Smyth, Charles Piazzi (1819–1900)

British astronomer. He worked at the Cape of Good Hope 1835–1845 and was Astronomer Royal for Scotland 1845–88. He was involved in resurveying Nicolas Lacaille's arc of the meridian, a job that involved observations from the tops of several high mountains. In Edinburgh he was a pioneer in spectroscopy and photography.

He was born in Naples and educated at Bedford, where his father had retired and had a private observatory. During his first three years at the Cape, Smyth was in close contact with John Herschel. From Edinburgh he went on various expeditions, including one to Tenerife 1856 to demonstrate the advantages of observing from a high mountain. He made a detailed survey of the Great Pyramid of El Gîza, but his accounts of this work are interspersed with mystical speculations.