The Institute of Astronomy of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is a leading Bulgarian research facility in the field of astronomy and astrophysics, located in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The institute cooperates closely with the other two structures involved in the same field of research in the country - the Department of Astronomy at Faculty of Physics of Sofia University, and the Astronomical center at Faculty of Natural Sciences of Shumen University.
It owns and operates the Bulgarian National Rozhen Observatory (1750 m), located in the Rhodopi mountains in South-East Bulgaria, as well as the Belogradchik Observatory (650 m), situated at the foot of the Western Balkan Mountains in North-West Bulgaria.
The institute was inaugurated in 1958, as an independent section of the larger Institute of Physics of BAS by academician Nikola Bonev. In 1995 it became a separate institute. Current director of the institute is Prof. Dr. Tanyu Bonev. Deputy-director is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alexander Antov.
Following a reorganization in the structure of its departments in 2010 researchers at the institute were divided in four departments: "Sun and Solar System" (Head: Dr. T. Bonev), "Stars and stellar systems" (Head: Dr. I. Iliev), "Galaxies" (Head: Dr. B. Mihov), and "Astroinformatics" (Head: Dr. V. Popov). These four came to replace the previous (up to 2010) division in seven sectors: "Sun", "Solar system", "Non-stationary stars", "Stellar atmospheres and envelopes", "Chemically peculiar stars", "Stellar clusters", and "Galaxies".