Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Observatory |
ObservatoryNoun1. A building designed and equipped to observe astronomical phenomena. 2. A structure commanding a wide view of its surroundings. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "observatory" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1791. (references) |
Etymology: Observatory \Ob*serv"a*to*ry\, noun; plural Observatories. [Compare to the French expression observatoire.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | OBSERVATORY, n. A place where astronomers conjecture away the guesses of their predecessors. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of viewing the heavens and beautiful landscapes from an observatory, denotes your swift elevation to prominent positions and places of trust. For a young woman this dream signals the realization of the highest earthly joys. If the heavens are clouded, your highest aims will miss materialization. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Food & Agriculture | A small building normally equipped with glass walls or windows permitting an unobstructed view on all sides, but not designed for living quarters. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An Observatory is a place with scientific instruments, often telescopes, for observing space.
Famous observatories include:
- Arecibo Observatory
- Kitt Peak National Observatory
- Lick Observatory
- Lowell Observatory
- Mount Wilson Observatory
- Mount Palomar Observatory
- Mount Stromlo Observatory
- Nice Observatory
- National Optical Astronomy Observatories
- Panzano Observatory
- Paris Observatory
- Royal Greenwich Observatory
- Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
- Uranienborg
- U.S. Naval Observatory
- Yerkes Observatory
See also:
- Volcano observatory
- Space observatory
- Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Observatory."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
There have been a large number of observatories launched into orbit, and most of them have greatly enhanced our knowledge of the cosmos. Going into space can sometimes be a necessity, since the Earth's atmosphere is blocking much of the infrared, ultraviolet, and X-Rays radiation that come from astronomical objects.Space observatories can generally be divided into two classes: missions which map the entire sky (surveys), and observatories which make observations of chosen parts of the sky.
Many space observatories have already completed their missions, while others are still operating. Satellites has been lauched by NASA, ESA and Japan space agency.
Satellites belonging to NASA's "Great Observatories" program:
Other notable space observatories:
- The Space Telescope (ST), now known as Hubble space telescope (HST) is the optical Great Observatory. It was launched to great acclaim and soon after discovered to be flawed. Its main mirror contained imperfections in its grinding that resulted from a certain production limitation being accounted for twice. It has now been fitted with the equivalent of spectacles to compensate for this.
- The Gamma ray Observatory (GRO), since renamed to The Compton Gamma ray Observatory, had to be disposed of after several years of productive life. Its gyroscopes began to fail and when it was down to its last gyroscope, the choice was to risk losing control or destroying the observatory. NASA ditched the bus-sized satellite into the Pacific Ocean in 2000.
- X-Rays are also represented in the Great Observatories, with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, renamed (from AXAF) in honor of the great Indian astrophysicist Chandrasekhar. This has been used to great effect to study distant galaxies and is still operational.
- The fourth observatory its called SIRTF (Space Infrared Telescope Facility). It's an infrared facility, launched on August 24, 2003.
See also:
- IRAS, which performed an all-sky survey in infrared, as well as discovering disks of dust and gas around many nearby stars, such as Fomalhaut, Vega and Beta Pictoris. This ceased functioning in 1982 and has since re-entered the atmosphere.
- ISO (Infrared Space Observatory), an ESA (European Space Agency) mission, followed IRAS and carried out observations at infra-red wavelengths.
- IUE (International Ultraviolet Explorer)
- SOHO is a solar observatory, it is operational and used for the study of the Sun's corona and magnetic environments. SOHO has revolutionised our knowledge of the Sun.
- Uhuru, the first (1970) X-Ray space observatory
- HEAO (High Energy Astronomy Observatories) 1 and 2, subsequent (1978) X-Ray space observatories
- Hipparcos was a satellite for measuring stellar parallax. Despite significant operational problems, it revised the Cepheid variable star distance scale to great accuracy and has been invaluable for all branches of observational astronomy by furnishing scientists with extremely accurate "standard candles" for measuring distances.
- Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes
- Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology
- Astronomy and astrophysics
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Space observatory."
Synonyms: ObservatorySynonyms: lookout (n), lookout station (n), observation tower (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
World | Astronomy; uranography, uranology; cosmology, cosmography, cosmogony; eidouranion, orrery; geodesy. (measurement); star gazing, star gazer; astronomer; observatory; planetarium. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Observatory |
| English words defined with "observatory": Flagstaff ♦ observation dome, Observatories ♦ Time ball, time-ball. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "observatory": Berlin Time ♦ CGRO, Coordinated Universal Time ♦ EXOSAT ♦ GAZEBO ♦ HEAO, HLT Central, Hubble Space Telescope, Human Language Technologies Central ♦ IRAF ♦ Lightning Imaging Sensor ♦ Mauna Loa record ♦ OSO 8 ♦ STring Oriented Interactive Compiler, SUNSPOT NUMBER. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Gir! Come to the observatory! (Invader ZIM; writing credit: Carel Donck) This is Santa's Magic Observatory. What wonderful intstruments (Santa Claus; writing credit: René Cardona; Adolfo Torres Portillo) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Lick Observatory (1968) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Preparations. Credit: NASA. |  | NASA's Servicing Mission 3B for the Hubble Space Telescope will give the orbiting observatory ... Credit: NASA. |
 | The National Virtual Observatory (NVO) will unite astronomical databases of many earthbound ... Credit: NASA. |  | Latitude observatory at Ukiah, California International program to determine variation of latitude. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Zenith telescope at the Ukiah Latitude Observatory Showing latitude levels Part of international effort to observe small changes in latitude. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | View from Buck Island Lagoon of east St. Croix. Telescope of National Radio Astronomy Observatory is visible. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Anchorage Naas Bay. Salmon Cove Observatory Inlet, B. C. In: Pacific Coast Pilot Alaska Part I 1883. P. 58. Library call number VK943 .N3 1883. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | The engineers who built the Marble Point landing strip - the first ground strip in Antartica. Back row - Bill McTigue, Navy Hydro Office; Commander Stephens, USN; __; Dr. Bob Nichols, Tufts University; front row - ___; Father Linehan, Wesson Observatory; ___. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | The new Atmospheric Research Observatory (ARO) replaced the old Clean Air Facility. This was built for NOAA's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | During the early 1980s, NSSL and University of Oklahoma researchers place TOTO (TOtable Tornado Observatory) in the path of an on-coming tornado. It would measure temperature, pressure, relative humidity etc. It would record the data on tape inside the 55 gallon drum. TOTO was hit by a small tornado only once in April, 1985. Credit: National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Henry Ward Beecher | The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | There he took a cabriolet, which carried him as far as the esplanade of the Observatory. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Poland was the second largest ICT market in the Central and Eastern European region, with 1999 overall expenditures of EURO 7 billion, which represented 17.9% growth over the previous year (per EITO, European Information Technology Observatory). (references) | |
The European Information Technology Observatory (EITO) predicted in July 2000 that Germany would become the largest e-commerce market in Europe in 2001. Other prognoses are less optimistic, but still estimate that German society will reach a critical mass in using the Internet for commerce in the early years of the next century. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Togo | The Togolese Media Observatory (OTM), an NGO, was established in November 1999 to protect press freedom and to improve the professionalism of journalists. (references) |
Human Rights | Morocco | In addition, there is the Moroccan Prison Observatory (OMP), an NGO formed in 2000, which also supports the improvement of prison conditions. (references) |
Algeria | The Interior Ministry and the National Observatory of Human Rights (ONDH) have stated publicly that the Government would punish those persons who violated the law and practiced torture. (references) | |
Political Economy | Cameroon | Early in the year, President Biya proposed and the National Assembly passed a bill to create a National Election Observatory. (references) |
Political Rights | Cameroon | The Observatory was implemented in October. (references) |
Senegal | Following a complaint filed by the National Observatory of Elections (ONEL), the documents were cancelled. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Morocco | The National Observatory for Child Welfare provided legal counsel to victims of abuse. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Observatory" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.64% of the time. "Observatory" is used about 220 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.64% | 217 | 20,530 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.36% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 220 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
1. Observatory, PA |
Expression using "observatory": Royal Greenwich Observatory. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "observatory": geo-observatory. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "observatory"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | observator, pikë vëzhgimi (observation point). (various references) | |
Arabic | مرقب (spotting), مرصد فلكي. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | обсерватория, наблюдателен пункт. (various references) | |
Chinese | 观测所 (Observatories), 天文台 . (various references) | |
Czech | observatoř, hvìzdárna. (various references) | |
Danish | glashus til udkigsmand (lookout cabin, lookout cupola, tower cupola). (various references) | |
Dutch | observatiecabine (lookout cabin, lookout cupola, tower cupola). (various references) | |
Farsi | زیچ , رصدخانه . (various references) | |
Finnish | tähtitorni. (various references) | |
French | observatoire (observation), coupole d'observation, cabine observatoire. (various references) | |
German | sternwarte, observatorium. (various references) | |
Greek | μετεωροσκοπείο, παρατηρητήριο (obserbation post, observation post, watch tower, watchtower), ωδείο (conservatoire, conservatory), αστεροσκοπείο, δώμα πυροφυλακείου (lookout cabin, lookout cupola, tower cupola). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מצפ" כוכבים (planetarium). (various references) | |
Hungarian | obszervatórium, csillagvizsgáló (star-gazer), csillagvizsgáló intézet. (various references) | |
Indonesian | observatorium. (various references) | |
Italian | osservatorio (look out). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 観測所 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | か"そくじょ. (various references) | |
Korean | 관측소 (Observatories). (various references) | |
Manx | thie rollageydys. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | observatoryay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | observatório, terraço (balcony, gazabo, gazebo, platform, terrace), mirante (belvedere, gazabo, gazebo), cabina de observação (lookout cabin, lookout cupola, tower cupola). (various references) | |
Romanian | observator (columnist, correspondent, envoy, looker, lookout, observer, onlooker, scout, spectator, spy), punct de observaţie (outlook). (various references) | |
Russian | обсерватория. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | osmatračnica (crow's nest, look out, lookout, outlook, watch tower), opservatorija. (various references) | |
Spanish | observatorio (hide). (various references) | |
Swedish | observatorium. (various references) | |
Thai | หอสังเกตการ"์. (various references) | |
Turkish | rasathane, gözlem evi. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | спостережний пункт (observation post, outlook), спостережний (observational, supervisory), оглядова башта, обсерваторія. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tháp canh (donjon), chòi canh (watch-tower), đ i thiên văn đ i quan trắc, đ i quan sát (o.pip). (various references) | |
Welsh | arsyllfa. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Observatory" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: observatoire, observator, observatorium, obser-vatory, Obserwator, Osservatore. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "observatory" (pronounced ubzer"vutô'rē) |
| 6 | -v u t ô' r ē | lavatory. |
| 5 | -u t ô' r ē | accusatory, aleatory, ambulatory, anticipatory, articulatory, auditory, celebratory, circulatory, compensatory, conciliatory, confirmatory, confiscatory, congratulatory, contributory, declaratory, defamatory, depilatory, depository, derogatory, dilatory, discriminatory, laboratory, laudatory, dormitory, excretory, exculpatory, expiratory, explanatory, exploratory, hallucinatory, incantatory, inflammatory, inhibitory, interrogatory, investigatory, mandatory, migratory, nondiscriminatory, obligatory, oratory, oscillatory, participatory, predatory, preparatory, prohibitory, purgatory, reformatory, regulatory, repository, respiratory, retaliatory, revelatory, signatory, statutory, territory, transitory. |
| 4 | -t ô' r ē | desultory, multistory, repertory, understory. |
| 3 | -ô' r ē | allegory, category, outlawry, promissory. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-e-o-o-r-r-s-t-v-y" | |
-2 letters: overstory. | |
-3 letters: aborters, botryose, overstay, sororate, taborers. | |
-4 letters: aborter, arbores, arroyos, barrets, barters, barytes, betrays, boaster, boaters, booster, bootery, borates, bravers, bravery, bravest, bravoes, brayers, obovate, obverts, orators, oratory, rebatos, reboots, roaster, robotry, rooster, rooters, rosebay, royster, savorer, seaboot, sorbate, starver, strayer, stroyer, taborer, toreros, trovers. | |
-5 letters: aborts, aboves, arbors, arrest, arroyo, artery, averts. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Cities | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
