Constantinople observatory of Taqi ad-Din

This observatory consisted of two large structures perched on a hill overlooking the European section of Constantinople and offering a wide view of the night sky.

Within months of the observatory's completion, a comet with an enormous tail appeared in the sky and Sultan Murad III demanded a prognostication about it from his astronomer.

"Working day and night without food and rest" Taqi ad-Din studied the comet and came up with the prediction that it was "an indication of well-being and splendor," and would mean a "conquest of Persia".

[2] Astronomy was a respected and approved science among the Islamic clergy of the Ottoman Empire, yet the same could not be said with regard to astrology, a field which is considered to be divination and thus against sharia.

[6] Taqi ad-Din made use of his new "observational clock" to produce a zij (named Culmination of Thoughts in the Kingdom of Rotating Spheres) more accurate than his predecessors, Tycho Brahe and Nicolaus Copernicus.