Purple Mountain Observatory (Chinese: 紫金山天文台; pinyin: Zĭjīnshān Tiānwéntái), also known as Zijinshan Astronomical Observatory, is an astronomical observatory located on the Purple Mountain in Nanjing, China.
The longtime director of the observatory (from 1950 to 1984) was Zhang Yuzhe (张钰哲) (Y. C. Chang).
The observatory discovered the periodic comets 60P/Tsuchinshan and 62P/Tsuchinshan, and also the non-periodic C/1977 V1 (Tsuchinshan), also known as Comet 1977 X.
Many asteroids were also discovered at the observatory, including the Trojan asteroids 2223 Sarpedon, 2260 Neoptolemus, 2363 Cebriones, 2456 Palamedes, as well as the eponymous 3494 Purple Mountain.
Read more about Purple Mountain Observatory: Image Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words purple, mountain and/or observatory:
“Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)
“I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy,
The sleepless soul that perished in his pride;
Of him who walked in glory and in joy
Following his plough, along the mountain side:
By our own spirits are we deified:
We poets in our youth begin in gladness;
But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)