Leiden Southern Station

Leiden Southern Station was an astronomical observatory in South Africa, established through a partnership between Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands and the Union Observatory in Johannesburg.

About Leiden Southern Station

Founded in 1923, the station operated at an elevation of about 1,234 metres. It functioned as an annex to the Union Observatory from 1938 to 1954, before moving to Hartbeespoort in 1954 because of increasing light pollution at its original site. It remained in operation until 1978.

History

The first visitor from Leiden Observatory was the astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung. Over the decades, observers at the station catalogued around 6,000 double stars, and the site is linked to Robert Innes's discovery of Proxima Centauri. Its main instrument, a 91-cm Light Collector fitted with a Walraven photometer, was later moved to La Silla Observatory in Chile, where it remained in use until 2006.

Location & getting there

The station's former site is in South Africa, at an elevation of roughly 1,234 metres. Since 2004, the land has been operated by the Tshwane University of Technology as the Toppieshoek Outdoor Recreation and Leadership Development Centre, rather than as an active observatory.

Visiting Leiden Southern Station

Because the site is no longer run as an observatory, there's no public observing programme to visit; the location today serves as an outdoor recreation and leadership-development centre.

See your named star from here

Leiden Southern Station's astronomers once catalogued thousands of double stars from these southern skies. You can add your own to the record - name a star, or browse the catalogue of stars already named through Star Register.