollased hüperhiiud elavad lühikest, ent tempokat elu" 3-minute science presentation in University of Tartu (2024), in Estonian.
"Pilgud taevasse! Lähipäevil võib nautida tähesadu" An article in Tartu Postimees about the Perseid meteor shower (2024), in Estonian.
"Malevlased teevad observatooriumis tipptasemel teadustööd" I was featured in an article in Tartu Postimees about supervising middle/high school students in the summer (2024), in Estonian.
"Yellow hypergiant V509 Cas - stable in the 'Yellow Void'" presented in the astronomy seminar at Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina (2023).
"Journey into the 'Yellow Void'" presented in the Tartu Observatory seminar (2023).
"Following V509 Cas into the Void with FIES" at the conference "NOT - a Telescope for the Future" (La Palma, 7-10 June 2022).
"About Betelgeuse" (Est. "Betelgeuse elust ja olust") in UT Old Observatory (2020), presentation in Estonian.
"When stargazing is more than just entertainment " A little interview in "Estonia-Latvia stories" about my SpaceTEM internship at the Baldone Observatory in Latvia (2021).

Tours in Tartu Observatory

Whenever I'm in Estonia, I give tours in the obsevatory and stellarium, find out more about it here and book a visit!

Photo gallery

Telescopes at Roque de Los Muchachos.

Night sky image featuring the Milky Way and telescopes at La Silla observatory.

Milky way from La Silla.

Daytime picture of the sun behind the telescope. It is a cold winter day and the sun's halo is visible surrounding the telescope dome.

Solar halo on a cold day.

Telescopes at Roque de Los Muchachos, snow has fallen at the mountaintop.

Snow has fallen on roque.

A nighttime panorama of Los Llanos city and Cumbe Vieja volcano in the background.

Cumbre Vieja volcano and the city Los Llanos.

View towards the Nordic Optical Telescope during sunset, the sun has painted the mountain with a red hue.

Sunset at the NOT.

A nighttime picture of the Cherenkov Telescope Array featuring the Large Size and MAGIC groups of telescopes on La Palma. The telescope mirror reflects the starry night sky.

MAGICal night.

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