Koenigsberg observatory was an astronomical research facility, which was attached to the Albertina University. A lot of famous astronomers worked in Koenigsberg, and one of the most outstanding scientists there was Wilhelm Bessel.
In 1809, at the age of 26, Bessel was appointed director of Frederick William III of Prussia's new Königsberg Observatory and professor of astronomy.
Although the Observatory at Königsberg was still under construction, Bessel took up his new post on 10 May 1810.
The Königsberg Observatory was completed in 1813 and Bessel began observing there. Bessel remained in Königsberg for the rest of his life, pursuing his research and teaching without interruption, although he often complained about the limited possibilities for observations because of the unfavourable climate.
It was in Königsberg that Bessel undertook his monumental task of determining the positions of over 50000 stars. Bessel used parallax to determine the distance to 61 Cygni announcing his result in 1838. Clearly to succeed it was important to choose a star which was close to the Sun. His method of selecting a star was based on his own data for he chose the star which had the greatest proper motion of all the stars he had studied, correctly deducing that this would mean that the star was nearby. Bessel, using a Fraunhofer heliometer to make the measurements, gave a distance of about 10 light years.
The Royal Astronomical Society awarded him their gold medal to mark this achievement.
Koenigsberg observatory was destroyed by Royal Air Force bombs in 1944 during Second World War.
