Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada

The Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada is the scientific institute and observatory of the Spanish Navy, located in San Fernando in the Province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain. It was founded in 1753.Astronomy was of particular importance to the navy in the context of navigation. In 1790 the Royal Observatory in Madrid was built to take over the purely astronomical work of the facility at San Fernando.In recent years the observatory has been adversely affected by light pollution. However, it uses laser technology to play a key role in an EU initiative to monitor pieces of space junk.