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17-420: In the 18th century, Anders Celsius performed his research there and built the first observatory proper in 1741. Celsius got the university consistory to buy a large stone house of medieval origin in central Uppsala, where he had an observatory constructed on the rooftop. Celsius both worked and had his personal living quarters in the house. This observatory remained in use until the new observatory, now known as

34-460: A collection of 316 observations of the aurora borealis made by himself and others over the period 1716–1732. Celsius traveled frequently in the early 1730s, including to Germany, Italy and France, when he visited most of the major European observatories. In Paris he advocated the measurement of an arc of the meridian in Lapland . In 1736, he participated in the expedition organized for that purpose by

51-644: A new modern observatory in Uppsala. He was successful in the request, and Celsius founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in 1741. The observatory was equipped with instruments purchased during his long voyage abroad, comprising the most modern instrumental technology of the period. He made observations of eclipses and various astronomical objects and published catalogues of carefully determined magnitudes for some 300 stars using his own photometric system (mean error=0.4 mag). In 1742 he proposed

68-726: The Nova Methodus distantiam solis a terra determinandi ( New Method for Determining the Distance from the Earth to the Sun ). His research also involved the study of auroral phenomena, which he conducted with his assistant Olof Hiorter , and he was the first to suggest a connection between the aurora borealis and changes in the magnetic field of the Earth. He observed the variations of a compass needle and found that larger deflections correlated with stronger auroral activity. At Nuremberg in 1733, he published

85-562: The French Academy of Sciences , led by the French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759) to measure a degree of latitude . The aim of the expedition was to measure the length of a degree along a meridian, close to the pole, and compare the result with a similar expedition to Peru , today in Ecuador , near the equator . The expeditions confirmed Isaac Newton 's belief that the shape of

102-411: The "old observatory", was built in 1853. The Celsius house itself remains as one of few older buildings on a modern shopping street, but the observatory on the roof was demolished in 1857. In the 19th century Anders Jonas Ångström was keeper of the observatory and conducted his experiments in astronomy, physics and optics there. His son, Knut Ångström , also conducted research on solar radiation at

119-539: The Celsius temperature scale in a paper to the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala , the oldest Swedish scientific society, founded in 1710. His thermometer was calibrated with a value of 0 for the boiling point of water and 100 for the freezing point. In 1745, a year after Celsius's death, the scale was reversed by Carl Linnaeus to facilitate more practical measurement. Celsius conducted many geographical measurements for

136-671: The Earth is an ellipsoid flattened at the poles. In 1738, he published the De observationibus pro figura telluris determinanda ( Observations on Determining the Shape of the Earth ). Celsius's participation in the Lapland expedition won him much respect in Sweden with the government and his peers, and played a key role in generating interest from the Swedish authorities in donating the resources required to construct

153-561: The Swedish General map, and was one of earliest to note that much of Scandinavia is slowly rising above sea level, a continuous process which has been occurring since the melting of the ice from the latest ice age . However, he wrongly posed the notion that the water was evaporating . In 1725 he became secretary of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, and served at this post until his death from tuberculosis in 1744. He supported

170-601: The Uppsala Southern Station at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia . Research at the observatory over the years includes stellar parallaxes, stellar statistics, galactic structure, external galaxies, stellar atmospheres and Solar System research. Anders Celsius Anders Celsius ( Swedish pronunciation: [ˈânːdɛʂ ˈsɛ̌lːsɪɵs] ; 27 November 1701 – 25 April 1744)

187-606: The eastern part , along with Finland , to the Russian Empire , which in effect created a Swedish Lapland and Finnish Lapland . Today, the Swedish part is no longer an administrative subdivision in Sweden (rather, it is part of Västerbotten and Norrbotten counties). On the Finnish side, there was a Province of Lapland (much larger to the south, especially by population, and where there were no Sami for many centuries) from 1938 until 2010, when Finnish provinces were discontinued, and

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204-559: The formation of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm in 1739 by Linnaeus and five others, and was elected a member at the first meeting of this academy. It was in fact Celsius who proposed the new academy's name. Laponia (historical province) Laponia ( Swedish : Lappland ) was a historical Swedish province , or landscape , in the north of Sweden . It evolved from Lappmarken . In 1809, Sweden ceded

221-399: The mathematician Magnus Celsius and the astronomer Anders Spole , Celsius chose a career in science. He was a talented mathematician from an early age. Anders Celsius studied at Uppsala University, where his father was a teacher, and in 1730 he, too, became a professor of astronomy there. Noted Swedish dramatic poet and actor Johan Celsius was also his uncle. In 1730, Celsius published

238-593: The observatory. In 2000 the observatory merged with the Institute of Space Physics to form the Department of Astronomy and Space Physics and moved to the Ångström Laboratory . In 2008, another merger resulted in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Astronomy and Space Physics becoming one of its divisions. In addition to facilities in Uppsala, the observatory maintains the Kvistaberg Observatory in Sweden and

255-712: The province was replaced by the Region of Lapland . Lapland is considered in some nations — notably Croatia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Serbia, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Romania and France — to be the home of Father Christmas (more widely known as Santa Claus ). The current population of Swedish Lapland plus the municipalities Enontekiö (Eanodat), Inari (Ánar), Utsjoki (Ohcejohka), Muonio (Muoná), Kittilä (Gihttel) and Sodankylä (Soad'egilli) in Finnish Lapland constitutes 125,151 individuals. The largest city

272-530: Was a Swedish astronomer , physicist and mathematician. He was professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, but traveled from 1732 to 1735 visiting notable observatories in Germany, Italy and France. He founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in 1741, and in 1742 proposed (an inverted form of) the Centigrade temperature scale which was later renamed Celsius in his honour. Anders Celsius

289-461: Was born in Uppsala , Sweden, on 27 November 1701. His family originated from Ovanåker in the province of Hälsingland . Their family estate was at Doma , also known as Höjen or Högen (locally as Högen 2 ). The name Celsius is a latinization of the estate's name (Latin celsus 'mound'). As the son of an astronomy professor, Nils Celsius, nephew of botanist Olof Celsius and the grandson of

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