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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

... a bright spot near Mars: seen Nov. 25, 1894, by Prof. Pickering and others, at the Lowell Observatory, above an unilluminated part of Mars—self-luminous, it would seem—thought to have been a cloud—but estimated to have been about twenty miles ...

— The Book of the Damned • Charles Fort

... Latting Observatory (height about 280 feet) is near the Palace —from it you can obtain a grand view of the city and the country around. The Croton Aqueduct, to supply the city with water, is the greatest wonder yet. Immense sewers are laid across the bed of the ...

— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... made my broadcloth look like two-fifty a yard and it really cost four," was a criticism offered by a young lady who posed in a riding habit. Such practical criticism is frequently necessary to bring the artist down from the top height observatory where he is absorbed with ...

— Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures • Henry Rankin Poore

... "commencement present" Bacon's "Essays." People listened to Sylvia; Sylvia had things to say! Even the gruff admiral paid her deference. He demanded to know whether it was true that Sylvia had declined a position at the Naval Observatory, which required the calculation of tides for the Nautical Almanac. Mrs. Bassett was annoyed that Sylvia had refused a position that would have removed her from a proximity to Mrs. Owen that struck her as replete with danger. And yet Mrs. Bassett was outwardly friendly, and she privately counseled ...

— A Hoosier Chronicle • Meredith Nicholson

... lead-mines—some of the old shafts are a tremendous depth. All the same, you see, there's some tinker chap, or some gipsies, camped out down there and got a fire. That old ruin, up on the crag there, is called Ellersdeane Tower—one of Lord Ellersdeane's ancestors built it for an observatory—this path'll ...

— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher

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