A CENTURY OF SCOTTISH ASTRONOMY (1894-1994) AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

In this past century, the subject of astronomy has progressed markedly . In Scotland of the 188os, there were two main research observatories -the Royal Observatory at Calton Hill, Edinburgh, which was in danger of losing its status as a National Institution, and the Earl of Crawfo rd's private observatory at Dunecht in Aberdeenshire. But by 1894, the Dunecht Observatory equipment and its large library had been removed to the new Royal Observatory site with very fine buildings on Blackfor d Hill. This dramatic change led the way for the long-term and sustain ed growth of astronomy as a research and teaching discipline in the Un iversities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and later, St Andrews. One hundred y ears later, the three Universities each have thriving astronomy and as trophysics groups within their Departments or Schools of Physics and A stronomy, whilst the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh is internationally r enowned for its scientific instrumentation on several world-class tele scopes, and for its research activities over a wide range of astronomy and astrophysics. In addition, a group of magneto-hydrodynamics exper ts, involved in detailed modelling of solar phenomena, is well establi shed in the School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences at St An drews. The subject of astronomy has developed over these 100 years int o a very strong physical science where the whole spectrum of scientifi c endeavour is reflected. There are areas of precision science, of whi ch many laboratory physicists would be proud, areas where uncertaintie s of 10-50 per cent have to be tolerated because of presently inadequa te observational tests or theoretical models, and areas of 'constraint science', where order-of-magnitude values abound, and the proponents of those areas are really feeling their way into unexplored territory. All of these activities deserve to be supported fully.