“This symposium marks the real beginning of observational cosmology”, Allan Sandage, 29 August 1986.

It is a pleasure to be invited to attempt to summarise the very intense work of the last 6 days. Virtually all aspects of contemporary observational cosmology have been described and debated and it is my task to try to put this wealth of new material into context. As in all such surveys, allowance must be made for personal bias - like everyone else, I am sure I am giving an unbiased view but you must judge for yourselves!