Brera Astronomical Observatory

The Brera Observatory (Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera) is an astronomical observatory in the Brera district of Milan, Italy. It is currently operated by the National Institute for Astrophysics (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, INAF) and the Institute of Applied General Physics (Istituto di Fisica Generale Applicata) of the University of Milan. It was built in the historic Palazzo Brera in 1764 by the Jesuit astronomer Roger Boscovich. Following the suppression of the Jesuits by Clement XIV on 21 July 1773, the palace and the observatory passed to the then rulers of northern Italy, the Austrian Habsburg dynasty. From 1 December 1786, the Austrian Empire adopted “transalpine time”. The astronomers were engaged by Count Giuseppe Di Wilczek, the plenipotentiary governor of Lombardy, to build a meridian line inside Milan Cathedral. It was constructed by Giovanni Angelo Cesaris and Francesco Reggio, with Roger Joseph Boscovich acting as a consultant. Following the incorporation of Milan into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the observatory has been run by the Italian government. In 1862, the newly installed Italian government improved the observatory's facilities by commissioning a 218mm Merz Equatorial Refracting Telescope to the German constructor Georg Merz. In 1946 the observatory became part of the scientific institutions of the new born Italian Rep

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