ROYAL OBSERVATORY EDINBURGH

The history of the Royal Edinburgh Observatory begins when the first Chair of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh was established in 1786, even though astronomy has been taught there since 1583! Initially the Playfair Observatory in Calton Hill, it became a royal observatory during George IV's visit to Scotland in 1822. Scotland's first royal astronomer, Thomas James Henderson, was appointed in 1834. Henderson was the first astronomer to determine the distance from the stars using the parallax technique (using angles), a feat that made him one of Britain's most famous astronomers. The following decades saw significant progress in research. But in the absence of a technological revolution, the Royal Observatory appeared outdated at the end of the 19th century, both in terms of its instruments and its buildings, which had become unsuitable. Operating budgets are affected and the observatory is about to disappear.... However, this is without the generosity of the Earl of Crawford: in exchange for donating to the nation the contents of his remarkably well-equipped observatory in Aberdeenshire (northeast Scotland) and his entire magnificent library (one of the largest collections of astronomical books in the world), the government agrees to build and maintain a new royal observatory on the Blackford Hill site! New Observatory was created in 1896. Its design is based on buildings with carefully chosen architecture and design to provide both a quality public monument and a fully exploitable research centre. Later, the observatory regained its status at the forefront of British astronomy.... In 1930, a 91 cm diameter telescope was installed in the east dome, and in 1951 a 61 cm Schmidt telescope (specialized in photography) was installed in the west dome. From 1957 onwards, the observatory became a leader in the field of automatic plate analysis, a technique that gave birth in the early 1970s to the first computers dedicated to this type of complex work. However, the 1970s - and even more so the following decade - saw the rise of another astronomy, this time from high quality high altitude sites in the Canary Islands, Chile or Australia. The Royal Edinburgh Observatory is no exception to this trend and is developing telescopes, particularly at the top of Hawaii. Nowadays the site is a centre of astrophysical scientific research at the forefront.

While in the region, a visit to this observatory is an absolute must! Located south of Edinburgh City, you have to take the Observatory Road to get there (we would have guessed it!) before discovering its architecture and atypical towers. Even if there are not many instruments to contemplate on the spot, the general British atmosphere, especially during public evenings, is to be experienced at least once.