OBSERVATORY, a place destined for observing the heavenly bodies, being generally a building erected upon some eminence, covered with a terrace for making astronomical observations. There are many such buildings; but the more celebrated are, the Greenwich observatory, built in 1676, by order of Charles II. at the solicitation of Sir Jonas Moore and Sir Christopher Wren, and furnished with accurate instruments; the Paris observatory, built by the order of Louis XIV. in the faubourg St Jacques; and Tycho Brahe's observatory, which was situated in the little island of Ween, between the coasts of Schonen and Zealand, in the Baltic. This last was erected and furnished with instruments at the expense of Tycho, and called by him Uraniburg. Here he spent twenty years in observing the stars, the result of which was his catalogue. Pekin observatory Le Compte describes as a magnificent establishment, having been erected and furnished at the intercession of some Jesuit missionaries, principally Verbeest. Of the observatory at Benares, Sir Robert Barker gives a very full account in the Philosophical Transactions (vol. lxvii. p. 598).