Allahabad Observatory

In Jhusi, a suburb of Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) in Uttar Pradesh, India, the Allahabad Observatory occupies a quietly significant spot: the exact meridian line that defines time for the whole country.

About Allahabad Observatory

The observatory sits at 25.15°N, 82.5°E, directly on the 82.5°E meridian chosen as the reference line for Indian Standard Time (IST), fixed at 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. That meridian was picked for lying near the centre of India's longitudinal span, and the observatory was tasked with calculating local time as a reference point for the country's single time zone.

History

The push for a unified Indian time zone grew out of the railway network of the 1850s, which needed standardised schedules across regions that had each kept their own local time. In 1905 the 82.5°E meridian, east of Allahabad, was chosen for a single national time zone, and IST was officially adopted on 1 January 1906, with the Allahabad Observatory established around that period to support the new standard.

Location & getting there

The observatory lies in Jhusi on the outskirts of Prayagraj, in India's Uttar Pradesh state, marking the meridian line that still anchors the country's clocks more than a century later.

Visiting Allahabad Observatory

No public website or visiting details are available for the observatory; today, India's precise official timekeeping is managed by the National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi using atomic clocks, so travellers curious about the site should check locally before visiting.

See your named star from here

A place built around fixing time and position is a fitting backdrop for the fixed celestial coordinates behind a named star. Name a star through Star Register or explore the star catalogue to find one you can locate from anywhere in India, Allahabad included.