Download or read book A Short History of Observatories written by Marian Card Donnelly and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The developing relationship between astronomical instruments and the structures that house them is discussed by an art historian who begins her narrative in Galileo's time and moves through the intervening centuries into our own day. "Early observatories were hardly more than observation platforms, built of wood and equipped with shutters or revolving roofs ..." writes Mrs. Donnelly. As telescopes increased in complexity and size, provision for a specially tailored physical setting became necessary. Mrs. Donnelly discusses the structural and artistic logic dictated by the maturing science and shows in textual descriptions and accompanying plates the results of this blending of science and architecture.