Natal Observatory
| Location | Durban, South Africa |
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| Coordinates | 29°50′47″S 31°0′17.7″E / 29.84639°S 31.004917°ECoordinates: 29°50′47″S 31°0′17.7″E / 29.84639°S 31.004917°E |
| Altitude | 260 feet (79 m) |
| Established | 1882 |
| Closed | 1911 |
 Location of Natal Observatory
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 External view of the Observatory prior to 1895
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The Natal Observatory was an astronomical observatory in the Colony of Natal (now the KwaZulu-Natal province of the Republic of South Africa) from 1882 to 1911. The most important work carried out there was a study of the motion of the moon.
In 1882 David Gill, director of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, requested the government of Natal to establish an astronomical observatory at Durban, in anticipation of the transit of Venus on 4 December that year. Mr Robert T. Pett, third assistant at the Royal Observatory, visited Durban in June that year to expedite matters. A site for the observatory was chosen in the southwest corner of the Natal Botanic Gardens. Gill invited the British astronomer Edmund Neville Nevill (also known as Edmund Neison) to take up the post of government astronomer of Natal and director of the observatory, urging him to arrive in time to observe the transit. Nevill landed in Durban on 27 November and despite problems with the available equipment managed to observe the transit successfully.
The Natal Observatory was initially equipped with a 200 mm Grubb equatorial refracting telescope donated by the Natal lawyer and politician Harry Escombe, a 75 mm Troughton & Simms transit instrument, a clock by Dent keeping sidereal time, and some precision clocks and other minor instruments. A mean time clock by Victor Kullberg was added in 1892 and a 75 mm portable equatorial refractor in 1896. In December 1883 meteorological instruments were received from England and regular meteorological observations initiated at the observatory. Instruments to measure magnetic declination arrived in 1892.
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