Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Oct 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001mkt..book..107l&link_type=abstract
Miklós Konkoly Thege (1842-1916). 100 Years of Observational Astronomy and Astrophysics - A collection of papers on the history
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
When the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope was authorized in 1820, getting an observatory built at all in a small, backward European colony was a struggle, and keeping the observatory going and scientifically productive required heroic efforts for decades afterwards. Good work was done, but for the `new astronomy' of spectroscopy and astrophysics there were no funds or equipment, and a crushing burden of routine astrometric work overtaxed the small staff available. All that would change when David Gill accepted `responsibility, acts of God and the King's enemies excepted'. Thoroughly aware of progress at major European observatories, many of which he visited to get ideas and establish contacts, Gill revolutionized what had become an astronomical backwater, leaving the Royal Observatory with quadrupled staff, modern instruments and methods, and few traces of the days when the first permanent southern hemisphere observatory consisted of poorly constructed instruments and a virtually useless clock, housed in a prefabricated wooden hut. Spectroscopic and astrophysical work acquired a firm foothold. The first scientific institute in sub-Saharan Africa, and the first permanent observatory in the southern hemisphere, had come of age.
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