ROYALObseRvAtORY

OF MAdRid

Instituto Geográfico Nacional

HistoryFrom top to bottom: portrait of King Charles III, Juan de Villanueva, and William Herschel.

Magnetic tilt compass.

The origins of the Royal Observatory of Madrid (ROM) date back to the reign of Charles III who, at the proposal of the famous sailor and cosmographer Jorge Juan, ordered its creation in the late eighteenth century (around 1785). As main missions of the Observatory, its Royal Order of creation (issued in 1790, reigning then Charles IV) set the theory and practice of astronomy, geodesy, geophysics and cartography, i.e. those of an astronomy and Earth sciences observatory, as were most of those created at the time. And to carry out these missions, in 1796 the Corps of Cosmographer Engineers was created.

The construction of the building for the observatory was commissioned to the most famous architect of the time, Juan de Villanueva, choosing for the site a hill known as “Cerrillo de San Blas” (due to a small chapel dedicated to that saint), in what was then the outskirts of Madrid.

At fi rst, the Observatory commissioned the famous Anglo-German astronomer, William Herschel, the construction of a refl ecting telescope of 25 feet (7.5 m) focal length and a mirror of 2 feet (63 cm) in diameter, which would be considered by Herschel as the best of his telescopes ever built. At the same time, staff of the Observatory was sent to various European countries to learn about the construction of instruments and how to make observations. Unfortunately, invasion of Spain by the troops of Napoleon led to the dispersal of the Observatory staff and the destruction of their equipment (including the Herschel telescope), library and temporary buildings.

Activities resumed in 1845, and the construction of the “Villanueva” building was completed in the following year. In 1854 is installed the Repsold Meridian, and in 1858 the Mertz equatorial telescope, beginning a period of interesting astronomical, geodetic, and meteorological works, as well as the participation in international cooperation campaigns. In 1865, the Observatory changed its offi cial name to Astronomical and Meteorological Observatory of Madrid, taking care to lead the national meteorology until 1904, when the Observatory becomes part of the National Geographical Institute (IGN), and meteorological activities (which had been in charge of the Observatory since its foundation in 1790) come to depend directly from IGN.

The Observatory becomes a section of IGN in that year. In many missions and activities, the Observatory had been organizationally precursor to IGN, being linked to it since the IGN inception in 1870 (the Observatory was in charge of performing the astronomical geodesy works to support cartography). At this time a number of precision instruments were acquired and important observations were carried out. In 1912, the large equatorial Grubb telescope was installed.

Top: 19th century illustration of the Villanueva building.Bottom right: watercolor of Herschel’s telescopeBottom left: original mirror.

Astronomy

After the break caused by the Spanish civil war, the Observatory lives a new stage of modernization and expansion in the 1970s. It is then when the Calar Alto Observation Station and the Yebes Astronomical Center (CAY) are created.

The Calar Alto Station comprises the IGN facilities in the German-Spanish Astronomical Center at Calar Alto, placed at 2,168 m altitude in the Filabres mountains (Almería). The Observatory has installed there an optical-infrared telescope of 1.52 m in diameter that, during 30 years (since its installation in 1976 until the opening of 10.2 m telescope of the Canary Institute of Astrophysics, in 2009), has been the bigger and better equipped Spanish telescope, with which generations of astronomers have been trained in the observation techniques.

As a main facility of the Observatory, during the early seventies the Yebes Astronomical Center was created in the province of Guadalajara, about 80 km northeast of Madrid. In it was installed a double astrograph (consisting of two identical telescopes of 40 cm opening), with which have been carried out observations of asteroids and comets, and a solar telescope of 15 cm aperture, located in a solar tower 8 m high. But the most important instrument that was installed in the CAY was the 13.7 m diameter radio

Optical-infrared 1.52-m diameter telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory.

14-m radio telescope for millimeter wavelengths in Yebes Observatory.

Astronomy

telescope for millimeter waves, with which pioneering work has carried out to develop a new observational technique in our country: radio astronomy. Since its commissioning in 1979, this telescope has been used both by astronomers from IGN, as from other national and foreign institutions, for single-dish observations, and for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) studies of astronomical and geodetic interest in coordination with other major European telescopes.

View of the Yebes Observatory as seen from the 40-m radio telescope.

Radio telescopes of the European VLBI Network (EVN).

During the last two decades of the twentieth century, IGN, through the Observatory, participated in the creation and operation of international astronomical institutions as the Franco-German-Spanish Institute for Millimeter Radio Astronomy (IRAM) and the European Consortium for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (EVN / JIVE), in which are carried out scientific research and cutting-edge technological developments in astronomy and its applications to geodesy and geophysics; fields, all of them, of a great tradition and interest to the IGN.

This development of instrumental astronomy culminated at the beginning of this century (2005), with the construction, installation and commissioning of the 40 m diameter radio telescope of the Yebes Observatory, capable of working at millimeter wavelengths (frequencies up 100 GHz) and equipped with receivers, signal processing and data analysis equipment necessary to perform observations, both, as a single antenna (radio telescope) and as an element of the European and global networks of VLBI applied to astronomy and geodesy.

Astronomy

There have been carried out as well development of instrumentation for space telescopes, such as the telescope for emission in the far-infrared FIRST-Herschel, which have allowed IGN astronomers to make observations of outstanding quality and interest in the study of physical-chemical processes taking place in star forming regions, where also new planetary systems are formed.

Top left: “The pillars of creation” (Eagle nebula).Bottom left: Millimeter interferometer composed of 6 antennas of 15-m diameter of the Institute of Millimeter Radio Astronomy (IRAM) at the Plateau de Bure (French Alps).Top right: 40-m radio telescope for millimiter wavelengths in Yebes Observatory.Bottom right: FIRST-Herschel Space Telescope of the European Space Agency for submillimeter and far-infrared observations. Components built at the Yebes Observatory are installed in it.

Astronomy

Earth Sciences

During the second half of the twentieth century, the spectacular development of Science and Technology has brought, as one of its consequences, the overlap of many of its branches that had been separated years ago from a common trunk (for example, currently more precise information on the shape and movements of Earth’s solid core is obtained by VLBI observations of quasars, which are the most distant objects in the Universe). This is the reason why multidisciplinary institutions dedicated to similar or related sciences are again created. In line with this process, the ROM has regained the status of multidisciplinary institution with which it was created, and currently hosts the headquarters of the National Astronomical Observatory (OAN) and the Central Geophysical Observatory (OGC).

Geoelectric map (spontaneous potential) at Teide’s “Cañadas” performed by staff of the Central Geophysical Observatory for studying the structure of the hydrothermal system at the Teide-Pico Viejo volcanic complex.

View of Teide (Tenerife). Around this volcano are concentrated the geodetic, seismic, geophysical, and geochemistry facilities for volcanic risk monitoring of the National Geographic Institute in Canary Islands.

Altitude (m)

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North

Earth Sciences

Through the latter, there are carried out scientific and technical studies in areas of geodesy and geophysics such as gravimetry, global positioning systems (GPS, GLONASS, ...), interferometric synthesis aperture radar (InSAR ), seismology, geomagnetism or geoelectricity. These works are intended for studies and research projects and service works in fields like volcanology (monitoring and warning of volcanic activity), geodynamics (plate tectonics, georeferencing), or climate change (variation in the average level of the oceans), and other fields of application. In addition to the facilities and resources of their facilities in the ROM, to perform these activities, the OGC has the human and instrumental resources at Yebes Observatory (in Guadalajara), the Geophysical Observatory of Toledo and the Observatory of San Pablo de los Montes (in Toledo), the Geophysical Center of the Canary Islands and the Centre of Guimar (in Tenerife).

Top: Interferogram of the landscape deformations at Tenerife (Teide) obtained by InSAR techniques. Data processed by staff of the Central Geophysical Observatory.Bottom: Eruption of Teneguía (La Palma) in 1971.

RADIANES

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Geodetic VLBI observations carried out at the Yebes Observatory -first with the 13.7 m radio telescope and, now, with the new 40m radio telescope- have contributed significantly to identifying and studying the movements of tectonic plates in which the Earth’s crust is broken, and therefore to the clarification of geophysical problems as the generation of earthquakes, and surveying services on a global scale as the periodical realization of the International Terrestrial Reference Frames (ITRF). Such observations have turned Yebes Observatory into the Spanish fundamental geodetic station that connects the global geodetic network with regional and local geodetic networks in our country. To complement these activities, in 2010 has been installed and set up a Gravimetry Pavillion equipped with the most powerful current instruments in the field (absolute gravimeter FG5 and superconducting gravimeter) with which, as part of global networks of such type of facilities, Earth tides (upwards displacement of the crust due to the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun) and mass movements on a global scale are studied.

Control room of the volcanic activity monitoring system at ROM.

Top: Movements of techtonic plates, as determined by VLBI techniques.Bottom: Representation of the variations of ocean mean level (in mm/year) in the period 1993-2009.

1993-2009

60oN

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mm/year

90oW180o 0o

30o

30o

EQ

Earth Sciences

In the Toledo Geophysical Observatory (from which it operates and manages the geomagnetic and seismological observatory of San Pablo de los Montes) is installed and recently commissioned the National Geodetic and Geophysical Data Archive in which tide gauge data, seismic, geomagnetic, ... etc are preserved and made disposal of the national scientific community; these have been recorded -in some cases since the nineteenth century- in measurenent stations of IGN and other Spanish centers dedicated to geodesy and geophysics.

In regard to the Canary Geophysical Center (which operates and manages the geomagnetic observatory of Guimar) is the center from which, jointly coordinated with the OGC staff and facilities at ROM, operate, maintain and develop geodetic, seismic, geophysical and geochemical networks which constitute the Canary Islands volcanic monitoring system, conducting studies and research work aimed at achieving a better understanding of volcanism in this area.

Top: Gravimetry pavillion in Yebes Observatory. Center: View of the interior with the FG5 absolute gravimeter (front) and GWR superconducting gravimeter (back).Bottom: National Archive of Geodetic and Geophysical Data, at the Toledo Geophysical Observatory.

Earth Sciences

Instrumentation

As explained, CAY has become in a space observatory in which there are installed instruments from large telescopes to superconducting gravimeters, with which astronomical, geodetic and geophysical observations and measurements are made, and where, in the best ROM tradition, are carried out technological developments and design and construction of facilities and infrastructure for ground-based instruments or embarked on spacecrafts.

To carry out these tasks, the Yebes Observatory has the most modern laboratories and workshops for microwaves, cryogenics, electrochemical and mechanical precision, being the headquarters of the Technology Development Centre (CDT) of ROM.With these excellent facilities, the CDT technical staff (mostly telecommunication engineers and electronic physicists) conduct technological developments in the fields of microwaves (low-noise cryogenic amplifiers, waveguide components, ...), large radio telescopes (holographic techniques of measurement and adjustment of collecting surfaces, control and data adquisition systems, ...), radiation systems (design and construction of focal antennas and quasi-optical systems, ...), and cryogenic receivers at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths (frontends and backends).

Receivers room of the 40-m radio telescope. The receivers, designed and built at the Tecnological Development Center, work in bands between 2 and 120 GHz.

Prototype of low noise criogenic amplifier (bottom) incorporating metamorphic AsGa MMIC integrated circuit (top), designed and built at the Tecnological Development Center in Yebes Observatory.

Instrumentation

This staff is also responsible for the installation, maintenance and development of all Observatory scientific instrumentation, with which astronomical, geodetic and geophysical observations and measurements are carried out, as well as of the electrotechnical, computing, and communications infrastructures that support them.

HIFI instrument at the FIRST-Herschel space telescope, which includes components designed and built at the Technological Development Center in Yebes Observatory.

Measurements of the deformations in the primary mirror of the 40-m radio telescope, performed using holographic techniques developed in Yebes Observatory.

Cultural

Moreover, during the past 20 years, ROM has devoted a great deal of personnel and resources to the preservation and promotion of its valuable architectural heritage and its historical instrumentation. With that aim actions have been taken as the restoration of the room of the meridian circle (with its telescope and antique clocks) and the library of the Villanueva building, and the installation therein of a Foucault pendulum; the reconstruction of the 25-feet Herschel telescope, for which the new pavilion was built, and more recently, the construction and installation of the Hall of Earth and Universe Sciences (opened in January 2010), which shows the valuable collection of ancient instruments of the Observatory and IGN as a whole, accumulated in more than 220 years of history.

Furthermore, the ROM scientific staff regularly gives outreach lectures, both within and outside these facilities, and publishes articles of that character in books and magazines published here or elsewhere. Some of these articles are part of the Royal Observatory of Madrid Almanac, the astronomical ephemeris book published since 1859.

With all these activities, IGN contributes to the important work of dissemination of Science in our society.

Interior view of the Villanueva building. Top: library.Bottom left: meridian circle room, and clocks.Bottom right: Foucault pendulum.

Right: Hall of Earth and Universe Sciences, with images of its interior.Below: image of the pavillion enclosing the reconstruction of the Herschel 25-ft telescope, and detail of it.

Activities

Instituto Geográfico NacionalGeneral Ibáñez de Íbero, 328071 Madrid

Real Observatorio de MadridAlfonso XII, nº 328014 Madrid

Address

Guided visitsTelf: 91 506 12 61www.ign.es

Royal Observatory of Madrid

1. Villanueva Building2. Great Equatorial3. Astrograph Building4. Hall of Earth and Universe

Sciences5. Solar Telescope Building6. Herschel Telescope

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