Vienna observatory (before 1879)

Before the University of Vienna's current observatory was built, an earlier Vienna Observatory operated from 1753 to 1879 on the roof of a university building now occupied by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

About Vienna Observatory (before 1879)

Established in 1753, the observatory saw first light in 1756 and served as Vienna's centre for astronomical work for well over a century, before a new, purpose-built observatory succeeded it.

History

Its first director, the Jesuit astronomer Maximilian Hell, led the observatory from 1756 to 1792 and observed the 1769 transit of Venus. He was followed by Franz de Paula Triesnecker (1792–1817), Joseph Johann von Littrow (1819–1840), and Karl Ludwig von Littrow (1842–1877). Over the decades the observatory carried out longitude determinations, compiled star and planetary catalogues, published ephemerides, ran meteorological observations, and from 1822 helped regulate Vienna's tower clocks with precise timekeeping. A major reconstruction in 1825 upgraded its observation rooms and added rotating domed towers. The site's instruments included a six-inch Fraunhofer refractor, a zenith telescope, a universal instrument by Reichenbach, a vertical circle, a portable equatorial, a comet seeker, and astronomical pendulum clocks. Construction of a new, larger observatory ran from 1874 to 1879; it opened in 1877 and was formally inaugurated by Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1883, effectively bringing this earlier site's astronomical role to an end.

Location & getting there

The original site was in central Vienna, Austria; the building it once occupied is now part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Visiting

As a historic, superseded observatory, this specific site is no longer an operating astronomical facility; its former building can still be seen in central Vienna as part of the Academy of Sciences.

See your named star from here

This is where Vienna's astronomers once tracked planets, comets, and the transit of Venus by hand-ground lenses — a fitting piece of history for anyone naming a star of their own today. Name a star, or browse the catalogue of named stars.