Stockholm Observatory
Encyclopedia
Stockholm University
Stockholm University is a state university in Stockholm, Sweden. It has over 28,000 students at four faculties, making it one of the largest universities in Scandinavia. The institution is also frequently regarded as one of the top 100 universities in the world...
. Its history is connected to two actual historical observatory complexes in the Stockholm area.
The first observatory was established by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
on the initiative of its secretary Per Elvius. Construction, according to designs by the architect Carl Hårleman
Carl Hårleman
Baron Carl Hårleman was a Swedish architect.Hårleman was born in Stockholm, son of the garden architect and head of the royal parks and gardens Johan Hårleman, who hade been ennobled in 1698, and began his architectural training under Göran Josua Adelcrantz...
, was begun in 1748, and the building was completed in 1753. It is situated on a hill in a park nowadays named Observatorielunden
Observatorielunden
Observatorielunden is a park in Stockholm's Vasastaden district. It stretches over the steep hill Observatoriekullen, one of the last remnants of Brunkebergsåsen, the esker that once reached across much of Norrmalm but was mostly levelled during the development of that district...
. The first head of the observatory was Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin
Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin
Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin , Swedish astronomer and demographer....
. Later heads of the observatory include Hugo Gyldén
Hugo Gyldén
Johan August Hugo Gyldén was a Finland-Swedish astronomer primarily known for work in celestial mechanics....
and Bertil Lindblad
Bertil Lindblad
Bertil Lindblad Bertil Lindblad Bertil Lindblad (Örebro, 26 November 1895 – Saltsjöbaden (outside Stockholm, 25 June 1965) was a Swedish astronomer.After finishing his secondary education at Örebro högre allmänna läroverk, Lindblad matriculated at Uppsala University in 1914...
. This 18th century observatory today functions as a museum. 59°20′30"N 18°03′17"E
A newer observatory was built in Saltsjöbaden
Saltsjöbaden
Saltsjöbaden is a locality situated in Nacka Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 8,937 inhabitants in 2005. It is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea.- History :...
outside Stockholm and completed in 1931 (the architect this time being Axel Anderberg
Axel Anderberg
Axel Johan Anderberg was a Swedish architect active from the 1880s to the early 1930s...
). 59.27167°N 18.30833°W More recent astronomical observations, however, are almost exclusively being done in observatories outside Sweden and closer to the equator.
2001 housed in the AlbaNova University Centre.
The young Hjalmar Branting
Hjalmar Branting
was a Swedish politician. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party , and Prime Minister during three separate periods . When Branting came to power in 1920, he was the first Social Democratic Prime Minister of Sweden...
, later the first social democratic prime minister
Prime Minister of Sweden
The Prime Minister is the head of government in the Kingdom of Sweden. Before the creation of the office of a Prime Minister in 1876, Sweden did not have a head of government separate from its head of state, namely the King, in whom the executive authority was vested...
of Sweden, was employed as a mathematics assistant at the Stockholm Observatory 1879-1880 and 1882-1883.
External links
- Observatory Museum (The Old Stockholm Observatory)
- Stockholm Observatory, official website of new observatory