Thomas Short was the first person to want to establish an observatory on Calton Hill in the late 18th century. For decades, progress would be made, telescopes and buildings added, then stopped again for lack of funds. The Playfair Building, designed to look like a Greek temple, was the core of the observatory beginning in the 1830’s. It was named after its architect William Henry Playfair. The green City Dome on the right was added in the late 19th century and decommissioned in 1926. When the Astronomical Society moved out in 2009, most of the City Observatory complex was closed.
