An Introduction 
to Astronomy.
 

The society and Activities.
 
 

Membership to the society.
 
 

Links to other Astronomical sites.
 
 

Observatory
 
 

Email the society.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lee observatory used to be considered one of the worlds oldest and important modern observatory in the Middle East. According to the “Guinness Book of Astronomy” by Patrick Moore, it was classified as “one of the world’s greatest Observatories”. In Patrick Moore’s book the observatory was mentioned as follows: 
Location: Beirut, Lebanon 
Name: American University Observatory 
Latitude: +33 54 22.0 
Longitude: E 35 28.2 
Altitude/meters: 38 
Lee Observatory is part of the American University of Beirut, which is a Higher education university located in Beirut, Lebanon. The Observatory is as old as the university, which is more than 100 years old. Unfortunately this observatory is no longer in use today but the building, the dome and the telescopes are still present today in the university grounds. 
Lee observatory had fulfilled many functions during its long history. It had telescopes for astronomical observations as well as metrological equipments for recording the weather and later on it had also a seismograph for recording earthquakes. However many of these equipments have not survived. Only the large telescopes are still available in the observatory. 
The Observatory is located at the American University grounds in Beirut. The Observatory building is a separate one-floor building at the university, which is now used as offices for the Arts and Sciences faculty Departments. The area of this building is estimated to be around 300 square meters. 
The observatory section of this building is a circular room, which is approximately 6.5 meters in diameter. 
The dome of the observatory is made of aluminum panels fixed by bolts onto a light metallic frame. The dome rides on large 30 cm wheels (6 wheels only) with additional 6 smaller wheels to prevent the horizontal movement of the dome. 
The door opening of the dome is 120 cm in width, which slides on a rail attached outside of the dome. 
The dome moves manually by pulling a metallic pole connected to the metallic frame inside the dome. 
The telescope, which is available inside the dome, is a 12-inch refractor fixed onto a large metallic pier in the center of the dome. Two finder scopes are connected on the frame of the main telescope, a small 90 cm refractor and a larger 7-inch refractor. 
As mentioned before this dome and telescopes are not working at present. Therefore the dome structure as well as the telescopes are neglected. The wheels and metallic parts of the dome have rusted away therefore it is not possible to operate and move the dome at present. The telescope frame itself has also rusted and the all the lenses, mirrors and eyepieces have been lost. 
 

 A Brief Chronological History of the Observatory:

-Dr Cornelius Van Dyck from the beginning of the university  in 1866 has given courses in Astronomy. Astronomy courses have been obligatory to all senior students until 1912. 
-In 1872 Henry Lee, a merchant from Manchester England, donated 150 English gold pounds for the construction of the observatory which took 2 years to complete and was named Lee Astro-Physical Observatory. 
-In 1874 the observatory started with taking metrological recordings, which were sent to Constantinople (Istanbul) by the Turkish authorities. Time measurements with respect to the stars were also recorded which were used by ship captains to adjust their chronometers. 
-In 1876 Dr Van Dyke purchased a 10-inch reflector telescope, which was later, donated by him to the observatory. (this telescope is not present now) 
-In 1882 Robert H. West was appointed as an instructor in mathematics and astronomy and director of the observatory until his death in 1906. 
-With the supervision of Robert West the observatory was rebuilt and a new 12-inch refracting telescope was installed. The dome was first made of lightweight metallic structure covered with cardboard, which was later replaced by aluminum. 
-The telescope was built by Warner and Swasey of Cleveland, Ohio. The dome was built in the works of Sir Howard Grubb at Rathmine, Dublin Ireland. 
-Another major donation was made by Mr. Thaw who presented the observatory with a 7 inch refractor telescope which was mounted to the telescope and used as a photographic camera. 
-In 1907 Alfred H. Joy became director of the observatory. 
-In 1912 Joy started to issue the metrological data in a monthly Bulletin of the observatory and he made the astronomy courses electives in the university. 
-In 1919 Julius Arthur Brown succeeded Joy as director of the observatory. His main interest was in studying variable stars using the 7-inch photographic camera 
-In 1936 another smaller portable Zeiss telescope was given to the observatory. 
-During the period of World War II the observatory was in disarray. Metrological records were not continuously taken and some were eaten away by rats. Lenses and eyepieces were scattered through out the building and furniture was taken away. 
-In September 1944 Dr Robert Sloane took over brown responsibilities and became director of the observatory until 1955 and he started with the reorganizing and repairing the destroyed equipments. 
-Dr Georgio Contino helped Dr Sloane with the repairs and trained a technician, Halim Hourani to continue the metrological and time observations and to make daily accurate drawings of sunspots. 
-Contino was made acting director of the observatory from the period of 1952 to 1955 inorder to assist Dr Sloane. 
-In 1955 Owen Gingerich became director of the observatory and he resumed the courses in astronomy, which were not given since 1947. 
-Still assisted by Contino, Gingerich continued the regular duties of the recordings and he brought new life to the observatory by organizing “open nights “ and by repainting the telescope and dome and remodeling and decorating the observatory for the students. 
-In September 1958 Dr Frans Bruin was appointed as director of the observatory until 1975 when the observatory was closed because of the Lebanese civil war. 

Observations and Publications of the Observatory:

Since the beginning of the operation of the observatory it had a dual purpose both as an astronomical and a metrological observatory and later on in 1900 earthquake records were also made using a seismograph. Unfortunately many of the records have not been kept either at the observatory or at the university. According to the historical records of the observatory there has been some astronomical observations done concerning variable stars, double stars and sunspot recording. However almost all of these records are lost except for the metrological, sunspots recording and some earthquake seismograph recordings. This is because these recordings were published in the bulletin of the observatory starting from 1912 until 1975 when the observatory closed. 
I have made a small historical summary on the main events and records, which are taken from the bulletins and which are still available at the university archives: 
-First monthly bulletin of the observatory started in January 1912. It only included metrological register for the area of Lebanon as well as for Syria. The University was still named the “Syrian Protestant College” at that time. 
-The last bulletin of the observatory was made in September 1975, however it only included sunspot records without the metrological records. 
-Owing to the World War I the bulletin was stopped from July 1915 to august 1912. However in 1921 J.A Brown recollected all the records and published a summary collection for this missing period. 
-The first earthquake records by the seismograph was done in June 1912 when Alfred h. Joy was director of the observatory. However recordings were not followed up and were not complete. The last recordings were made on June 1915 
-George Contino made the first bulletin of the observations of the sunspots in January 1953 assisted by H. Hourani and later followed up by Frans Bruin until 1975. 
 

Note:

Special thanks is attributed to Dr Munib Eid of A.U.B. for helping when making this report.

for more information on other observatories and astronomical activies in Lebanon visit the sites and pages below: 

-Al Kawn company. 
(Meade telescopes in Lebanon and the Middle East)