Weekend escapade: star gazing at the Bucharest Astronomic Observatory

The recent partial solar eclipse was the kind of astronomic event which requires insights from professionals, like the ones to be found at the Admiral Vasile Urseanu Astronomic Observatory in Bucharest.

Built in the first decade of the last century, the building inaugurated in 1910, something the Romanian astronomy magazine Orion documented in its pages at the time. The history of the observatory, the only one open to the public in the capital city, begins in 1908 when local astronomer and scientist Victor Anestin started working with Admiral Vasile Urseanu to establish the premises of the institution.

The admiral would become the president of the Romanian Astronomy Society Camille Flammarion and would build the yacht-shaped house with an observation dome. Of the house, which he built through his own financial means, he used to say: “I built my house in shape of a yacht, with an observatory dome so I can look through a telescope and at the same time have the feeling that I’m floating at sea.”

The observatory was endowed at its opening with a 150 mm Zeiss telescope with a focal length of 2.7 meters, being the third largest in the country at the time. After the admiral died in 1926 the telescope was dismantled and the activity in the building stopped. In 1933 the admiral’s widow donated the building to the Bucharest municipality, under the condition that it keeps the memory of its initial use.

In May 1950 the observatory reopened for the public and a first exhibition on astronomy topics opened in 1952. Starting with the 60s, the observatory started being endowed with new equipment and in 1968 the Bucharest Astroclub, a group of amateur astronomers, was established here. After 1990 the building accommodated the headquarters of the Romanian Spatial Agency and in 1996 the Observatory was re-inaugurated as the Municipal Astronomic Observatory.

In 2008, the Observatory was endowed with a MEADE LX200R telescope with a diameter of 30 centimeters and a lens that allows Sun observation at a different wave length. In 2009 it inaugurated a new presentation called, Traveling through Universe, a virtual tour of the universe that several thousand visitors took part in so far.

Starting with October 2014 astronomic observations are being held at the Old Court (Curtea Veche) in the Old Town of Bucharest, close to Hanul lui Manuc. Observation sessions are held only if the sky is clear according to the following schedule.

The Astronomic Observatory can be visited individually or in groups. Guidance is free and available in Romanian and English.