THE HISTORY OF THE

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY OF TURIN

(OATO)
Roberto Bartali

Abstract

This project is the story of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino (OATo),

built on a hill near Pino Torinese, a small town close to city of Turin (Italy).
I will present to the reader the history, taking into account the contribution of
each director from the foundation, in the XVIII century, to present day. Historically
the director was the “master pieces” of the Astronomical Observatory. He defines,
mainly, the research areas and the rules which everybody have to follows for the
obtainment of the pre-established goals.
During every period of its history, many directors succeeded and the some
new research areas was added, apart of the traditional ones like the positional
astronomy and astrography. In this work, I will present the best results obtained on
each field together with many interesting pictures showing the observatory, its
instruments and, when possible, a portrait of the director.

Introduction

Astronomy appears as a subject of study at the

University of Turin in the XVII century, when it was included as
part of Mathematics.
The King Vittorio Amedeo II, in 1711, stated in a
document, his whishes to build a new building for the
Figure 1
The Astronomical
University, then, in 1714, in another document, he wished the
Observatory of Turn construction of “a…large windowed room… for
(OATo) logo. observations…” the observatory [1][5] on the top of the
From:
www.to.astro.it
University building.
The first project for an Observatory is as old as that
time, but for many years it was only a project, there are documents showing that,
as late as 1730, [5] nothing new happened.
Finally, in 1759, G.B. Beccaria, begins the measurement of an arc of
meridian, a work ordered by the King Carlo Emanuele III. For this reason, Beccaria
ordered the construction of a telescope and placed it on the roof of an apartment in
the downtown of Turin [1][2][5][13]. This is really the beginning of the systematic
study and observation of the heavens at Turin, so, the installation of that telescope
may be considered as the first Astronomical Observatory of Turin.

1
 For many reasons; but the two most important, historically speaking, are the
lacks of astronomers and the reduced budget for instrumentation or facilities; the
history of the OATo, is strictly tied to the astronomer in charge: the director. All the
research developed was in reality the one of the main interest of the director in
charge, this kind of politics is nearly true until 1911, but continued, in less evident
form, until 1966.
This is the main reason why all papers written on this subject, are in reality,
a biography of each director, but I wish to take another way, in addition to the
biography, I will present the scientific goals obtained globally by all the people
working at the OATo, because Astronomy is an interdisciplinary science, so a
discovery or a research is not the property or a success of a single person, but of
all the team involved.
Fortunately, during the last decades, Government in many countries,
including Italy, became aware of the importance of Astronomy and give to science,
a much large budget, so the OATo grows a lot during this time. From the end of the
World War II, until today, both, people and facilities increased by a factor of ten.
I will separate the history of the OATo into six periods as follows:
• Part 1: from the beginning to 1789
• Part 2: from 1790 to 1813
• Part 3: from 1813 to 1864
• Part 4: from 1864 to 1912
• Part 5: from 1912 to 1966
• Part 6: from 1966 until today
This selection, is because some important event occurred and changed the
course of the research or the global structure of the OATo.
For each period I will describe the structure of the observatory, the
instrumentation available, the research lines developed, the biography of the
director, the results obtained and some of the best or the most important
publications written.

2
Part 1: from the beginning to 1789

As cited in the introduction, The King Vittorio

Amedeo II, in 1714, signed a document in which he
wanted, on the roof of the University, a large
windowed room for the observation of the sky [1]; but,
during the next 16 years, there are not documents
regarding the study or the practice of Astronomy. In
1730, father Giulio Accetta, was named professor of
Mathematics, and he was very interested in
Astronomy, making many observations and he was
the first to measure the astronomical position of the
city of Turin, this fact give him the honor to became a
member of the Academy of Science of Paris. His
attempt to make a reality the “windowed room for
observations” was fruitless and very few documents
exist on this subject, this hole of information last until
1748, when the King Carlo Emanuele III, asked to
Gianbattista Beccaria to join the University as
Figure 2
Gianbattista Beccaria
professor of Physics. The origin of the real
From: www.nmsi.ac.uk/piclib/ astronomical research begins with him in 1759. Some
authors, including me, take this as the first period of
the OATo [13].
When Beccaria showed to the King a comet (probably the Halley) wakes up
in him a new interest into Astronomy. After that, the
King ask him to measure an arc of meridian, for this
purpose Beccaria ordered the construction of a
telescope and he placed it on the roof of a building in
the center of the city.
Turin had for the first time an observatory!
The most important work of Beccaria is the
Gradus Taurinensis (Figure 3) published in 1774
containing the observations and the measurement of
the meridian arc.
He published observations of:
• Venus transit (1761)
• Solar spots (1764)
•
Lunar Eclypses (1769)
Figure 3
Front page of the Beccaria´s work Gradus
•
Meteor showers (1776)
Taurinensis During this period, the most
important research area was the
From: Storia della scienza e della tecnica a Torino
positional astronomy.
He is the first official astronomer of the OATo and can be considered as its
first director.
Here is a brief biography of him. Giovanni Battista Beccaria (Figure 2), but
his real name was Francesco Ludovico, was born in Mondoví on October 3, 1716

3
and died in Turin on May 27, 1781. He studied Theology and at the age of 16, he
joins the Order of Scolopist, changing his name to the religious one of Giovanni
Battista or Gianbattista [28][29][30]. From now this was his name and all of his
publications are signed as Gianbattista.
He is well and best known for the study of Electricity and its effect, he was a
follower of Franklin and he is considered one of the first progressive and
enlightened thinkers [28] of the XVIII century. He changed the teaching of Physics
from purely theoretical to experimental.
From 1781 and 1789, there are a very few documents regarding astronomy.

Part 2: from 1790 to 1813

In 1789 the King Vittorio Amedeo III, ordered the construction of a new
observatory, this time on the roof of the Academy of Science building
[1][2][5][13](Figure 4).
The opening ceremony was on
November 30, 1790. All the
instruments were transferred there
during the next year. This is the
beginning of a new age for the OATo
and the astronomical research,
because the observatory was not an
integral part of the University. For the
next 150 years, the observatory was,
sometimes, an integral part of the
University and sometimes as a part
Figure 4
The building of the Academy of Science with the of the Academy of science.
observatory on the roof. During the period between
From: Storia della scienza e della tecnica a Torino 1790 and 1813, two people: Antonio
Maria Vassalli Eandi and Tommaso
Valperga di Caluso, worked together.
Vassalli Eandi, as professor of Physics, remained in charge for some years
after the death of Beccaria, he installed the telescope and all other instruments of
Beccaria, in the new observatory. But, due to his main interest in the study of
Meteorology, in 1801, Valperga di Caluso, professor of Astronomy and Celestial
Mechanics, was named officially the director of the observatory.
Here is a brief biography of both people.
Antonio Maria Vassalli Eandi born on January 30,1761 in Turin and died on
July 5,1825. He studied Philosophy, Physics and Geometry. As his predecessor,
professor and friend, Beccaria, he was a clergyman. In 1801 he was named
professor of Physics and in 1806 he was named director of the Meteorological
Observatory (it was in the same place as the astronomical one), but he begin the
studies in this field 20 years earlier.
Tommaso Valperga di Caluso born on December 20,1737 in Turin and died
there on April 1,1815. He was also a clergyman with the charge of Abey, he was
famous for the amplitude of his culture, and was a professor of Greek Literature
and Astronomy. He published works about comet orbit calculation (1786), orbital

4
tables of Uranus (1788) and many other papers on new methods for equations and
calculus solutions.
During this period, the most important works were about Celestial
Mechanics and Positional Astronomy, the instrumentation available was very
limited, almost the same as Beccaria.
Valperga di Caluso leaved the observatory in 1812, when Giovanni Plana
starts a new age for the Turin astronomy.

Part 3: from 1813 to 1864

From 1813, a great person, Giovanni Antonio

Amedeo Plana (Figure 5) professor of Mathematics and
Astronomy, was in charge of the Observatory
[1][2][5][6][22]. He was the most important Italian
astronomer in the XIX century.
The year of 1818, represent a giant leap for the
Observatory and for Italian astronomy, because it was,
for the first time, in the budget of the Academy of
Science, so it not depends on the King benevolence.
Figure 5
With that budget,
Giovanni Plana some new instruments was
From: Storia della scienza e della acquired: “a meridian circle”
tecnica a Torino
(Figure 6), a “Circolo
Moltiplicatore (multiplication circle) and an
“Equatorial”. Just 4 years later, the initial budget of 3000 Italian Lira grows to
10,000 Italian Lira.
During this period, the major research areas,
was the study of the Lunar Motion, Plana worked
solutions to the Laplace method with much great
precision, his calculation result was very near to the
observed position. He worked on the calculation of
the orbit of the comet Encke, showing that there is
some medium around the Sun developing certain
force in opposition to the movement of the comet;
and, on the orbit of object between the Earth and
the Moon (first attempt to
Figure 6 Astronautic). Another
The Reichembach Meridian
Circle
contribution was the
From: Osservatorio method for calculating the
Astronomico di Torino heat of the Earth crust at
various depths. Again, the
main interest of the people at the observatory was the theoretical astronomy.
In 1820, the King Vittorio Emanuele I, ordered the construction of an
observatory in the roof of the building named “Palazzo Madama” in the main center
of Turin (Figure 7 and 8). The construction took place during the following 2 years.
So in 1822, all the instruments were installed there.

5
 The decision to build the
observatory there was not a brilliant
idea, because after a few years, the
increased population and the
growing industrial activity showed
that the light pollution and the smoke,
affected the viewing of the sky.
From this point, the
Figure 7
The observatory at “Palazzo Madama”
From: www.to.astro.it

observatory had a budget and an official

constitution, even when it depends from the Academy of Science. For almost one
hundred years, the controversy, between the University and the Academy, about
the belonging of the observatory, slow down its development and the budget not
always were delivered to the institution,
Figure 8
Another view of the Observatory over “Palazzo
Madama”
From: www.to.astro.it

so after some years the money “saved”

was a considerable quantity; Plana
planned to buy new instruments with
that money, but his effort was success
less.
Here is a brief biography of Plana.
He was born on November 6,1781 in
Voghera and died also there on January 20,1864. In 1800, he wan a place at the
Polytechnic of Paris. Graduated in 1803, he begins to teach Mathematics at the
Artillery School of Piedmont. In 1811 he was named professor of Astronomy at the
University of Turin and in 1813 he was named
the director of the Observatory, he remained in
charge until 1864, the year of his death.
He published an enormous quantity of
papers, the most relevant are “The theory of the
movements of the Moon” in 1832 (figure 9), and,
“Geodesic and astronomic observations for the
measurement of an arc of latitude” in 1828. He
demonstrates
Figure 9
The theory of the movement of the also, in 1820, the
Moon, published by Plana. precision of just
From: storia della scienza e della 13 seconds of arc
tecnica a Torino
of the
measurement of the meridian arc done by
Beccaria and published in 1774 in the Gradus

6
Taurinensis. He wan almost all the prizes offered to scientists and important people
in general for that time: Royal Astronomer in 1827, the Lalande prize and the Iron
Crown in 1828, named Baron in 1844, Senator in 1848, President of the Academy
of Science in 1852 and Foreign Consultant of the Academy of Science of Paris in
1860.
.
Part 4: From 1864 to 1912

After the death of Plana, the administration of the

observatory came back to the University [1][2][5][13].
In the meantime, Turin became the Capital of the
Italy Kingdom, in 1861, and the King Vittorio Emanuele II,
decreed, on December 28, 1864, a new organization for
Universities and research institutions. For this purpose the
Observatory was included into
Figure 10 the University administration
Alessandro Dorna and, for the first time, it has a
From: Osservatorio Astronomico
di Torino team of people, not just a
director doing, most of the
time, the entire job and sometimes with the help of
somebody else. The organization chart was composed by a director, named by the
King, an assistant for the meteorological observations, another for the astronomical
work and finally a keeper.

For a short period of time, the

activities of the observatory were stopped
due to the administrative transition to the
University. During this time, the professor
Gilberto Govi was named as a provisional
director, but no research was done.

In 1865, Alessandro Dorna, (born in

Asti on February 13,1825) (Figure 10) was
officially named director of the observatory
and professor of Astronomy at the
Figure 11
University. The budget for the observatory was
The Ecuatorial refractor Merz. much reduced at that time, but he was able to
From: Osservatorio Astronomico di begin the publication of a Bulletin in 1866.
Torino During the first period of his direction, he
worked very hard to increase the money and the
people available to the observatory. All of his effort, doing so, remained fruitless
until 1874. That year Dorna promoted the acquisition of a new equatorial refractor
(Figure 11) of 30 cm diameter and 4.5 m of focal length (F/15). This instrument,
with many modifications, worked until 1983.
During his direction, another two very important instruments were acquired:
a Zollner stellar spectroscope and a solar spectroscope.

7
 In 1868 he published a textbook of Astronomy and Celestial Mechanics. In
1870 he published a catalog of 674 stars (Figure 12); the aim of that work was the
study of the meteor showers. In 1874 he traveled to India to observe the Venus
transit and his calculations, published in 1882, were very precise and the best for
that time. In 1885 he created the “associate astronomer job”, who was the person
in charge of the reduction of the observations. This job was offered to Francesco
Porro, who was named director after the death of Dorna occurred on August
19,1886.
Dorna obtained also, in 1884, a budget for the furniture for the observatory,
but he can not apply it because he died surprisingly in 1886.

Francesco Porro de Somenzi was the next director of the OATo, named in
1886. He was also professor of Astronomy at the University [1][2][4][5][7][8][9][13].
The growing of the city, and the lacks of budget for the maintenance of the
instruments and the facilities, was a serious problem and he was obliged to
suspend the observations in 1889 (especially of comets). To rescue the situation,
with the help of the King, he obtained a place in a hotel on the hill of Superga, near
the city of Turin, but he can not moved his best telescope, the Merz refractor, due
to its excessive dimensions. He obtained the money to purchase a shorter focal
length instrument, made by Steinheil (16 cm diameter and 125 cm of focal length),
which was installed in a portable dome. Making
scientific observations from a hotel, it was not the
best place, but he understand and demonstrate that
the hills near the city can be a very favorable place.
Soon he starts to study the possibility to change the
observatory from Turin to the nearest hills. The new
place for the observatory was the hill named Bric
Torre Rotonda, near the small town of Pino
Torinese. He decided to apply the money for the
maintenance of the older dome on the roof of
Palazzo Madama (before his death, Dorna asked for
this money, but he do not obtained it) for the
Figure 12 construction of the new observatory. This task,
Segment of the Dorna’ s star map however, do not begins until 1903, but, by that
Published in 1880
From: Storia della scienza e della time he was not the director.
tecnica a Torino During the period when Porro was the
director, the research areas were: spectroscopy,
variable stars, positional astronomy. He published the results of the determination
of the absolute azimuth of the observatory in 1892 and the observations of variable
stars in 1896. In 1902 he was named professor of Astronomy and Geodesic at the
Genoa University, and he was transferred there, leaving the direction to Giovanni
Boccardi.
Francesco Porro was born on May 5, 1861 in Cremona and died on
February 16,1937 in Genoa. After leaving the Turin Observatory he was
transferred to Genoa and then to Argentina (to restore the La Plata Observatory),
returned in Italy, he continued to teach Astronomy at Genoa and published the

8
reduced data of the stellar field observed and mapped by Piazzi at the Palermo
observatory.
For a few months, the direction of the
observatory was in charge of his assistant
Luigi Volta, who, some years later, became
the director for 15 years.

Giovanni Boccardi (Figure 13), find

the observatory in a very poor state, so his
first task, was the search for a best place to
install the instruments. The observational
work was almost abandoned in 1903, the
year when he was named director.
The project to transfer the
observatory on the hills near Turin, was
initiated by his predecessor, Porro, but that
task was not easy. He finally obtained that after 9
Figure 13 years, in 1912 [1][2][5][13].
Giovanni Boccardi with the
meridian transit telescope. During his direction, he fight a lot to obtain an
From: Storia dell scienza e increment of the people working at the observatory as
della tecnica a Torino auxiliary and as astronomers, he was also a strong
defender of the worker rights asking many times for
better salaries and labor conditions.
He was a great advocate of the
divulgation of the science, he start the
publication, self funded, of the Year
Almanac of the observatory in 1905;
the next year he was the founder of the
Italian Astronomical Society based in
Turin; in 1906 he joined the
International Astronomical Union.
He also founded, in 1907, the
“Rivista di Astronomia e scienze affini”
Figure 14
(Astronomical and related science magazine), a
Plains of the new observatory at Pino
Torinese monthly magazine of the Italian Astronomical
From: Storia dell´osservatorio Society (SAIt), but, the interest of the SAIt, take
astronomico di Torino
another path, so Boccardi, in 1911, founded a
new society: “Urania”. This organization
continued the divulgative labor in the pages of another bulletin: “Saggi di
Astronomia popolare”, until 1920, when the name was changed to the same as its
supporter “Urania”.
The research areas developed under the direction of Boccardi, were the
study of orbital elements of asteroids, planetary orbits, comet observations and
variable stars. As done by his predecessors, the positional astronomy was one of
the main interest areas. When the new observatory was erected, in 1912; he put a
great effort to measure the latitude and its variations at Pino Torinese.

9
 During those years, a new branch of Astronomy gained importance: the
study of the physical properties of the stars, now known as Astrophysics, Boccardi
also done studies in that field.
When he was at the
observatory of Catania, he
worked on a very important
project: the Atlas of the Whole
Sky (Carta del Cielo) and a
Photographic Sky Map. This was
an international cooperation work
with 18 participating
observatories. This works were
published in Turin in 1905 when
he was director of the OATo.
In order to convince the
Figure 15
Building for offices under construction public authorities, he published in
From: www.to.astro.it 1907, a paper explaining the
reasons why the observatory
must be transferred to the nearest hills, because the observations from Palazzo
Madama, were impossible due to the light pollution and to the precariousness of
the domes. Another problem was the climatologically characteristics of the city: fog
for almost all the winter season and
sometimes during autumn and spring.
The fog disappears above 500 meters
above the sea level, so the sky on the
hills is clear all the time. This way, on
July 7, 1907, the Public Instruction
Minister, acquired the ground for the
new observatory, late, on November 4,
1907, begins the works to made a road
from the nearest town to the top of the
hill. The project for the new observatory
(Figure 14) was done by Casati, a civil
engineer. On the top of the Pino
Torinese hill, there was sufficient room
to build not only the towers and the
domes for the telescopes, but also some
Figure 16
The construction of the 11 m Merz buildings for the astronomer’s families, a
dome. library and offices (Figure 15).
From: Storia dellascienza e della tecnica For the Telescopes, the project
a Torino
included an 11 meter rotating dome (Figure
16) for the big Merz equatorial refractor (the biggest in Italy for that time), two other
domes and two small buildings for the meridian transit instruments. As always,
government talked about the reduced budget, so the construction of the new
observatory waited until 1911, finally it was finished in August of 1912.
The same year (1911), a new governmental regulation was approved and
applied to all observatories, stating that the personnel employed were not selected

10
by the director, but by a commission where not necessarily the director was
included. This regulation permitted to astronomers to do research of their own
interest, and not necessarily follows the one of the director’s main interest.
The life of the new observatory was not as easy at it may appears, because
after only 3 years, the World War I (1915 – 1918) reduced the people employed to
one: just the director. When the War finished, the interest in Astronomy grows
again, but the people at the observatory was insufficient even for just the
meteorological and geodesic observations.
In addition, he spent many efforts to increase the instrumentation inventory,
he acquired an astronomical pendulum, instrument which was used to measure the
Earth rotation; in 1921 and 1922 he obtained, from particular supporters, the
money to buy a short focal length photographic refractor from the German
manufacturer Zeiss (Figure 17).
Here is a brief biography of Giovanni
Boccardi. He was born on June 20, 1859 in
Castelmauro, and died on October 24, 1936
in Villetta. He was ordered priest in 1884. In
1887 when he was teaching mathematics, in
the Middle Orient, he made astronomical
observations. When he returned to Italy, he
worked, from 1895, at various observatories
(Rome, Vatican, Catania, Teramo). When he
was in Catania, he worked on the Sky Atlas
(Carta del Cielo). He published a catalog of
Figure 17
3243 reference stars and a paper about how
The astrographic refractor Zeiss to make measurements on photographic
From: Osservatorio Astronomico di plates. In 1902, he published a 2 volume
Torino
book about the calculations of planetary
orbits; this was a very important work
because it was clearly written and practical.
The Boccardi´s direction was very important and innovative under many
aspects and marked a new path and a new age for the Observatory. He was the
first to lead and induce science to the common people and he got the merit to give
a new life to the OATo because he built it in a much better place (the hill of Pino
Torinese), where it is still now.
It is interesting to see that all the original buildings and almost all the
telescopes, worked, and, some of them are still working today; of course with some
modifications and maintenance.

Part 5: from 1912 to 1966

When Boccardi left the OATo in 1922, the direction passed, in 1923, to
Giovanni Silva. Unfortunately, Silva, directed the observatory for only two years, so
not much astronomy was done during its direction because he lived the transition
from the University to the autonomy.
Giovanni Silva (Figure 18) was born at Legnago on March 26, 1882 and
died on October 20, 1957. He studied mathematics and worked at the observatory

11
of Carloforte and Padova. In 1921 he covered the chair of Geodesic at the
University of Turin, a year after he was named the director of the observatory, but
he leaved the place in 1925 to return to Padova, where he was named professor of
Astronomy and director of the observatory. His main interest
was the Celestial Mechanics and Classical Astronomy.
After the regulations published in 1911, a new Royal
decree was promulgated on December 31, 1923. This was a
very important event for the life of the
Figure 18 nine Italian astronomical observatories
Giovanni Silva
From:
because it gives them their own juridical
www.pd.astro.it figure, they were, finally, fully
autonomous. With this decree, the
director was also the professor of Astronomy of the Science Faculty of the
University, but without a salary. All other employee were named form the winners
of a competition. Those competitions were for the students of mathematics. At first,
they won a year contract and then, the director may employ them again for another
year. After 3 years, they get the right to work in stable form.

In 1925 was named professor of Astronomy and director of the Observatory

Luigi Volta. His major task was the reorganization of the observatory
[1][2][5][8][9][13].
The research areas under the direction of Volta, were the studies of comets,
asteroids and variable stars. These fields became a tradition for the OATo and they
were followed until the decade of 1980. For the first time, the research goes to
another field: the variable star.
Using the 20 cm wide field refractor, he discovered two asteroids: Sabauda
and Littoria in 1928 and 1929. He, then, discovered 3 more asteroids and many
new variable stars. It is a merit of Volta, the precise measurement of the difference
in longitude from Turin and Greenwich.
The instrumentation available was incremented with electric calculator
machines, a micrometric ocular for the observations and measurements of the
photographic plates and with a long wave radio receiver. The latter was used for
receiving time signals.
In 1930, the Merz refractor was completely disassembled, checked and
refurbished at the observatory of Padova under the supervision of Silva (ex director
of the OATo).
In 1934, Volta, published the first issue of the “Calendario Astronomico”
(Astronomical Calendar). This series continued until the direction of M.G.
Fracastoro in 1966.
In 1938, the World War II was at the door and one of the astronomers left
his work due to racial laws. In 1941 Volta was transferred to Milan and the next
director was Gino Cecchini.
Here is a brief biography of Volta.
Luigi Volta was born in Como on July 27,1876 and died in Milan on October
7, 1952. He studied mathematics and in 1899 was named professor of Mechanics
at the University of Turin. In 1902, as an assistant of Porro, he calculated the
ephemeris of the Moon for the year 1903. This year, he was in charge of the

12
observatory for a short period of time, he tried to do the best with the instruments
placed on top of Palazzo Madama. In 1905 he was the director of the observatory
of Carloforte. In 1909 he observed comets and asteroids at the Milan observatory
until 1925 when he was transferred to Turin. In 1941 he returned to Milan. He was
also the president of the SAIt.

In 1942 the direction passed to Gino Cecchini and he was also the professor
of Astronomy at the University. The first period was very difficult because of the
World War II (WWII) he was alone with just one assistant and some other auxiliary
people.
All the instruments were disassembled and refurbished without the help of
external institutions; he also repaired all the domes. Some instruments, like the
meridian circle (the Reichenbach), was placed in the museum.
Some new instruments were acquired: a visual photometric recorder, for the
Merz refractor, a plate measurement system and a microphotometer.
In the year when Cecchini went director, a new decree of 4 articles, was
issued. Basically it was the same as the older one issued in 1923.
On January 26, 1944
the observatory was
occupied by the Germany
military command. In less
tan a week the observatory
must be disassembled and
placed in different sites.
Many people help this way
hosting part of the
instruments and the library
was transferred to the
Silesian Institute of Chieri.
Fortunately Cecchini
Figure 19 obtained the release of the OATo by the
The OATo when Cecchini was the director. Germany command on May 4, 1944, but
From: Il Cielo, Vol. 2 this was only for a short period of time,
because the observatory was occupied
again on July, 1944. All the buildings and the environments were modified, so all
the work done by Cecchini in his first two years, were completely lost. The
restoration of the observatory started in late 1945, adding a photographic
laboratory, a photographic plate calibration room and new telephone lines.
During the War period, with many difficult, both theoretical and observational
researches were done:
• Eclipsing variable stars with photometric measurement and the study
for the calibration of the photographic plates for variable star
observation
• Visual and photographic observations of comets and asteroids
• Lunar occultation ephemeris

13
 • Perturbation of the orbit of two asteroids by Jupiter (Littoria and
Myrrha)
• Spectroscopy
In 1942, Cecchini started the publication of two new periodicals: a
Contribution and Monographic Study. The content of the former was only dedicated
to original works, theoretical and observational. The content of the latter was
dedicated to specific arguments.
After the WWII, Cecchini produced a series of short movies, the first of them
was about Novae. He starts the so called “Weekly Contribution”, an activity where
each astronomer talk about his research to all other fellows. This was a
successfully initiative.
In 1949, the International Bureau of Latitudes was transferred at the OATo;
Cecchini was the coordinator and with the help of an assistant, he recovered and
reduced all the observations from the year 1900 to 1961 (more than 150000). This
work was the only one he done over that period.
After the WWII, the personnel at the OATo was reduced to 2 astronomers,
but they done a lot of observational and theoretical work in the field of the
evaluation of variable stars light curve at different wavelength using photographic
plates and in the field of the positional Astronomy. During the decade of 1960,
another 4 astronomers joined the OATo.
After the WWII, Cecchini was very
busy working on the reconstruction of
the observatory and its environment, all
the instruments were checked and
refurbished, all the buildings restored.
The aspect of the OATo was as in figure
19 and 20.
Cecchini was director until 1966.
Here it is his biography. He was born in
Viareggio on March 3, 1896 and died in
Calci on November 5, 1978. He studied
mathematics and in 1929 was transferred at the
Figure 20 astronomical station of Carloforte where he was
The office building of the OATo.
From: www.to.astro.it
named director in 1925. He studied and observed
the perturbations and the variations of the latitudes.
In 1927 he was transferred to the Milan observatory
and in 1942 to the OATo. With the 102 cm reflector at the Milan observatory he
classified 400 stars of A to F spectral type, this work was part of a more important
one about the statistical distribution of the stars of any spectral class. He also
published papers about Novae in 1937. In 1953 he published a textbook of two
volumes “Il Cielo” (The Sky), this book was a “must” in any library and it was
published again in 1969.

14
Part 6: from 1966 until today

This period is the most interesting and

productive of all the history of the OATo. Many new
instruments was acquired or fabricated by the own
engineers and scientist and many new research lines
were opened. Astronomers are now involved into
space research. Naturally the merit of this new age is
not just of one ore more scientist, but also
corresponds to the government (Italian and
International) for funding these developments.
In 1966 Mario Girolamo Fracastoro was
named director of the OATo and professor of
Astronomy at the University. The biggest and worst
problem he encountered was the obsolescence of
the instrumentation, in effect the Merz refractor
(purchased in the XIX century by Dorna) was still the
Figure 21 principal instrument.
The Morais photovisual refractor. One of his first task, was he
From: Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino
actualization of the instrumentation
available. For that purpose, he acquired in
1970 the glasses for a mirror of 380 mm diameter
and focal length of 6875 mm (F/18), by 1979, that
instrument was converted into a double refractor:
one for visual observations and the other for
photographic observations. This instrument was
named “Double Refractor Morais” (Figure 21). The
photographic refractor is corrected for the visible
wavelength. The visual refractor, 430 mm
diameter and 7000 mm focal length (F/16) and the
photographic refractor of 380 mm diameters were
placed on the same mounting. This mounting was
the one used by the Merz. The dome and the
mounting were completely rebuilt because the
dimension and the weight of this new instrument
were excessive. The optics of both instruments
were designed and built by the Istituto Nazionale
di Ottica (National Institute of Optics) directed by
Cesare Morais. The mounting was manufactured
by Marchiori.
Figure 22
The 105 cm diameter REOSC This telescope was, and is used for wide field
telescope astrometry, it has a photographic corrected field of
From: www.to.astro.it view of 0.75 degree from the optical axis, the
visual refractor serves as a guiding scope and for
planetary observations.

15
 In 1968 was acquired the optic for a 430 mm Cassegrain made by Marcon
This instruments was used for photoelectric photometry observations of asteroids
and eclipsing binaries. This instrument was delivered in 1970 and placed on the
Merz mounting. In 1975, the pyramidal dome of this telescope was changed by a
circular one. In 1982, was attached a camera and an automatic control system for
the movements in RA and DECL, that years the photometer was also checked. All
of this work was done by the OATo technicians.
A new principal instrument was acquired by Fracastoro and it sees its first
light in 1973. The instrument is an astrographic reflector (the second of this kind in
the world) of 105 cm diameter made by the French REOSC (Figure 22). It was
used for the determination of the trigonometric parallax of visual double stars. It
has a corrected field of view of some minutes of arc from the optical axis and a
scale, on the photographic plate, of
20.744 arcseconds per mm. The
optical system of this instrument is not
standard because it has a primary
parabolic mirror of 105 cm diameter
and 994.2 cm of focal length (F/9.5)
and a flat secondary mirror of 60 cm
diameter. In 1974 was added an Area
Scanner to the REOSC.
In 1968 was acquired a Zeiss
coordinate measuring system for the
astrometric work.
In 1969 the group working in the
Figure 23
The library of the OATo
technology laboratories of the OATo, begin the
From: www.to.astro.it construction of a semi automated coordinate
measuring system to apply to the Gaertner plate
measuring system, this was finished in 1973.
In 1970 was acquired a double axis coordinate measuring system from the
firm Hauser, it was used for the asteroid observations.
Under the direction of Fracastoro, the OATo obtained a computer center
with a Digital PDP 11/10 computer in1975 and a Digital PDP 11/44 in 1980. In
1982 a fast line printer (125 lines per minute) and a hard disk of 80 Mbytes of
storage capacity were added. A full set of
stellar catalogues were introduced in the
computer memory.
The need of technology development
was clear, so Fracastoro obtained the budget for
Figure 24 the installation of an electronic laboratory in
The Morais and REOSC domes 1975.
From: www.to.astro.it
The computer center and the electronic
laboratory were installed in a house acquired for
that purpose called Villa Magnolia.
He restored also all the buildings and the library (figure 23). For this purpose
he tried to find all the missing publications. The shape of the OATo changed, many
new buildings were made and all others were restored (Figure 24 and 25).

16
 The publication of the “Annuario” started again in the period of Fracastoro,
the last issued was published in 1938. It is a booklet where the director talk about
the observatory, the result obtained in the research areas and contains articles of
general interest.
He begins a program of popularization for the general public and primary
and secondary students. One night each month he organized an observation and
the Saturday in the afternoon a visit to the observatory.
With the new instruments, the major research lines were the Spherical
Astronomy, Astrometry, visual and photometric binary stars, comet and asteroid,
Fracastoro started also a new line of investigation facing to the Astrophysics, both
theoretical and observational. With him the OATo begin an international
cooperation with others observatories, research centers and space astrophysical
satellite missions with institutions like NASA and ESA. He participates on the
proposal for the ESA Hipparcos mission. The name for the Hipparcos astrometric
satellite was proposed by him.
At the end of his period, more than 30 people worked at the OATo.
During the period when Fracastoro was the director, a new radical reform
was promulgated and changed the organization and the administration of all
astronomical observatories.
Here is a brief biography of Mario G.
Fracastoro. He was born in Florence in 1914 and
died in Turin on July 24, 1994. After his graduation
he works on binary stellar systems, at first at the
Vatican observatory and then in Catania and Turin.
In 1953 he was transferred to Catania to rebuild
and reorganize the observatory. He did an excellent
work placing there various telescopes on two
different locations. After his death, one location has
his name. In 1966 he was transferred to Turin,
where he was the director of the observatory and
professor of Astronomy at the University. He leaved
the direction in 1984.

In 1984, after the retirement of Fracastoro,

Alberto Masani was the director of the OATo. He
was in charge for just two years, but he established
the basis for the development of the astrophysical
Figure 25 research at the OATo. He also increased the
The REOSC 105 cm reflector´s dome computer department. During his period more
From: www.to.astro.it people were employed. His main interest was
the High Energy Astrophisycs and he joined a
group guided by Castagnoli (professor of Phisycs) interested in cosmic rays.
Masani was named professor of Astrophysics in 1976 and he had the ability
to reduce the gap between classical Astronomy and Astrophisyscs. He leaved the
direction in 1986.

17
 In 1986 Attilio Ferrari was the new director of the OATo until 2001 and he
was also the professor of Astronomy at the University. His main interest is the
Stellar Astrophysics. He pushed the technological development (initiated by
Masani) and the international cooperation and interchange. The main research
areas during his period were: stellar Astrophisycs, Cosmology, galactic
Astrophisycs, Planetology and Astrometry [1][4].
He modernized the computer center twice. The
first time he changed the older PDP computer with a
more efficient and powerful VAX750 system. The
second time with a local area network (LAN)
connecting a VAX 6310 (instead of the VAX750), a
MicroVAX GPX, 2 VAXstation 2000 and 2 graphic
PC. The OATo is also connected to other external
networks and have the access to the CRAY-2 XMP
supercomputer of the Bologna University. Much of the
software used for observation reduction and analysis
were developed by the personnel of the computer
center.
In the field of technology, he pushed and
incremented the activities and infrastructure of the
laboratory of electronics and created a laboratory of
optical mechanics and another for cryogenics.
In this period, a very important instrument was
Figure 26 built entirely inside the OATo in 1989, but designed by
The OATo
Photopolarimeter
Piirola of Turku observatory: a Photopolarimeter (figure
From: Osservatorio 26). In 1990, in cooperation with other international and
Astronomico di Torino domestic institutions, was developed an Infrared
Imaging Camera for the middle IR at 10 micron. The
OATo developed all the electronic hardware (data acquisition) and the analysis
software for this project.
In 1994 a high resolution CCD
camera of 1152 x 1296 pixels was
added to the REOSC.
Ferrari also planned the
construction of a “Museum of
astronomy and space” and the
“Planetarium of Turin” (Figure 27) in
the field outside the observatory. It is
planned to open by the end of 2005.

In 2001, for a short period of time, the

Figure 27
CAD simulation of the Planetarium director was Franco Scaltriti. He lived the
From: OATo annual report 2003 transition to the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
INAF (National Institute of Astrophisycs) the
institution that absorbed the astronomical observatories in Italy. At the completion
of this event, in 2002, Scaltriti leaved the direction.

18
 In 1997 was established the “The Whole Earth Blazar Telescope” (WEBT)
[34], it is an international organization of 30 optical and 2 radio observatories
around the world. The aim of this project is to obtain continuous monitoring of a
blazar 24 hours a day simultaneously with X-rays, gamma-rays satellites and
ground-based observations at TeV energies.

It is very difficult to talk about the work done by these last 3 directors
in separate form, because the observatory is not yet a single or reduced group of
researchers, but it is transformed to a multidisciplinary research institute with many
areas of interest but working together for the development of the technology and
the knowledge to understand the Universe. There are around of 70 people, now,
working at the OATo.
For this reason I will describe, briefly, the research areas and the
technological developments without associate them to one or the other director for
the period from 1984 to 1998 (all this information came from the reference 2):

1) Stellar Astrophysics
• Active stars near the Main Sequence
• Stellar forming regions
• Final phases of stellar evolution
• Novae and low mass x ray binaries
• Compact galactic sources
• X ray observations of supernova remnants
• Cold stellar populations
• Globular clusters in the galactic bulge
• Massive stars in the Local Group galaxies
• Polarimetry
• Stellar Coronography
• Nucleosysnthesis and stellar evolution
• Numerical simulation of the Chemical evolution of the Galaxy
• IR observations of stellar wind
2) Extragalactic Astrophysics
• Jet acceleration
• Equilibrium MHD models for astrophysical helicoidally jets
• Astrophysical jets instability
• Astrophysical jets propagaton
• AGN and unified models
• Gamma and X ray cosmic background
• Optical monitoring and multiwavelenght study of Blazars
• Radiative process in AGN and jets
• Numerical simulations
• Beaming models for Blazar emission
• X ray observations of radiogalaxies
• Black hole astrophysics
• Galaxy formation and interaction

19
 • Relativistic Cosmology
3) Asteroids
• Collisional evolution of Asteroids
• Statistical determination of asteroids families and its dynamical and physical
studies
• Origins, evolution and physical properties of Near Earth Asteroids and the
project IMPACT
• Hypervelocity experiments of impacts and theoretical models of catastrophic
fragmentation
• Research for binary asteroids with the HST
• Cometary and asteroids polarimetry
• Photometry, spectroscopy and physical properties of asteroids
• Cometary observation with the UVCS
4) Astrometry
• Study of the galactic cinematic and structure
• Gravitational limits of wide binary stars
• Trigonometric parallax program
• Open cluster studies and T-Tauri associations
• Studies of Absolute reference frame
• Extrasolar planet research
• Relativistic astrometry
• Scientific uses of the astrometric data from FGS HST
5) Solar Physics
• Polychromator soft x ray experiment (Solar Maximum Mission)
• Development of new scientific experiments for space (XUVI, MGS, UVCS)
• Participation at the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer of SOHO
• Solar rotation
• Theoretical study of the solar atmosphere heating
6) National and International project participation
• National Galileo Telescope
• LBT Project
• Second Guide Star Catalog
• Guide Star Photometric Star Catalog (GSPC2)
• Astrometric database
• Projects with the Max Planck Institut fur Astronomie
7) Space program participation
• Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) for SOHO
• X Ray Ultraviolet Imager XUVI for the NASA Orbiting Solar Laboratory
• Multilayer Grating Spectrometer for the ISS (International Space Station)
• GAIA Mission (Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics)
• PIAZZI mission concept (not approved)
• IMPACT mission
• JUNO mission (not approved)
• Hipparcos mission

20
 • Hubble Space Telescope
8) Instrumentation development
• UVBRI Photopolarimetry
• Infrared camera TIRCAM I
• Infrared camera TIRCAM II
• Infrared camera TC-MIRC
• CCD camera for REOSC
• Scanning camera
• Digital Measuring Machine TO.CA.M.M.
• Solar Magnetometer

In the year 2002, Edoardo Trussoni was named director of the OATo. He is
still in charge. He continues to push the technological development and
laboratories. The number of researchers and technical staff present at the OATo is
increasing, letting the opening of new research areas and the reinforcement of the
existing ones. All the information that follows is taken from the OATo Annual
Report for the year 2003 [11].
There are 5 main research areas under development, each one with some
particular objectives.

1) Solar Physics, Solar System and Extrasolar planets

The Solar Physics research is focused on the studies of the extended
corona and the origin of the solar wind, toward the understanding of those physical
processes that influence the Earth and the conditions that make possible the origin
and sustainability of life. The primary objectives concern the identification of the
wind sources, the signatures of the different solar wind regimes, the mechanisms
for acceleration and the characteristics of the propagation of the Coronal Mass
Ejections. These objectives are pursued by observations from space mainly in the
ultraviolet.
The aim of the Solar System Physics is the physical characterization of
minor planets, particularly on the collisional evolution of the asteroids in the Main
Belt. This is pursued by high resolution, spectroscopic and polarimetry
observations. Studies are carried out on the non-gravitational mechanisms of
dynamical evolution (Yarkovsky effect). Extensive research has been devoted to
NEAs (Near Earth Asteroids).
The solar physics group has played a leading role in the development of the
Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer on board of the SOHO satellite.
The research of Exoplanets will be made with the results from the GAIA
satellite (the successor of Hipparcos), the astronomers at the OATo are involved in
the developments of this mission.

2) Stars and Interstellar Medium, Stellar Populations

Astronomers involved in this field, studies the properties of White dwarfs
stars associated with peculiar X-ray binaries and cataclysmic variable stars. These
studies are developed with X-ray observations. Another objective is the study and

21
the numerical simulation of the Supernova explosion effect in the interstellar
medium.
Another group is investigating the stellar population of the different parts of
the Milky Way: the bulge, the thin disk, the thick disk and the halo in terms of
spatial distribution, kinematic properties, metallicity and age. The data for these
studies are recovered by astrometric, spectroscopic and photometric stellar
surveys; mainly the Hipparcos mission, the GSC-II catalog and the future GAIA
mission.
Using the REOSC telescope, with its wide field and CCD camera, is in the
development phase the Observatory Parallax Program (ToPP) which has produced
data for over 70 astrophysically interesting stars. This program complements the
HIPPARCOS results. In 2003 was continued the observation of T and L dwarf stars
with the 3.5 m Telescope equipped with the infrared Omega Cam instrument at
Calar Alto.
The photographic archive is being digitized in order to preserve all the
images; this is a national effort in which participate various observatories.

3) Galaxies, Active Galaxies and Quasars, The Universe and Cosmology

Researchers in this group are working on the structure and the evolution of
galaxies; the radio galaxies structure and emission mechanism; nuclear activities
and circumstellar dust effects; acceleration and collimation of jets; Blazar variable
emission, observation and interpretation; galactic dynamics; simulation of galaxy
formation; galaxy clusters and large scale cosmological simulation of intra-cluster
medium.

4) High Energy Astrophysics

Researchers in this group are interested to known the properties of X-ray
emission from peculiar galactic and extragalactic objects. They study also the
propagation of plasma waves in shear flows.

5) Astronomical Instruments and Technology

The photopolarimeter (Figure 26) is now mounted on the El Leoncito
telescope in Argentina. The group developing instrumentation is specialized in the
infrared detection, they developed the TIRCAM I and II.
A new project is under development: the Italian Robotic Antarctic Telescope
(IRAIt), it is an infrared robotic telescope to be placed in the Antarctica; it is based
on the TIRCAM II camera.
In the last years, a team of the OATo, is developing interferometric
instrumentation in the near infrared range with the VLT Interferometer group. The
team is involved in the crucial aspect of fringe sensing. This group is working with
Alenia Spazio and ESO developing a new Fringe Sensor Unit.
The CRATER project is about the development of automatic algorithms for
satellite-based detection of impact structures on the Earth’s surface using
automatic recognition procedures. In this field it is also under development another
project:: a space-based wide angle camera for the detection of meteors and
fireballs.

22
 Actually the OATo counts with 3 laboratories. The mechanic laboratory is
devoted to the instrument maintenance and construction. The optic and electronic
laboratories are devoted to the design, feasibility studies, prototyping and focal
plane measurements for ground and space based instrumentation. This team is
working for the VLTI and LBT on the design and performance analysis of different
optical solutions for beam combination, on the performance of image
reconstruction algorithms and on studies for the application of fringe sensing
techniques.
The observations programs are carried out using 2 of the four telescopes
available:
• !.05 m REOSC astrometric reflector; fully robotized by the end of the year
• 81 cm F/8 R/C Marcon with standard Cousin filters
The following two telescopes are devoted to the outreach programs and to
the educational activities:
• 38 cm and 42 cm double Refractor Morais
• 20 cm F/10 refractor Zeiss

The library of the OATo, completely reorganized and almost fully classified
contains 15,000 volumes and 210 periodicals

Conclusion

The origin of this, very important, research center remount to the 18th
century, During the last 50 years the OATo grows enormously, from just 3 people
after the World War II to more than 70 people now. I wished to present the
evolution of the institution in a simple manner, dividing it in periods with some
important event in between.
Until 1966 and, in much less percentage, even until 1984, the director was
the most important element of the observatory, he determinate the research areas
to be developed. This is because there was a very few people doing science and
because of the limitations in the instrumentation available to make observations.
This way, the history of the observatory is in reality the biography of each
director, sometimes he was the only active member of the institution. His abilities,
to fight against politicians, in the effort to obtain money for better salary,
instruments and facilities were the key to the success of the institution.
During the history of the OATo, a great effort was done in the technological
field, researchers and their collaborators, many times have designed, built or
refurbished their own instruments which are used by them or by others in another
observatory.
Analyzing the history of the OATo it is clear that when government place
money on science, the results are evident and they came in a short length of time.
The benefit not only goes to science and scientist, but to the common people in the
street, in special case if the scientist is working on technological projects.
Another important fact that arises analyzing the history of the OATo is: when
the abilities and knowledge of each member of a team are joined together, results

23
are obtained better and faster, because Astronomy is a multidisciplinary science
and nobody may obtain or have the merit alone.
During the history, many directors were in charge, some of them done a
great job, ones better than others, but in different situations and I do not want to
place names here.
But, for two hundred years, almost nobody talk about the Observatory as the
institution, the “History” only knows the name of the director, he was famous, not
the institution he represent.
In the last 40 years this situation changed dramatically, because people talk
about the Observatory, not just about the work of its director because the OATo is
now a team.
Now, the OATo is a world first class institution, even when it is not so big as
many others and it has not giant telescopes.

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23. Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, storia, 2003
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