History of the Observatory

In 1858, a group of wealthy Pittsburgh business people decided to purchase a large telescope after witnessing the passing of Donati's comet that winter. Their idea was simply to buy a hobby telescope with which their fellow citizens could marvel at the night sky. But as big-thinking industrialists, they decided to purchase one of the largest telescopes available. And that meant they needed to construct a building to house it. Thus, the first Allegheny Observatory was born in 1859.

The hobbyists didn't realize that an astronomical observatory needs a great deal of care and upkeep by dedicated experts. And so they decided to donate the observatory to the Western University of Pennsylvania (which would become the University of Pittsburgh). The University sought out a young astronomer by the name of Samuel Langley to become its first scientifiic director in 1867. Later, in 1900, telescope instrument maker John Brashear began making plans and collecting donations to build a newer, much larger observatory in Pittsburgh's Riverview Park.

Among its distinctions:

• The Allegheny Observatory has the 3rd largest refracting telescope in the United States.
• The Allegheny Observatory achieved world-wide fame among astronomers for star mapping of the highest precision. Until recent improvements in star mapping by satellites, the Allegheny Observatory was responsible for determining 40% of the known stellar distances.
• The Allegheny Observatory was the site of a famous lens-napping! The 13" objective lens of the Fitz telescope had been stolen, and a ransom note demanded money for the safe return of the lens. Professor Langley refused to pay the ransom, and negotiated its return. The lens was recovered, but it had large scratches on it. The lens was sent for re-grinding to remove the scratches and came back far better than the original lens had been.
• James Keeler pioneered precision spectroscopy at the Allegheny Observatory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among his discoveries was proof of the particulate nature of Saturn’s rings, discovery of clouds on the planet Venus, and the earliest studies of interstellar nebulae.
• The Allegheny Observatory possesses over 110,000 photographic plate exposures of star positions dating back to 1914—one of the largest such collections in the world.
• The Allegheny Observatory was the site of Samuel Pierpont Langley’s major achievements in science and technology.
• The Allegheny Observatory was also the central site connected with John Brashear’s remarkable achievements.