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Observatories Around the World

Astronomy is one of mankind’s oldest sciences. People gathered at Stonehenge as early as 2000 BCE for what archeologists believe was observation of the night sky; and advanced sites, such as Greek astronomer Hipparchos’ observatory at Rhodes, have been documented as early as 150 BCE. People often associate observatories with celestial observation for data analysis, but some observatories survey terrestrial events such as meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology.

Instagrammers have explored and photographed many of the world’s most beautiful celestial and terrestrial observatories, including several located at high altitudes atop volcanoes and mountains. Be sure to visit the following location pages to see more photographs of these incredible observatories:

• Mauna Kea Observatories, Hawaii
• Jungfraujoch Sphinx Observatory, Switzerland
• Griffith Observatory, California
• McDonald Observatory, Texas
• Pic du Midi de Bigorre, France
• Lick Observatory, California

The Ceremonial Court, Qatar

Some trees