Charles Piazzi Smith. Portrait of the British astronomer Charles Piazzi Smith (1819-1900). Smith became chief assistant at the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, at the age of 16. He later became Scotland's Astronomer Royal. In 1856, he tested the Pico de Teide (altitude: 3818 metres) in Tenerife, Spain, as a site for telescopic observations. He showed the value of high altitude sites which is fully accepted today.