The Madras Observatory was founded by the British East India Company

British East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 in 1786 in Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

 (then Madras). For over a century it was the only astronomical observatory in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

  that exclusively worked on the stars. Among the astronomers at the observatory were Norman Robert Pogson, Michael Topping

Michael Topping

thumb|Michael ToppingMichael Topping was the Chief Marine Surveyor of Fort St. George in Chennai responsible for founding the oldest modern technical school outside Europe. The Survey School was completed on May 17, 1794, with an initial intake of eight students...

 and John Goldingham

John Goldingham

John Goldingham was the first official astronomer of the Madras Observatory, appointed in 1802. Goldingham headed the Madras Survey School later which grew into the Guindy Engineering College and then Anna University...

. By 1899, it had been relegated to gathering weather-related data.

The 15 feet tall granite pillar weighing 10 tonnes, which carried the original transit equipment is still preserved and has the name of the architect, Michael Topping and the year A.D.MDCCXCII inscribed on it. Tamil

Tamil script

The Tamil script is a script that is used to write the Tamil language as well as other minority languages such as Badaga, Irulas, and Paniya...

 and Telugu

Telugu script

Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write the Telugu language, a language found in the South-Central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states. The Telugu script is derived from the Bhattiprolu script...

inscriptions are also carved on the pillar.