X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Royal Observatory of Belgium


Cape Lancaster

The cape was later sighted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 1897–99, under Gerlache, who named it for Albert Lancaster, Scientific Director of the Meteorological Service of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and a supporter of the expedition.

Royal Observatory of Belgium

The first Belgian astronomical expedition was sent to Santiago and San Antonio to observe the transit of Venus in 1882.

Adolphe Quetelet first petitioned the government of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to establish an astronomical observatory in Brussels in 1823.


George Van Biesbroeck

In 1904 he left civil engineering behind and joined the staff at the Royal Observatory of Belgium at Uccle.

International Meteorological Organization

Adolphe Quetelet, director of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and general secretary of the Academie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts with Victor Lahure, navy captain and general director of the Navy, represented Belgium.


see also