History of Airdrie Observatory

1896 Observatory Established

Airdrie has had an observatory since 1896 when local philanthropist Dr Thomas Reid offered his 3.25 inch telescope for use by the town at the newly opened Carnegie Public Library sited in Anderson Street (now the closed Airdrie Arts Centre building)

In 1925, a purpose-built observatory was created when the new Airdrie Public Library, a C-listed building on Wellwynd, opened and it has been there ever since. A bigger 6 inch refracting telescope was aquired.

Today the Observatory is still in use and celebrated its 120th Birthday in 2016!

Ex-Baillie James Lewis was curator of the observatory from 1910 t0 1945

Robert Law , above, served as curator during the ASTRA years between 1982 and 1987 then between 1999 and 2002. He now acts as Observatory Consultant.

Following a long tradition, the current observatory curators are William Tennant and Jack Frederiick