Science at ULO

Since its opening in 1929 ULO has been a place of research and after the second world war practical astronomical teaching was moved from UCL in Gower Street to the observatory.

Over the years better and larger instruments became available for research and the emphasis of work at ULO slowly shifted towards teaching with student numbers increasing from eight in 1949 to about 90 today.

However, to this day the observatory has kept its long tradition of research students using the facilities for their work, with one of the last projects being the observation of extrasolar planets from our site. Many of today's large research instruments are used by scientists who made their first (and often second) steps in astronomy here at ULO.

For details on ULO research work see the links below:

• Exoplanet Project

• Student Projects
• Staff Publications
• ULO Communications

Future plans for the observatory include the installation of a large, professional telescope for research and teaching, and we are sure that this will give a big boost to research activities at our site.