One of the oldest astronomical observatories in the former Russian Empire, founded in 1821 to provide accurate navigational data for the Black Sea Fleet. The location was not accidental — a naval city absolutely depended on precise celestial charts, and Mykolaiv's observatory supplied them for over a century. Today it operates as a research institute (the Research Institute "Mykolaiv Astronomical Observatory") and is still active in astrometry and positional astronomy. The 19th-century domed buildings are set in a quiet quarter of the city, a world apart from the industrial riverfront a few streets away.