Bosscha Observatory is the oldest modern

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and one of the oldest in Asia. The observatory is located in

Lembang Lembang is a town and administrative village of West Bandung Regency in the province of West Java on Java, Indonesia. The town has about 17,000 inhabitants (at census 2010). The population of the Lembang District was 173,350 at the 2010 Census. ...

West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

, approximately north of

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

. It is situated on a hilly six hectares of land and is

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

plateau. The

IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach ...

observatory code for Bosscha is 299.

History

During the first meeting of the ''Nederlandsch-Indische Sterrekundige Vereeniging'' (Dutch-Indies Astronomical Society) in the 1920s, it was agreed that an

was needed to study

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

. Of all locations in the Indonesia archipelago, a

tea plantation Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

in Malabar, a few kilometers north of

was selected. It is on the hilly north side of the city with a non-obstructed view of the sky and with close access to the city that was planned to become the new capital of the Dutch colony, replacing Batavia (present-day

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

). The observatory is named after the tea plantation owner

Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha, sometimes known as KAR Bosscha or Ru Bosscha (The Hague, 15 May 1865 – Malabar, Indonesia, 26 November 1928) was a planter, philanthropist and administrator of the Malabar Plantation in Bandung, Indonesia. Life ...

, son of the physicist

Johannes Bosscha Johannes Bosscha Jr. (18 November 1831 – 15 April 1911) was a Dutch physicist. Bosscha came from a family long known for their academic achievements. His great-grandfather and grandfather were classical scholars. His father, Johannes Bosscha ...

and a major force in the development of science and technology in the Dutch East Indies, who granted six hectares of his property for the new observatory. Construction of the observatory began in 1923 and was completed in 1928. Since then a continuous observation of the sky was made. The first international publication from Bosscha was published in 1922. Observations from Bosscha were halted during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and after the war a major reconstruction was necessary. On 17 October 1951, the Dutch-Indies Astronomical Society handed over operation of the observatory to the

government of Indonesia The term Government of Indonesia ( id, Pemerintah Indonesia) can have a number of different meanings. At its widest, it can refer collectively to the three traditional branches of government – the executive branch, legislative branch and ju ...

. In 1959 the observatory's operation was given to the

Institut Teknologi Bandung The Bandung Institute of Technology ( id, Institut Teknologi Bandung, abbreviated as ITB) is a national research university located in Bandung, Indonesia. Since its establishment in 1920, ITB has been consistently recognized as Indonesia's premier ...

and has been an integral part of the research and formal education of astronomy in Indonesia.

Facilities

Five large

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

s were installed in Bosscha: # The Zeiss double refractor #:This telescope is mainly used to observe visual

binary star A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

s, conduct photometric studies on

eclipsing binaries A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

, image

lunar crater Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The wor ...

s, observe planets (

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

and

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

) and to observe

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

details and other heavy bodies. The telescope has two

objective lens In optical engineering, the objective is the optical element that gathers light from the object being observed and Focus (optics), focuses the ray (optics), light rays to produce a real image. Objectives can be a single Lens (optics), lens or mirr ...

es with a diameter of each and a

focal length The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system converges light, while a negative foca ...

of . # The Schmidt telescope (nicknamed the ''Bima Sakti'', or "Milky Way" telescope) #: This telescope is used to study galactic structure,

stellar spectra Astronomical spectroscopy is the study of astronomy using the techniques of spectroscopy to measure the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray, infrared and radio waves that radiate from stars and othe ...

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

studies,

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

e, and to photograph heavy bodies. The main lens diameter is , the correcting bi-concave and convex lens is with a focal length of . It is also equipped with a

spectral ''Spectral'' is a 2016 3D military science fiction, supernatural horror fantasy and action-adventure thriller war film directed by Nic Mathieu. Written by himself, Ian Fried, and George Nolfi from a story by Fried and Mathieu. The film stars ...

prism Prism usually refers to: * Prism (optics), a transparent optical component with flat surfaces that refract light * Prism (geometry), a kind of polyhedron Prism may also refer to: Science and mathematics * Prism (geology), a type of sedimentary ...

with a prime angle of 6.10 degrees for stellar spectra, a wedge sensitometer and a

film recorder A film recorder is a graphical output device for transferring images to photographic film from a digital source. In a typical film recorder, an image is passed from a host computer to a mechanism to expose film through a variety of methods, hi ...

. # The Bamberg refractor #: This telescope is used to determine

stellar magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's ...

stellar distance The cosmic distance ladder (also known as the extragalactic distance scale) is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A ''direct'' distance measurement of an astronomical object is possible o ...

, and photometric studies of eclipsing stars, solar imaging, and others. It is equipped with a photoelectric

photometer A photometer is an instrument that measures the strength of electromagnetic radiation in the range from ultraviolet to infrared and including the visible spectrum. Most photometers convert light into an electric current using a photoresistor, ph ...

, has a lens diameter with meter of focal length. # The Cassegrain GOTO #: This was a gift from the

Japanese government The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...

. This computer controlled telescope can automatically view objects from a database and this was the first digital telescope at Bosscha. The telescope is also equipped with a

and spectrometer-spectrograph. # The Unitron refractor #: This telescope is used for observing

hilal Hilal or Al-Hilal may refer to: *Hilal ( ar, هلال, ''hilāl''), a crescent ** the crescent Moon visible after a new Moon, determining the beginning of a month in the Islamic calendar * Banu Hilal, a confederation of tribes of Arabia Arts ...

lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Earth ...

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...

and

sunspot Sunspots are phenomena on the Sun's photosphere that appear as temporary spots that are darker than the surrounding areas. They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic flux that inhibit convection. Sun ...

photography, and also other objects. Lens diameter is and a focal length of .

Directors

1923 - 1940 : Dr. J. Voûte
1940 - 1942 : Dr. Aernout de Sitter
1942 - 1946 : Prof. Dr. Masashi Miyaji
1946 - 1949 : Prof. Dr. Coert Hendrik Hins
1949 - 1958 : Prof. Dr. Gale Bruno van Albada
1958 - 1959 : Prof. Dr. Ong Ping Hok, Dr. Kusumanto Purbosiswoyo (1959-1960) and Santoso Nitisastro (temporary officers)
1959 - 1968 : Prof. Dr. The Pik Sin
1968 - 1999 : Prof. Dr. Bambang Hidayat
1999 - 2004 : Dr. Moedji Raharto
2004 - 2006 : Dr. Dhani Herdiwijaya
2006 - 2009 : Prof. Dr. Taufiq Hidayat
2009 - 2012 : Dr. Hakim L. Malasan
2012 - 2018: Dr. Mahasena Putra
2018 - ''present'': Dr. Premana W Primadi

In popular culture

The popular American reality TV Series ''

The Amazing Race 23 ''The Amazing Race 23'' is the twenty-third season of the American reality television show ''The Amazing Race''. It featured eleven teams of two competing in a race around the world. The season premiered on CBS on September 29, 2013, and the two ...

'' used this site as a Pit Stop for its 9th leg. The episode that used this site for filming was nominated for the

Emmys The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in several categories and won the Outstanding Reality-Competition Program award.

References

External links