Kingsland Observatory History

History

Kingsland Observatory was established in the year 2000 at its present location. The previous name was Dunowen Observatory located in Dublin back in 1974. It was here that research was based on variable stars and solar system studies. Some discoveries were made, but light pollution was hindering observational research. Due to light pollution of Dublin City, it was decided to sell off the original 45cm telescope and dome and to relocate to north of County Dublin. Here a new Super Schmidt telescope was built and was used for variable star studies. Again, the encroaching light pollution during the 1980s and 1990s meant relocating to the present location where the skies had a lack of light pollution. Once more, the encroaching light pollution and a deterioration of clear nights resulted in finding a new mountain top sight in Spain in 2018. The operations of the new facilities started in 2019. We have now established Observatorio Kingsland with a suite of robotic telescopes to south east Spain. The new mountain site location is at 1500m (5000 ft) in Sierra Sur De Jaen, a starlight reservation in the Andalucía district.