Konkoly Observatory 2.23

Konkoly Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, located in Budapest, Hungary. It was founded in 1871 by Hungarian astronomer Miklós Konkoly-Thege as his private observatory. Konkoly donated his observatory to the state in 1899.The formal designation of the observatory is "Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences" .As well as performing astronomical research, the observatory publishes the Information Bulletin on Variable Stars on behalf of the International Astronomical Union.HistoryThe Ógyalla and Svábhely ObservatoriesHungarian nobleman Miklós Konkoly-Thege founded his private observatory in 1871 at Hurbanovo, in Northern Hungary, known as Ógyalla in Hungarian at the time. The instrumentation included a 6" refractor, a 10.5" Browning reflector (later replaced with a 10" Merz refractor), a meridian circle, a spectrograph, as well as various meteorological and geomagnetic instruments. Konkoly-Thege, who had no offspring, became increasingly afraid over time that his legacy will perish with his death. As a member of the Hungarian Parliament, he was able to convince the government to take the observatory into state property. In 1899, the Hurbanovo site was renamed to Royal Konkoly-founded Astrophysical Observatory, and operated under the direction of Konkoly-Thege and Radó Kövesligethy, a renowned geophysicist of the time. The main scientific profile of the institute was the photometry of stars, the observation of the Sun, meteor counting, and providing time service for the government. In 1913, an order for a 60 cm (24") telescope was finalized with the German Heyde company, but with the start of Word War I, the telescope was never built.