In 1811 private citizens had founded the Astronomical Institution of Edinburgh with John Playfair – professor of natural philosophy – as its president.

[1] During the first half of the 20th century the ROE pursued the new fields of photographic and photoelectric recording of stellar positions, brightnesses and spectra.

From 1961 to 1973 the ROE's Earlyburn Outstation some 20 miles (30 km) south of Edinburgh was used for optical tracking of artificial satellites.

From 1967 to 1976 the observatory operated a 16/24-inch (0.4/0.6 m) Schmidt camera – matching the one in Edinburgh – at its Monte Porzio Catone observing station near Rome.

A division of labour developed: By 1976 the ROE as an SRC/SERC establishment spent most of its resources on running and supporting national facilities, while astronomical research was left to the university's Department of Astronomy.

Since 1967 the ROE had been operating a machine (GALAXY – General Automatic Luminosity And X-Y) to digitise photographic plates.

After the opening of the UKST, this was upgraded to become the COSMOS (COordinates, Sizes, Magnitudes, Orientations and Shapes) machine in 1975.

The ROE operated UKIRT in cooperation with the University of Hawaii and built instruments for it, including the first ever common-user infrared camera.

In 1987 the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) – also on Mauna Kea – was handed over to the ROE after the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory had completed its construction.

After Malcolm Longair – ninth Astronomer Royal for Scotland – left in 1990, astronomy in Edinburgh underwent a period of re-organisation and uncertainty.

In 1994 the SERC was split up and the ROE became part of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC).

In 1997 this came to a halt and instead it was decided to reduce the RGO and the ROE into a smaller single astronomy technology centre.

(The ROE name remains as an umbrella term for UKATC; IfA, Edinburgh University; and the Visitor Centre).

Following the work on Gemini, the UK ATC was put in charge of managing the construction of the 4-metre f/1 VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy).

Also Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy in the University of Edinburgh: Directors of ROE or UK ATC after amalgamation and dissolution of "The Royal Observatories": The original 1894 building includes two cylindrical copper domes on top of the East and West Towers.

[3] The only working telescope is a Meade MAX 20in ACF (0.5 m) reflector in a hemispherical dome on top of the teaching laboratories.

The Observatory also holds classes, professional development courses, and other educational events for primary and secondary schools.