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The date of
foundation of the
Astronomical
Observatory of
Torino goes back
to the year
1759.
This is when
father Giovanni
Battista Beccaria
finally housed, on
an old tower on
Via Po, a main
street downtown
Torino, and
shortly after on
the roof of what
today is the
building of the
Academy of
Sciences, the
astronomical and
geodetic
instrumentation he
used for
measurement of the
"Gradus
Taurinensis", i.e.
of the arc length
of the local
meridian for the
city of
Torino.
Abbot Tommaso
Valperga di Caluso
and Antonio Maria
Vassalli Eandi
followed as
directors of the
new
Observatory.
In 1822, under the
directorship of
Giovanni Plana
(1781-1864), a
pupil of the local
eminent physicist
and mathematician
Joseph-Louis
Lagrange, the
Observatory of
Torino was moved
to a more suitable
site, the roof of
Palazzo Madama,
and a new large
Reichenbach &
Fraunhofer
meridian circle
was acquired, one
of the largest of
the time.
Thanks to his
sophisticated
studies in the
field of celestial
mechanics, and on
the motion of the
Moon in
particular, Plana
gave great impulse
to the scientific
activities of the
Observatory.
In 1822 the
Observatory of
Torino was finally
recognized as an
official
scientific
institution of
what was then the
Reign of Piedmont
and Sardinia.The
Observatory has
remained a state
institution since
then. In 1865,
with Alessandro
Dorna as director,
the observing
activities
regained
momentum.Dorna
provided the
Observatory with a
new powerful
instrument, a Merz
30 cm refractor,
which remained the
Observatory main
telescope through
the first half of
this
century.
 After
the sudden death
of Dorna (1886),
the directorship
went to Francesco
Porro and then in
1903 to Giovanni
Boccardi. Boccardi
strongly advocated
moving the
telescopes to a
better site, away
from an urban sky
increasingly
disturbed by
public
illumination to
the high hills
surrounding the
city of Torino. In
1912, Boccardi was
able to realize
his project moving
the Observatory to
its present
location, a tall
hill within the
limits of the town
of Pino Torinese.
This was the
highest among the
sites of
professional
observatories in
Italy. With the
move and the
acquisition of new
and modern
equipment, the
observing
activities
flourished making
the Observatory of
Torino one of the
prominent italian
astronomical
centers. After
Boccardi, the
Observatory was
headed by Giovanni
Silva (1924),
Luigi Volta
(1925), Gino
Cecchini (1942),
and Mario Girolamo
Fracastoro (1966),
all of whom
consistently
focused the
scientific
activities of the
Observatory in the
fields of
astrometry,
celestial
mechanics, and
planetology.
Since 1984, first
with Alberto
Masani (director
from 1984 to 1986)
and afterward with
Attilio Ferrari
(director from
1986 to 2001), the
Observatory has
expanded its
scientific
interests into
modern
astrophysics.
Nowadays, the
research programs
actively pursued
at the Observatory
range from
theoretical and
observational
astrophysics to
instrumentation
design and
development, and
space
science.
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