The Board of Visitors was created by the Royal Warrant of 12 December 1710 to oversee the operations of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. It carried out examinations of the Observatory's instruments, made decisions about the purchase of equipment, and received regular accounts of observational work from the Astronomer Royal. The members met annually at the Observatory to hold a visitation and to attend the annual meeting. The Board was comprised initially of the President and Fellows of the Royal Society. However, the membership was reconstituted by the Royal Warrant of 9 September 1830 to include the Presidents and Fellows of the Royal Society and Royal Astronomical Society, as well as the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford and the Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge. The Board's powers were reduced after George Airy's appointment as Astronomer Royal in 1835.