National Observatory of Athens

The National Observatory of Athens (NOA; Εθνικό Αστεροσκοπείο Αθηνών) is a research institute in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest research foundation in Greece. The Observatory was the first scientific research institute built after Greece became independent in 1829, and one of the oldest research institutes in Southern Europe. It was built around the same period as the United States Naval Observatory. World-renowned Greek-Austrian astronomer Georgios Konstantinos Vouris lobbied to create the National Observatory of Athens in the newly founded state. He persuaded wealthy Greek-Austrian banker Georgios Sinas to pay for the new massive observatory. The Austrian-born Greek King found out the news and awarded Georgios Sinas's son the Order of the Redeemer. The King also selected the architects for the building under Georgios Konstantinos Vouris's supervision. He chose Eduard Schaubert and Theophil Hansen. The Athens observatory since its inception aided astronomers to conduct research in the field starting from Georgios Konstantinos Vouris's catalog for the complete determination of 1000 stars observed from Greece relative to the position of the Athens observatory. The second director Ioannis Papadakis used the facility to observe the Moons of Jupiter and Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt German-born Greek astronomer conducted countless observations and created a Moon map of the lunar surface from the Athens observatory. After Schmidt, Demetrios Kokkidis briefly directed the observatory and expanded the existing weather stations adding Corfu, Zakynthos, and Larissa. By the early 1900s, Astronomer Demetrios Eginitis observed the rare phenomenon known as Halley's Comet from the Athens observatory and wrote about it in his article entitled Sur la Comète de Halley. By the middle of the 20th century Stavros Plakidis continued the legacy of Greek astronomy at the observatory writing countless research papers and continuing his lifelong research on variable stars.