[2][3] Tserasky was born in Slutsk, Minsk where his father of Polish–Lithuanian descent was a geography teacher.

A visit of Donati's comet in 1858 sparked an interest in Tserasky and he joined Moscow University in 1867 where he spent time at the astronomical observatory (105).

He joined the astronomical observatory as an assistant and made a trip in 1874 to Kyakhta to make observations on the transit of Venus.

He then took an interest in astronomical photography and in 1883 he received a master's degree for techniques in determining the brightness of white stars.

He began to teach in the Higher school for women from the 1870s and married the astronomer Lidiya Petrovna Shelekhova in 1884.