Royal Observatory, Edinburgh

Royal Observatory, Edinburgh

Gate and East Tower
Alternative names	Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
Organization	Science and Technology Facilities Council University of Edinburgh
Observatory code	277
Location	Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Coordinates	55°55′23″N 3°11′16″W / 55.92306°N 3.18778°W / 55.92306; -3.18778
Altitude	146 m
Established	1896
Website	www.roe.ac.uk
Telescopes
Student lab 50 cm reflector East Dome 90 cm Cassegrain reflector West Dome 40/60 cm Schmidt camera (removed 2010)
Location of Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
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The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (ROE) is an

The observatory carries out astronomical research and university teaching; design, project management, and construction of instruments and telescopes for astronomical observatories; and teacher training in astronomy and outreach to the public. The ROE Library includes the Crawford Collection of books and manuscripts gifted in 1888 by the 26th Earl of Crawford. Before it moved to the present site in 1896, the Royal Observatory was located on Calton Hill, close to the centre of Edinburgh, at what is now known as the City Observatory.

History

Calton Hill

The

When the Earl of Crawford learned of the plans to close the Royal Observatory, he offered to give the instruments of his own Dunecht observatory and his unique astronomical library to the nation on condition that the Government build and maintain a new Royal Observatory to replace the one on Calton Hill. Ralph Copeland was appointed third Astronomer Royal for Scotland and oversaw the move of the two observatories from Dunecht and Calton Hill to Blackford Hill. The new site was opened in April 1896.

The instruments to move into the domes were a 15-inch (38 cm)

On May 21, 1913, at 01:00, a bomb planted by suffragettes detonated. No one was inside the building but there was damage to floors and stone walls.^[1]

During the first half of the 20th century the ROE pursued the new fields of photographic and

Since 1967 the ROE had been operating a machine (GALAXY – General Automatic Luminosity And X-Y) to digitise photographic plates. After the opening of the UKST, this was upgraded to become the COSMOS (COordinates, Sizes, Magnitudes, Orientations and Shapes) machine in 1975. It operated until 1993 and was replaced by a new SuperCOSMOS machine. When in 1980 the Starlink Project was formed to support astronomical image processing in the UK, the ROE became one of the six original nodes of the Starlink network.

Over the years 1973–1979 the ROE built the 3.8-metre

After Malcolm Longair – ninth Astronomer Royal for Scotland – left in 1990, astronomy in Edinburgh underwent a period of re-organisation and uncertainty. Andrew Lawrence became Regius Professor of Astronomy in the University of Edinburgh, whereas the title of Astronomer Royal for Scotland went to John Brown of the University of Glasgow. For a while Paul Murdin was acting director of the ROE. In 1993 the observatories of the UK – the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO), the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, and the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawaii (operating UKIRT and JCMT) – came under the single directorship of Alec Boksenberg, until then director of the RGO.

In 1994 the SERC was split up and the ROE became part of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). In 1995 the merged observatories were dissolved into four independent entities. Having lost the UKST in 1988 – the ROE now also lost the UKIRT and the JCMT, operated by the independent Joint Astronomy Centre. ROE retained its role of building instruments for telescopes and satellites. It also became the UK project office for the construction of the Gemini Observatory, a pair of 8.1-metre telescopes run by seven countries.

A review of the Royal Observatories in 1996 concluded that the running of observatories and building of instruments should be put out to competitive tender, raising the fear of privatisation or closure. In 1997 this came to a halt and instead it was decided to reduce the RGO and the ROE into a smaller single astronomy technology centre. In 1998 the RGO was closed, while the ROE escaped lightly: The Plate Library and SuperCOSMOS machine were handed over to the University of Edinburgh, while the technology and project management expertise of the ROE – and to a lesser degree of the RGO – was retained by the newly formed UK Astronomy Technology Centre, which superseded the ROE as the Edinburgh establishment of the PPARC. (The ROE name remains as an umbrella term for UKATC; IfA, Edinburgh University; and the Visitor Centre).

Following the work on Gemini, the UK ATC was put in charge of managing the construction of the 4-metre f/1 VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy). In the tradition of the UKST this is a survey telescope with a wide field of view. It works in the infrared and uses an array of 16 large infrared detectors. The telescope is located at the Paranal Observatory of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). In 1962 five European countries had founded the ESO; the UK joined in 2002 as the tenth member country. VISTA was handed over to ESO in 2009 as part of the UK's joining fee.

Directors

Also Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy in the University of Edinburgh:

1. 1834–1844,
   Thomas Henderson
2. 1846–1888, Charles Piazzi Smyth
3. 1889–1905, Ralph Copeland
4. 1905–1910, Frank Dyson
5. 1910–1937,
   Ralph Sampson
6. 1938–1955, W.M.H. Greaves
7. 1957–1975, Hermann Brück
8. 1975–1980, Vincent Reddish
9. 1980–1990, Malcolm Longair

Directors of ROE or UK ATC after amalgamation and dissolution of "The Royal Observatories":

• 1995–1997, Stuart Pitt
• 1998–2004, Adrian Russell
• 2005–2012, Ian Robson
• 2012–present, Gillian Wright

Present day

Telescopes

The original 1894 building includes two cylindrical copper domes on top of the East and West Towers. These were refurbished in 2010.

The Crawford Collection has first editions of most books relevant to the history of astronomy. This includes many works by the likes of Brahe, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton. For the most part, Lord Lindsay collected this library in the 1870s and 1880s. An early addition was that of over 2500 items from Charles Babbage's library after his death in 1871.

Visitor Centre

The Visitor Centre hosts public events, including astronomy lectures and public open nights. The Observatory also holds classes, professional development courses, and other educational events for primary and secondary schools.^[5]

Gallery

• 
  East Tower with copper dome
• 
  Tower after replacement of copper
• 
  The observatory complex
• 
  A "flexure rig" for simulating the operational movement of instruments on telescopes as they change altitude
• 
  The Crawford labs of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre

See also

• List of astronomical observatories
• List of astronomical societies

References

• Reddish, V.C. (1976). Royal Observatory Edinburgh, annual report for the year ended 30 September 1976. Science Research Council.
  ISBN 0-902553-16-X
  .
• Brück, H.A. (1983). The story of astronomy in Edinburgh from its beginnings until 1975. Edinburgh University Press.
  ISBN 0-85224-480-0
  .
• Longair, M.S. (1983). Royal Observatory Edinburgh, research and facilities 1983. Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
• Longair, M.S. (1987). Royal Observatory Edinburgh, research and facilities 1987. Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
  ISSN 0267-6281
  .
• Pounds, K. (1995). "Alec Boksenberg moves to Cambridge University". Spectrum, Newsletter of the Royal Observatories, 9. p. 20.
  ISSN 1353-7784
  .
• Wall, J. (1996). Spectrum, Newsletter of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, 16.
  ISSN 1353-7784
  .
• Pitt, S. (1997). Royal Observatory Edinburgh, astronomy and technology. Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.

• Official website