As much as we admire the stunning images and incredible data we get from observatories, the buildings themselves are works of art in their own right. It’s hard not to admire them as they sit high above cities and nestled into mountain peaks. What a view.
Sphinx Observatory, 11,716 ft (3,571 m) above mean sea level, Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, built in 1937
(via Wikimedia Commons and Amusing Planet)
Observatoire du Pic du Midi de Bigorre, Pic du Midi, a mountain in the French Pyrenees, France, completed in 1908
(via Pascalou petit)
Griffith Observatory, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California, opened in 1935
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Alasht observatory, Mazandaran Province, Iran
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Einsteinturm, Potsdam, Germany, designed by Erich Mendelsohn, became operational in 1924
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, Canada, operated between 1902 and 1970
(via Wikimedia Commons and J. Michel Carriere)
Infrared Telescope Facility, a NASA-operated infrared observatory at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, first light in 1979
(via Wikimedia Commons and MPIA)
Urania Sternwarte, Zürich, Switzerland, established in 1907
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Lund University Observatory, Lund, Sweden
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Nordic Optical Telescope, La Palma, Canary Islands, built in 1988
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory, Toronto, Canada, designed in 1853 by Frederick Cumberland
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, built in 1985
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Meteorological observatory and restaurant on the top of Sniezka Mountain, Poland, built in 1974
(via Wikimedia Commons)
The observatory of ETH Zürich named Semper Sternwarte in Zürich, Switzerland, opened in 1864
(via Wikimedia Commons)
The Jantar Mantar of New Delhi, India, built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur, 1724
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Fabra Observatory, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, built in 1904
(via Wikimedia Commons)
