Editing Observatory (section)

{{short description|Location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events}}
{{Other uses|Observatory (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Royal observatory Greenwich.JPG|thumb|upright=1.15|The [[Royal Observatory, Greenwich|Royal Greenwich observatory]] in [[England]]]]

An '''observatory''' is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. [[Astronomy]], [[climatology]]/[[meteorology]], [[geophysics]], [[oceanography]] and [[volcanology]] are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed.<ref>Udías, Agustín (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=SRdJCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 ''Searching the Heavens and the Earth''], Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 3.</ref>

The term ''observatoire'' has been used in French since at least 1976 to denote any institution that compiles and presents data on a particular subject (such as [[public health observatory]]) or for a particular geographic area ([[European Audiovisual Observatory]]).