The Besançon Observatory - Keeping time by the stars

Publié par Lieux Dits, le 01 avril 2012

72 pages

Résumé

Responding to demands of the clock and watch makers of Besançon and of the Besançon local authorities, a presidential decree of 11 March 1878 created at Besançon a new ‘astronomical, meteorological and chronometrical observatory’. Chronometry was at the origins of this new establishment and explains its originality. The clock and watch-making capital of France now had a tool to control its products and improve their qualities. One hundred and thirty years later, the departmental centre of the French weather-forecasting services for the Doubs and the Besançon observatory are still pursuing their original aims. The establishment today has a staff of about forty people, involved in astrophysics and time-frequency studies. At the request of local manufacturers, it has recently re-instated the certification of time pieces. This publication offers a history of the observatory and a glimpse of its rich architectural and instrumental heritage.

L'observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg

The Besançon Observatory - Keeping time by the stars

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