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Date: 1882 Type: Observatory Status: Demolished Street: Edith Benson Crescent   Click to view large map Coordinates:

A site for the observatory was chosen in the southwest corner of the Natal Botanical Gardens. "On leaving the (Botanical) Gardens, a steep road will be seen running to a higher level of the Berea. This road leads to the Government Observatory and Laboratories... The Observatory consists of a simple rectangular brick building, carrying a dome 14 feet in diameter, sheltering a fine eight-inch equatorial refractor, and a small transit room containing a three-inch transit instrument. Each of these instruments is supported on substantial concrete piers, which raise them twelve feet above the surrounding surface. Attached is a room for the use of the Astronomer, a temporary computing room, and a room for the clocks and electrical fittings. On the lawn to the North East is a magnetic room, carrying a small magnetic instrument for determining the variation of the compass, whilst a similar small detached room on the East contains the principal meteorological instruments." (Source: CW Francis Harrison. 1903. Natal: An Illustrated Official Railway Guide and Handbook of General Information. p 27.) Following the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 the post of government astronomer of Natal was abolished and the observatory closed down.