The Institute for Astronomy (IfA) is situated within the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill, about two miles to the south of the city centre and about half a mile away from King's Buildings (KB), which is the main University science area.
The Royal Observatory Edinburgh (ROE) is an umbrella term embracing both the Institute (which is part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy) and the Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC), which is an establishment funded directly by PPARC. The role of the ATC is technical support for British telescopes in Chile, Hawaii, La Palma and Australia, as well as development of front-line instrumentation for both ground and space-based telescopes. ROE also houses the UK Schmidt Telescope Unit (UKSTU) with its library of photographic plates covering the southern sky and the SUPERCOSMOS plate-measuring machine. This used to be funded directly by PPARC but has recently merged with the IfA as the Wide Field Astronomy group. The staff and research facilities of the ATC provide valuable resources to complement those of the Institute and the students are made to feel very much part of the Observatory, with all the benefits that follow from that.
One disadvantage of the geographical location on Blackford Hill (apart from climbing up in midwinter) is that there is little contact with other departments in the University. This situation is slowly changing as a result of the inclusion of the institute as a member of the School of Physics, which is located down the hill in the James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) at the KB campus. The old Physics department is now called the School of Physics and the independent status of the former Department of Astronomy is preserved through its establishment as an Astronomical Institute within the merged school. This merger is aimed to result in closer ties with the research groups in Physics, being profitable to postgraduate students in widening the range of available research seminars.
The School also organises an annual trip to Firbush Outdoor Centre, the University's outdoor centre on Loch Tay. This trip is heavily subsidised by the department and allows astronomers a chance to meet some of the other members of the department in an informal setting. You get the chance to learn any number of new outdoors skills or just relax with a beer!