305
stellar coordinates. Especially the French observatories like Paris, Marseilles, Bordeaux,
Besançon, Nice, together with Algiers-Bouzaréah, Algeria, offer a homogeneous group
of meridian circles (Gautier, Eichens and Brunner). German meridian circles like Ertel
& Sohn of Munich, Pistor & Martins of Berlin and Repsold of Hamburg, can be found
also in central Europe, Russia, Washington D.C./USA, Argentina and Brazil.
In 1887, the French Academy of Sciences invited astronomers from all over the
world to attend an “International Congress of Astronomical Photography” in Paris,
organized by Ernest Mouchez (1821–1892) (Gingerich, 1984: 16–39). Eighteen
observatories in the Northern and Southern hemispheres
19
launched the photographic catalogue and a photographic mapping of the sky, using the same standard
instrument, the 34 cm-astrographic refractor (focal length 3.4-m), developed by the
19 Eighteen observatories were involved, four were later exchanged: Greenwich, Vatican, Catania/
Sicily, Helsinki, Potsdam & Uccle Observatory/Bruxelles, Oxford, Paris, Bordeaux, Algiers, San
Fernando, Tacubaya/Mexico, Santiago de Chile & Hyderabad/Egypt, La Plata & Cordoba/
Argentina, Rio de Janeiro/Brazil & Edinburgh, Cape, Sydney, Melbourne & Sydney, Paris. See
Wolfschmidt (2020): 77–79.
Fig. 8 80-cm-Reflecting telescope, Gautier of Paris, now Cassegrain with Zeiss mirrors (1:20), La
Plata Observatory, Argentina (photo: G. Wolfschmidt)
Cultural Heritage of Observatories in Context with the IAU–UNESCO Initiative…
stellar coordinates. Especially the French observatories like Paris, Marseilles, Bordeaux,
Besançon, Nice, together with Algiers-Bouzaréah, Algeria, offer a homogeneous group
of meridian circles (Gautier, Eichens and Brunner). German meridian circles like Ertel
& Sohn of Munich, Pistor & Martins of Berlin and Repsold of Hamburg, can be found
also in central Europe, Russia, Washington D.C./USA, Argentina and Brazil.
In 1887, the French Academy of Sciences invited astronomers from all over the
world to attend an “International Congress of Astronomical Photography” in Paris,
organized by Ernest Mouchez (1821–1892) (Gingerich, 1984: 16–39). Eighteen
observatories in the Northern and Southern hemispheres
19
launched the photographic catalogue and a photographic mapping of the sky, using the same standard
instrument, the 34 cm-astrographic refractor (focal length 3.4-m), developed by the
19 Eighteen observatories were involved, four were later exchanged: Greenwich, Vatican, Catania/
Sicily, Helsinki, Potsdam & Uccle Observatory/Bruxelles, Oxford, Paris, Bordeaux, Algiers, San
Fernando, Tacubaya/Mexico, Santiago de Chile & Hyderabad/Egypt, La Plata & Cordoba/
Argentina, Rio de Janeiro/Brazil & Edinburgh, Cape, Sydney, Melbourne & Sydney, Paris. See
Wolfschmidt (2020): 77–79.
Fig. 8 80-cm-Reflecting telescope, Gautier of Paris, now Cassegrain with Zeiss mirrors (1:20), La
Plata Observatory, Argentina (photo: G. Wolfschmidt)
Cultural Heritage of Observatories in Context with the IAU–UNESCO Initiative…