Union Observatory was an astronomical observatory located in the suburb Observatory, Johannesburg, South Africa. It bears IAU code 078.
Known as the Transvaal Observatory in its early years, it became the Republic Observatory in 1961. Well remembered for the quality of its Directors, work done on minor planets and the discovery of Proxima Centauri, growing light pollution problems in Johannesburg led to its closure in 1971-1972.
At that time the South African government decided to amalgamate all astronomical research into one body, which later became known as the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO); it has its headquarters in Cape Town and has Sutherland as its outstation. The main Cape telescopes were moved to Sutherland, and the Radcliffe Observatory at Pretoria was also dismantled.
Union Observatory went through a number of name changes:
- Transvaal Meteorological Department 1903 – 1909
- Transvaal Observatory 1909 – 1912
- Union Observatory 1912 – 1961
- Republic Observatory 1961 – 1971
Its directors were:
- Robert Innes 1903–1927
- Harry Edwin Wood 1927–1941
- Willem Hendrik van den Bos 1941–1956
- William Stephen Finsen 1957–1965
- Jan Hers 1965–1971
Famous quotes containing the words union and/or observatory:
“We must choose. Be a child of the past with all its crudities and imperfections, its failures and defeats, or a child of the future, the future of symmetry and ultimate success.”
—Frances E. Willard 1839–1898, U.S. president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union 1879-1891, author, activist. The Woman’s Magazine, pp. 137-40 (January 1887)
“Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)