Paris Observatory

The Paris Observatory ( Observatoire de Paris) was founded in 1667 by Louis XIV in the 17th century and is one of the most prestigious research centers of astronomy. It is in Paris in Avenue de l' Observatoire, and now has two offices in Meudon and Nançay and a workforce of approximately 800 employees.

History

The groundbreaking architecture of the main building was designed by Claude Perrault and completed in 1671. The Paris Observatory is the largest research institute of France and one of the most important in the world. It is divided into five departments, and various other sub-units and reports to the French Ministry of Education and Research. Under the director Henri -Alexandre Deslandres it merged in 1926 with the Meudon Observatory.

At her had including three astronomers from the Cassini family as observers and explorers in the outer solar system and as an observatory directors. Over time, many of the Paris astronomers were a member of the world's leading Paris Academy ( Académie des sciences ). A member of the Cassini family, Jacques Cassini was also of the meridian of Paris in 1718 - stipulated - one of many Nullmeridianen. He went through this observatory and thus also through Paris.

The large, built in 1870 reflecting telescope was by its construction and its low accessible mount - to them on a heavy spiral staircase was built - one of the best instruments of his time.

Among other things, the observatory achieved a hitherto unrivaled sharpness with the new photographic technology - especially when taking pictures of the Moon - and issued the famous Parisian Moon Atlas.

In geodesy and geophysics, the Observatory cooperated with other institutions, participated in all the major arc measurements and co-founded the BMPM and the Bureau Gravimetrique, who became the main centers of metrology and gravimetry.

Field offices

The Observatory Meudon was founded in 1875 and 1926, the observatory Paris affiliated. As a monitoring agency served the former castle Meudon, which was provided with a large dome to accommodate a telescope. It houses one of the largest refracting telescopes, a Doppelrefraktor with openings of 82 cm and 63 cm, which was installed in 1893. 1965 was built on a site belonging to the observatory at Meudon Meudon solar observation tower.

The Nançay radio telescope in the small community Nançay in the department of Cher was built in 1953.