Observatory
a building devoted to the observation of astronomical, magnetic, meteorological, or other natural phenomena. The astronomical observatory is the one of most general interest. Astronomical observation began at an early date in China; the pyramids in Egypt seem in some way to have been associated with stellar observation; and the first historical observatory was founded in Alexandria 300 в. c. Its work was begun by Aristillus, and continued OCCULTATIONS by Timocharis, Hipparchus, Aristarchus, and others. The first European observatory was built at Nuremberg by Bernard Walther in 1472, and this was followed in the 16th century by Tycho Brahe's famous observatory on the island of Hveen, near Copenhagen. These were followed by the construction of the Royal Observatory at Paris (1667), the Greenwich Royal Observatory (1675), the Tusculan Observatory near Copenhagen (1704), Berlin (1705; new observatory 1835), Vienna (1756), Dublin (1785), Königsberg (1813), Sydney (1820), Cape of Good Hope (1820), Edinburgh (1825), Pulkowa near St. Petersburg (1839), Cambridge, Mass. (1839), Washington, D. C. (1845), Melbourne (1853) Lick Observatory, California (1888), and the Yerkes Observatory at Lake Geneva, Wis. (1897).
Dun Echt Observatory, the private observatory of the Earl of Crawford, near Aberdeen, Scotland, has attracted considerable attention as a center of distribution of astronomical telegraphic news, the Dun Echt circulars, in connection with the international code telegrams, being the medium of communication.
The chief instrument used in the observatory is the telescope, whether in the form of the equatorial or in the mural circle and transit instrument, together with the sidereal and the solar clock. In 1919 the Carnegie Institute installed a 100-inch reflector, largest in the world, in their Solar Observatory, Mt.
Wilson, Pasadena, Cal. The observatory building must be constructed in a very stable manner, and as the instruments must be out of contact with the walls they are attached to stone pillars that rest on foundations separate from the rest of the building.
OCAÑA, town in department of Santander, Colombia, 60 miles, N. W. of Pamplona. Region is rich in coffee, and is center of anise and hides trade carried on with Venezuela. Pop. about 18,000.