Lund Observatory

Lund Observatory was the official English name for the astronomy department at Lund University, and is currently used as a network of researchers within astronomy and space related research areas, administered by the Department of Physics. Between 1867-2001 "Lund Observatory" was also the name of the Observatory building, which is now referred to as the "Lund Old Observatory". Lund Observatory was part of the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics at Lund University until 2023, when that department merged with Department of Physics. Today astronomical research is carried out in several departments and there is also an active research area in Philosophy and related areas that contributes to the astronomical landscape at Lund University. The institution was founded in 1749, but was preceded by an observatory built by astronomy professor Anders Spole (the grandfather of Anders Celsius) in 1672, which was destroyed at the Battle of Lund in 1676. The now old observatory from 1867 is located in a cultural-heritage protected observatory park just outside the medieval city boundaries. The department left these premises in 2001 for a new building on the northern campus of Lund University, inaugurated in 2001, using the nearby old water tower as their new location for astronomical observations. The history of astronomy in Lund through five centuries is told in the book Lundaögon mot stjärnorna. Today Lund Observatory research activity focuses on observational and theoretical astrophysics. Prominent research areas covered include the study of the Milky Way as a galaxy, galaxy formation and evolution, exoplanet research, laboratory astrophysics, high-energy astrophysics, star clusters, and astrometry.