LIFE AT MEUDON OBSERVATORY, 1876-1963

Abstract

Meudon Observatory was created for Janssen in 1876 for physical astronomy, as a reaction to the conservative Paris Observatory. It merged in 1927 with this observatory, while keeping in practice some autonomy. It was very well equipped, with a great equatorial, a 1-m reflecting telescope and several novel solar instruments, but except for the latter they were not very much used due to lack of personnel and because of technical deficiencies. A modern equatorial table was installed in 1931 and became the main non-solar instrument. A physics laboratory had been installed from the beginning, producing data useful for astronomy; it was the responsibility of a 'Physicist of the Observatory'. In this paper, I describe the life at Meudon until the arrival of radio astronomers in 1956 and the nomination in 1963 of a radio astronomer as director, events that produced considerable changes in Meudon Observatory.