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Madras and Kodaikanal Observatories:
A Brief History
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Modern astronomy came to India in tow with the Europeans. The earliest recorded use of telescope in India was by an Englishman, Jeremiah Shakerley (1626-c.1655). He was one of the earliest followers of Kepler and viewed the transit of Mercury in the year 1651 from Surat, west India. He could, however, time neither the ingress nor the egress. His observation, therefore, was of no scientific use. More representative of things to come was the work of the Jesuit priest Father Jean Richaud (1633-1693) who in 1689 discovered from Pondicherry that the bright star Alpha Centauri is in fact a double. Truly speaking, modern astronomy could take root in India only in the latter half of the 18th century, when it was pressed into service as a geographic aid. |
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