Located in the southeast part of the city, east of Tiananmen Square in the middle of Beijing, the Beijing Ancient Observatory stands high up on the top of a fort-like building at Jianguo Gate. From the avenue below, some of the various archaic instruments are clearly visible in the skyline, standing as anachronistic reminders of Imperial Beijing.

The Beijing Ancient Observatory was initially built in 1442 in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and served as the national observatory in the Ming (1368-1644) and the following Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Architecture

As one of the oldest observatories in the world, the Beijing Ancient Observatory grounds cover an area of 10,000 square meters. The observatory itself is located on a 15 meter tall brick platform and about 40 x 40 square meters wide, an extant portion of the old Ming Dynasty era city wall that once encircled Beijing. Several of the bronze astronomical instruments are on the platform, and other armillary spheres, sundials, and assorted instruments are located nearby at ground level. It operates as a museum in affiliation with Beijing Planetarium.

 
Four exhibition rooms are set in the quad under the platform: The Ziwei Palace and East Wing-room exhibited the "Lingtai Equipment", which introduces the site of Lingtai, the reform of existing ancient observatory and the production of astronomical equipment and etc; while the exhibition in the West Wing-room will enlighten you with the abundant calendars and important calendar reforms in China; the Shadow Observation House is the place that the astronomers in Ming and Qing Dynasty used to ascertain the time and conduct sun shadow measure.

History

With a history of more than 500 years, the Beijing Ancient Observatory is one of the oldest observatories in the world. It was said that following the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty 1227, the victorious Jins transferred the ancient astronomical instruments from Kaifeng to the first observatory in Beijing. In 1279, the succeeding invading Mongols under Kublai Khan built the second observatory in Beijing just north of the present observatory.

With the fall of the Mongols, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding Ming Emperor, transferred the instruments from Beijing to Nanjing. Initially, a Watching Star Platform was built on the top of a hill in Nanjing, which was the capital of the Ming Dynasty at that time. When the Yongle Emperor usurped the throne from his nephew, he did not dare to transfer the instruments to Beijing out of respect for his father who was buried in Nanjing. Instead he commissioned craftsmen to make wooden models of these instruments and had them cast in bronze, including the armillary sphere, the abridged armilla and the Yuan guibiao sundial.

With the completion of the present observatory in 1422, it has housed the replica instruments and served the Ming and Qing astronomers in their star-gazing reports, for the Emperor at that time was closely tied up with the movements of the heavenly bodies. Another function is to assist sea navigation.

In the Qing Dynasty, the name "Watching Star Platform" was changed to "Observatory". And after the Revolution of 1911, the name Ancient Observatory was changed to be Central Observatory. In 1929, the Central Observatory was changed to be National Astronomical Instruments Display Hall, ending its function of astronomical services consecutively lasting for 500 years. In 1979, the north-east corner of Ancient Observatory fell as it was washed by days of heavy rain and its south-east corner was seriously split. Then, the Ancient Observatory received three-years of careful repair. The Observatory was opened to the public with the name of "Beijing Ancient Astronomical Instruments Display Hall" in 1956. After around 1959, the Observatory was used as offices. In 1983, Ancient Observatory was opened to the tourists again as a museum.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when Allied Forces of Eight Powers invaded Beijing, French and Germans robbed some of the instruments, but after the World War 1, the instruments were returned to China.

An interesting fact is that the ancient Chinese were able to measure with accuracy the positions of stars and planets in the 1400s without the telescope.

Instruments

On climbing to the roof of the museum, one is privy to the unique giant bronze instruments that one could see from the street below. There are only eight in number and they were designed in the Qing Dynasty with such classy names as celestial globe, dragon quadrant, ecliptical armilla and azimuth theodolite. As there were originally more than these eight instruments, some of them were stolen by the Germans and French during the invasion of Beijing by the Eight Nations' Allied Forces in 1900. Following persistent outcry by the Chinese, they were returned to China after the World War 1. In 1931, some of the more ancient instruments were sent to the Nanjing to evade the invading Japanese. Those in Nanjing are at the Purple Mountain Observatory Museum and the Nanjing Museum.

Armillary Sphere

Used to measure the coordinatess of celestial bodies. There were two types, an ecliptic armillary used to track the sun, and an equatorial armillary for other bodies.

- The equatorial armillary was built in 1673, during the Qing Dynasty. There is also a 1673 ecliptic armillary.

- The ecliptic armillary was built in 1744, during the Qing Dynasty. It seems that the ecliptic armillary is a little more complex than the equatorial armillary.

Quadrant

Used to measure altitudes or zenith locations of celestial bodies.

Theodolite

Used to measure altitude and azimuth coordinatess of celestial bodies.

Azimuth Theodolite

 
Used to measure the azimuth coordinates of celestial bodies.

Sextant

Used to measure the angular distance between celestial bodies and to measure the angular diameter of the sun and moon.

Celestial Globe

Used to determine the rising and setting times of celestial bodies as well as determining the altitude and azimuth of celestial bodies at any time.