An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Historically, observatories were as simple as containing an astronomical sextant or Stonehenge.
The Sphinx Observatory on a mountain top in the Swiss Alps at 3,571 m (11,716 ft)
Atacama Large Millimeter Array, Chile, at 5,058 m (16,594 ft)
Paranal Observatory, Chile, home of the VLT at 2,635 m (8,645 ft)
The Mauna Kea Observatories, Hawaii, home of several of the world's largest optical telescopes at 4,205 m (13,796 ft)
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole.
The Paranal Observatory of European Southern Observatory shooting a laser guide star to the Galactic Center
Astronomical Observatory, New South Wales, Australia 1873
19th-century Quito Astronomical Observatory is located 12 minutes south of the Equator in Quito, Ecuador.
The Suryaprajnaptisūtra, a 6th-century BC astronomy text of Jains at The Schoyen Collection, London. Above: its manuscript from c. 1500 AD.
