Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope
Main building of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope
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| Organization | South African Astronomical Observatory |
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| Code | 051 |
| Location | Observatory, Cape Town |
| Coordinates | 33°56′05″S 18°28′39″E / 33.9347°S 18.4776°ECoordinates: 33°56′05″S 18°28′39″E / 33.9347°S 18.4776°E |
| Altitude | 6m |
| Established | 20 October 1820 |
| Closed | 31 December 1971 |
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The Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, is the oldest continuously existing scientific institution in South Africa. Founded by the British Cape Colony in 1820, it now forms the headquarters building of the South African Astronomical Observatory.
The institution was located on a small hill 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south-east from the centre of Cape Town. Over the following century a suburb of the city grew up in the area; the suburb was named Observatory after the pre-existing Royal Observatory. It has also been the subject of an ICOMOS/IAU Case Study.
The Royal Observatory was founded in 1820 by an Order in Council of King George IV of the United Kingdom. It remained a separate entity until 1972 when it was amalgamated with the Republic Observatory Johannesburg to form the present-day South 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 was Astrometry and it was over its existence responsible for publishing many catalogues of star positions. In the 20th century it turned in part towards Astrophysics but by the nineteen-fifties the city lights of Cape Town had rendered work on faint objects impossible and a new site in the Karoo semi-desert was sought. An agreement to facilitate this was ratified on 23 September 1970. 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 of Alpha Centauri. However, he lost priority as the discoverer of stellar parallax to Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel who published his own (later) observations of 61 Cygni before Henderson got around to his. Around 1840, Thomas Maclear re-measured the controversial meridian of Nicolas-Louis de La Caille, showing that the latter's geodetic measurements had been correct but that nearby mountains had affected his latitude determinations In 1882 David Gill obtained long-exposure photographs of the great comet of that year showing the presence of stars in the background. This led him to undertake in collaboration with J.C. Kapteyn of Groningen the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung, the first stellar catalogue prepared by photographic means. In 1886 he proposed to Admiral 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 the Carte 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 the International Astronomical Union.
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