City Observatory ,Calton Hill

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City Observatory , Calton Hill

This is the City Observatory, which dates back to 1812 (the dome on the left) and 1896 (the dome on the right). Another building, Observatory House, is the oldest and was built in 1776. I wondered if the observatory had anything to do with the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and it turns out that it does, or did — it was the site for ROE between 1822 (when it became royal) and 1896, when it moved to its present location south of Edinburgh. Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and pyramidologist extraordinaire, would have worked here. Slight personal connection: long time ago, I was a summer vacation scholar at the UK Schmidt Telescope Unit (in Australia, despite the name) which was originally operated by ROE. There were still a lot of links with ROE when I was there, with staff coming from and going to there, and the results of observing runs being sent off to their plate library. Today, the City Observatory is run by the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh, which holds observing nights there every month( source: http://airminded.org/2008/02/28/edinburgh-2/).