Centenary of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, 1888–1988

In 1888 the forcu~es of Edinburgh's Royal Observatory, then situated on the Calton Hill, were at their lowest ebb. The buildings were inadequate, the instruments outmoded, the site smoky, the budget paltry. Piazzl Smyth, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, felt forced to give up his long struggle for proper Government support for the Observatory. He resigned on the 15th August 1888 and a Royal Commission on the Scottish Universities recommended that the Edinburgh Observatory should cease to be a national institution and that its buildings should be handed over to the University.