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1890-1934 Dimitrios Eginitis |
With a special law of the Greek Parliament in June 19, 1890, the Athens Observatory becomes a governmental research center and its name is changed to National Observatory of Athens. With this law, Dimitrios Eginitis is appointed Director of the NOA. In addition to the Astronomical Institute, two others are created, the Meteorological and the Seismological Institutes.
The Eginitis' very first care is to find founds and donations. He gets a credit from the University and performs a restoration of the observatory building and of its old instruments. Because of the economical situation in Greece, the governmental aid is very limited. Eginitis organizes national committee that in few years succeeds to collect a considerable sum from fellow-Greeks. Among the generous donators are D. Doridis, A. Syggrou, M. Korgialenios,
P. Stefanovik, E. Zarifis, K. Mavromichalis, A. Skouzes, and N. Hrysovelonis.
With the collected funds, the Thissio site of the Observatory is expanded, a neighbor area is bought and three new buildings are erected. So well, new instruments are ordered and installed in NOA, a 16cm meridian circle and a 40cm refractor. Another telescope, a 20cm reflector is donated by K. Ionidis.
D. Eginitis reorganizes the meteorological net adding about hundred of new stations and creates a seismological service.
He organizes the edition of the "Annalles de l'Observatoire National d'Athenes".
Eginitis plays a significant role in the political and academic life in Greece. He is Minister of Education in 1917 and in 1926, and is the founder of the Academy of Athens in 1926. Considerable is his contribution of in accepting the World Time Zone system and the Gregorian Style Calendar in Greece. |
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The new telescope - 40cm Refractor "Doridis" |
The new telescope of NOA is made in 1902 by Gautier, a french firm. The telescope is named "Doridis" in honor of its donator.
It is a refractor with double achromatic lenses of 40cm diameter and has 5m focal length. Its tube is mounted on a so-called German-type equatorial mounting. The instrument is installed in a new dome not far from the Sinas building.
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The dome of the 40cm refractor.
(The Sinas building can be seen on the left)
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| The Doridis refractor is extensively used for observations of planets, moon, and comets, for astrometry and for variable stars photometry. |
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16cm Meridian Circle "Siggrou" |
The new meridian circle of NOA is bought in 1896 and it is also made by Gautier. It is named "Syggrou" in honor of its donator.
The instrument is installed in a special building. The optical system of the refractor has a diameter of 16cm and focal length 200cm.
The meridian circle is extensively used for the time service of NOA since its installation in 1896 up to 1964. |
The meridian circle building |
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