The Observatory is engaged in several relevant international projects and researches, such as Solar Orbiter and ExoMars missions, gravitational waves studies, and observational instruments development for E-ELT, the next generation huge telescope.

The Astronomical Observatory of Naples was established by Joseph Bonaparte with a decree dated 29 January 1807 in the ancient monastery of San Gaudioso on the Caponapoli hill.

When Joachim Murat was appointed king of Naples, he approved 8 March 1812 the foundation of a new Observatory on the Miradois hill, a site not far from the royal palace of Capodimonte.

Zuccari acquired some of these books from the Berlin astronomer Johann Elert Bode, the secretary of Neapolitan embassy in Vienna Severo Gargani, and the Paris booksellers of the King of the Two Sicilies, Borel and Pichard.

[4] In the middle of 1815, Ferdinand I of Bourbon was back to being the king of Naples and he called in the capital the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi to supervise the conclusion of building works with the help of Pietro Bianchi [it], the architect of Basilica of San francesco di Paola.