The Algiers Observatory
Founded by the French Government in 1856, initially it was a meteorological station, upgraded in 1858 to an astronomical station of the Paris Observatory. In 1885 the Observatory was relocated to La Bouzaréh, on the top of a hill on the city of Algiers outskirts.
It was assigned the zone +04° to -02°, but it made heliogravures only for the odd zones -1°, +1°, +3°.
On the whole, 1260 plates were exposed between 1891 and 1911. In the years 1933-1935 the Algiers Observatory also contributed to zone +11° (assigned to Bordeaux Observatory), making most of the plates realized for that zone.
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The observatory at Bouzaréh, 1913 ca. ( image from the site http://www.baldet.fr/Algerie/photoTour_FL.htm#Bouzarea_1%22) |
Charts held at the INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo Library: |
References: R. Hutchins, British University Observatories 1772-1939, Ashgate Publishing, 2008, p. 251-252.
Donatella Randazzo, 6 November 2012