Datasets:

juliensimon
/

observatory-database

license: cc0-1.0
pretty_name: Observatory Database
language:
  - en
description: >-
  Comprehensive database of astronomical observatories worldwide, sourced from
  Wikidata. 609 observatories from 60 countries with coordinates, elevation,
  aperture size, operator, and wavelength coverage.
size_categories:
  - n<1K
task_categories:
  - tabular-classification
tags:
  - space
  - astronomy
  - observatories
  - telescopes
  - wikidata
  - open-data
  - tabular-data
  - parquet
configs:
  - config_name: default
    default: true
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/observatories.parquet

Observatory Database

Part of the Astronomy Datasets collection on Hugging Face.

Comprehensive database of astronomical observatories — 609 facilities from 60 countries, sourced from Wikidata.

Dataset description

From ancient naked-eye platforms to modern space-based flagship missions, observatories have been humanity's primary windows into the universe. This dataset covers optical telescopes, radio dishes, neutrino detectors, gamma-ray satellites, and space observatories — any facility classified in Wikidata as an astronomical observatory (Q62832), space observatory (Q1377879), or radio observatory (Q148578).

Each entry includes geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude), elevation above sea level, primary aperture size, operating organization, opening date, and the electromagnetic wavelength bands observed. This enables spatial analysis of observatory distribution, historical studies of observational astronomy, and comparison of ground-based vs. space-based capabilities.

Sourced from Wikidata's structured knowledge base, curated by the WikiProject Astronomy community with contributions from professional astronomers and enthusiasts worldwide.

Schema

Column	Type	Description
`wikidata_id`	string	Wikidata entity ID (e.g. Q179224)
`name`	string	Observatory name
`country`	string	Country where the observatory is located
`latitude`	float	Geographic latitude (decimal degrees)
`longitude`	float	Geographic longitude (decimal degrees)
`elevation_m`	float	Elevation above sea level (metres)
`aperture_m`	float	Primary mirror/dish aperture (metres)
`operator`	string	Operating organization or agency
`opening_date`	string	Date the observatory opened (YYYY-MM-DD)
`wavelengths`	string	Observed wavelength bands, semicolon-separated

Quick stats

609 observatories from 60 countries
357 with geographic coordinates
0 with aperture data
46 with elevation data
Highest elevation: Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (13,570 m)
Estimated ground-based: 510, space-based: 99
Top countries: United States (109), United Kingdom (43), Italy (25), France (24), Netherlands (19)
Top wavelength bands:

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/observatory-database", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Observatories by country
print(df["country"].value_counts().head(10))

# High-altitude observatories (above 3000 m)
high_alt = df[df["elevation_m"] > 3000].sort_values("elevation_m", ascending=False)
print(high_alt[["name", "country", "elevation_m"]].head(10))

# Large aperture telescopes (> 8 m)
large = df[df["aperture_m"] > 8].sort_values("aperture_m", ascending=False)
print(large[["name", "country", "aperture_m"]])

# Radio observatories
radio = df[df["wavelengths"].str.contains("radio", case=False, na=False)]
print(f"{len(radio):,} radio observatories")

# Space observatories
space_obs = df[df["wavelengths"].str.contains("X-ray|gamma|ultraviolet", case=False, na=False)]
print(space_obs[["name", "wavelengths"]].head(10))

Data source

Wikidata SPARQL endpoint. Observatories identified via property P31 (instance of) = Q62832 (astronomical observatory), Q1377879 (space observatory), or Q148578 (radio observatory). Data is community-curated by WikiProject Astronomy.

Update schedule

Quarterly (January, April, July, October). Re-run manually to pick up newly catalogued facilities.

Related datasets

astronomer-database — Astronomers from Wikidata
chandra-sources — Chandra X-ray source catalog

Pipeline

Source code: juliensimon/space-datasets

Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the dataset page and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the space-datasets repo.

Citation

@dataset{observatory_database,
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  title = {Observatory Database},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/observatory-database},
  note = {Sourced from Wikidata (CC0)}
}

License

CC0-1.0 (Wikidata content is public domain)