Radcliffe Observatory

Radcliffe Observatory
Woodstock Road, Oxford
Coordinates	51°45′39″N 1°15′50″W / 51.7608°N 1.2639°W / 51.7608; -1.2639
Construction started	1772
Completed	1794
Owner	Green Templeton College
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Henry Keene and James Wyatt
Designations	Listed Grade I

Radcliffe Observatory was the

of the University of Oxford.

History

The observatory was founded and named after

.

The observatory building commenced to designs by Henry Keene in 1772, and was completed in 1794 to the designs of James Wyatt, with a prominent octagonal tower based on the Tower of the Winds in Athens. Its tower is topped with a statue by John Bacon of Atlas holding up the World.

Until 1839, the

an astronomer with no observational experience caused the creation of the new role of Radcliffe Observer.

Because of the viewing conditions, weather, urban development and light pollution at Oxford, the observatory moved to South Africa in 1939. Eventually that site, in Pretoria, also became untenable and the facility was combined with others into the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in the 1970s.

The building is now used by

.

University of London Observatory

when the Radcliffe Observatory closed.

Radcliffe Observers

The following have been Radcliffe Observers:^{[citation needed]}

• 1839 Manuel John Johnson
• 1860 Robert Main
• 1879 Edward James Stone
• 1897
  Arthur Alcock Rambaut
• 1924 Harold Knox-Shaw
• 1950
  David Thackeray

Gallery

See also

• Observatory Street to the north
• Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, a local development project
• Tower of the Winds

References

Further reading

• Sherwood, Jennifer;
  ISBN 0-14-071045-0
  .
• Tyack, Geoffrey (1998). Oxford An Architectural Guide. Oxford & New York:
  ISBN 0-19-817423-3
  .
• Tyack, Geoffrey (2000). "The making of the Radcliffe Observatory" (PDF). The Georgian Group Journal. X.

External links

• Media related to Radcliffe Observatory at Wikimedia Commons