OBSERVATORY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Observatory

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/əbzˈərvətˌɔri/ Listen

noun

Observatory n. (pl. observatories)

A place or building for making observations on the heavenly bodies. "The new observatory in Greenwich Park."

A building fitted with instruments for making systematic observations of any particular class or series of natural phenomena.

A place, as an elevated chamber, from which a view may be observed or commanded.

(Mil.) A lookout on a flank of a battery whence an officer can note the range and effect of the fire; usually referred to as an observation post.

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Etymology of 'Observatory'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Observatory" Quotes from Famous Books

... the observatory of the British Association, detected, in 1850, sudden brightenings of the light, altogether different from pulsations. The theory would refer these to that fitful irregularity in the momentary intensity of the radial stream, which gives ...

— Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms - Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence • T. Bassnett

... little while, he said if I liked I might go with him to the observatory. But just as we were starting a funny little fellow stopped at the door with a wheelbarrow full of boxes of dishes. After Santa Claus had taken the boxes out and put them in the pack ...

— Lill's Travels in Santa Claus Land and other Stories • Ellis Towne, Sophie May and Ella Farman

... can't put it into yours."[132] {87} Wrong hypotheses, rightly worked from, have produced more useful results than unguided observation. But this is not the Baconian plan. Charles the Second, when informed of the state of navigation, founded a Baconian observatory at Greenwich, to observe, observe, observe away at the moon, until her motions were known sufficiently well to render her useful in guiding the seaman. And no doubt Flamsteed's[133] observations, twenty or thirty of them at least, were of ...

— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II) • Augustus De Morgan

... many-colored plumage in the beautifully-wrought and ornamented cage of the sparrow-hawk. But, in his present mood, the heir to the throne of Egypt had no eye for these rare sights; but ascended at once, by means of a hidden staircase, to the chambers lying near the observatory, where the high-priest was accustomed ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... ten o'clock before Jim could be persuaded to rise and get breakfast. She literally pulled him up the stairs to the observatory on ...

— The Foolish Virgin • Thomas Dixon

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