 Main building of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope | |
| Organization | South African Astronomical Observatory |
|---|---|
| Observatory code | 051  |
| Location | Observatory, Cape Town |
| Coordinates | 33°56′05″S18°28′39″E / 33.9347°S 18.4776°E /-33.9347; 18.4776 |
| Altitude | 15m |
| Established | 20 October 1820 |
| Closed | 31 December 1971 |
| Telescopes | |
  Location of Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope | |
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TheRoyal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, is a former scientific institution in South Africa.[1] Founded by the BritishBoard of Longitude in 1820, its main building is now the headquarters building of theSouth African Astronomical Observatory.
The institution was located on a small hill 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) south-east from the centre ofCape Town. During the succeeding century a suburb of the city formed in the area; the suburb was namedObservatory after the pre-existing Royal Observatory. It was declared a National Heritage Site in December 2018[2] and has also been the subject of anICOMOS/IAU Case Study as aWorld Heritage Site.[3]
The proposal for a Southern observatory in all likelihood originated among the same group of people who founded theRoyal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom.[4] The official establishment of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope occurred on 20 October 1820[1] through anOrder in Council ofKing George IV of the United Kingdom. It remained a separate entity until 1972 when it was amalgamated with theRepublic Observatory Johannesburg to form the present-daySouth African Astronomical Observatory. Its site is now the headquarters of the South African Astronomical Observatory.
In accordance with its mandate, the principal activity of the Observatory wasastrometry, and it was over its existence responsible for publishing many catalogues of star positions. In the 20th century it turned in part towardsastrophysics, but by the nineteen-fifties the city lights of Cape Town had rendered work on faint objects impossible and a new site in theKaroo semi-desert was sought. An agreement to facilitate this was ratified on 23 September 1970.[5] Nevertheless, several telescopes remained in operation until the 1990s. These are rarely made use of today except for public outreach events.Alan Cousins was the last serious observer to work from the Royal Observatory site.
The Royal Observatory was responsible for a number of significant events in the history of astronomy. The second HM Astronomer,Thomas Henderson, aided by his assistant, Lieutenant William Meadows, made the first observations that led to a believable stellar parallax, namely ofAlpha Centauri. However, he lost priority as the discoverer ofstellar parallax toFriedrich Wilhelm Bessel, who published his own (later) observations of 61 Cygni before Henderson got around to his.[6][7]
Around 1840,Thomas Maclear re-measured the controversial meridian ofNicolas-Louis de La Caille, showing that the latter's geodetic measurements had been correct but that nearby mountains had affected his latitude determinations.[8][9]
In 1882,David Gill obtained long-exposure photographs of thegreat comet of that year showing the presence of stars in the background. This led him to undertake in collaboration withJ.C. Kapteyn of Groningen the Cape PhotographicDurchmusterung, the first stellar catalogue prepared by photographic means. In 1886, he proposed toAdmiral A.E.B. Mouchez of Paris Observatory the holding of an international congress to promote a photographic catalogue of the whole sky. In 1887 this congress took place in Paris and resulted in theCarte du Ciel project. The Cape Observatory was assigned the zone between declinations −40° and −52°. The Carte du Ciel is regarded as the precursor of theInternational Astronomical Union.
In 1897 Frank McClean, a close friend of Gill's and the donor of the McClean telescope, discovered the presence of oxygen in a number of stars using an objective prism attached to the Astrographic Telescope.[10]
In 1911, J.K.E. Halm, then the Chief Assistant, put forward a pioneering paper onstellar dynamics in which he hypothesized that the star streams discovered by Kapteyn arose from aMaxwellian distribution of stellar velocities. This paper also contains the first suggestion that stars obey a mass-luminosity relationship.[11]
A later 20th-century HM Astronomer, H. Spencer Jones, was active in an international project for determining the solar parallax through observations of the minor planetEros.[12]
In the second half of the twentieth century Alan Cousins set up very precise southern standards forUBV and introduced a widely used system ofVRI photometry that enjoyed international recognition for precision.[13]
In 1977 the occultation of the star SAO 158687 was observed by Joseph Churms from the former Royal Observatory, and these observations provided needed confirmation of theUranian rings discovered from theKuiper aeroplane by Elliot et al.[14]During the 19th century the Observatory was regarded as the main advisor to the colonial government on scientific matters. it served as the repository for standard weights and measures of the Colony and was responsible for timekeeping and geodetic surveying. A magnetic observatory was constructed in 1841 but burned down during the following decade. The Observatory also possesses a long series of meteorological records.
The history of the Royal Observatory has been the subject of several works.[15][16][17][18][19]
The Royal Observatory's directors were known as His or Her Majesty's Astronomers at the Cape. They were as follows:[17]
A full list of people who worked at the Royal Observatory and their publications, up to 1913, is given in Gill (1913).[15] Other notable staff included:
A heritage survey was recorded in 2011 of a complete list of the buildings at the Observatory.[20] They include:
Historically, the main building contained a 10 feet focal length Transit byDollond and a 6-feet Mural Circle by Thomas Jones. These were replaced by in 1855 by an 8-inch Transit Circle designed byGeorge Biddell Airy, Astronomer Royal at Greenwich. The Airy instrument was removed in 1950.[3] Some parts of these telescopes are in the Observatory's Astronomical Museum.
A 40-inch reflector byGrubb Parsons was installed in 1964 butmoved to Sutherland in 1972.
The former spectroscopic laboratory of the McClean telescope was converted into a museum in 1987, retaining the original 19th-century fittings. The building still contains the original hydraulic apparatus for raising the observing floor and a darkroom which contains specimens of darkroom equipment taken from various domes after photography went out of use.[22] Items on display include telescope models, measuring machines, altazimuth instruments by Dollond (1820) and Bamberg (ca 1900), calculating machines, early office equipment, early electronic devices, lenses from early telescopes including the photographic telescopes of Gill, a clockwork telescope drive, a signal pistol, chemistry equipment etc.
The Royal Observatory site is situated in the Two Rivers Urban Park, a wetland area. The underlying rock is Malmesbury shale with a zone of greywacke and quartzitic limestone. Some of its original ecology is preserved and it supports a wide variety of animals and plant life. It is the northern limit of theWestern Leopard Toad (Bufo Pantherinus) and the only remaining natural habitat of the rare iris,Moraea aristata.[23]
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