Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada

Astronomical observatory of the Spanish Navy

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Observatory

Location of Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada

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The Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (Royal Institute and Observatory of the Spanish Navy) is the scientific institute and astronomical observatory of the Spanish Navy (Armada), located in San Fernando in the Province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain.

History

It was founded in 1753.^[1] Astronomy was of particular importance to the navy in the context of navigation.^[2] In 1790 the Royal Observatory in Madrid was built to take over the purely astronomical work of the facility at San Fernando.

Current activities

In recent years the observatory has been adversely affected by light pollution. However, it uses laser technology to monitor pieces of space junk.^[2]

The observatory operated a time ball so that ships at sea could synchronize their clocks. After better timekeeping at sea made it obsolete, it was disabled, but it was reactivated in the late 20th century every day at 13:00.^[3]

References

^ "1670. Se fundan los observatorios de París y Greenwich" (PDF) (in Spanish). Rafael Bachiller, Elmundo.es. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
^ ^a ^b Pontevedra, Silvia (November 2016). "The Spanish observatory tracking space junk with lasers". El Pais in English.
^ Atienza, Antonio (2018-06-30). "La bajada de la bola del Observatorio se escucha por martinete". Andalucía Información (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 November 2020.