High-altitude astronomical observing (Piazzi Smyth's Tenerife experiment)
Observación astronómica de alta montaña (experimento de Piazzi Smyth en Tenerife)
- Date
- 1856 · confidence high
- Place
- Guajara Mountain, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
- Credited to
- Charles Piazzi Smyth
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The Scottish astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth observed from Guajara (2,700 m) and Altavista (3,260 m) in Tenerife to test Newton's suggestion that the calm air of mountains improves observation. The results showed a great improvement in sharpness and transparency.
Newton had already proposed in his Opticks (1704) that telescopes be sited on the tops of mountains; Smyth was the first to test it, on an expedition funded by the Admiralty, and published it in Teneriffe: An Astronomer's Experiment (1858).
What it led to
- high-altitude observatories around the world
- the Teide Observatory (1959) and the Canary Islands Observatories
- the idea of placing telescopes above the sea of clouds