United States Naval Observatory

"USNO" redirects here. For other uses, see USNO (disambiguation). Not to be confused with United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station.

The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense.^[2] Established in 1830 as the Depot of Charts and Instruments, it is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States,^[3] and remains the country's leading authority for astronomical and timing data for all purposes.^[4]

Naval Support Facility US Naval Observatory
Part of Naval Support Activity Washington
Northwest Washington, D.C. in the United States
An aerial view of Naval Support Facility US Naval Observatory during 2004
NSF US Naval Observatory Show map of Washington, D.C. NSF US Naval Observatory Show map of the United States
Coordinates	38°55′17″N 77°4′1″W / 38.92139°N 77.06694°W / 38.92139; -77.06694
Type	Military observatory and official residence of the US Vice President
Site information
Owner	Department of Defense
Operator	US Navy
Controlled by	Naval District Washington
Condition	Operational
Website	www.cnmoc.usff.navy.mil/usno/
D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites
Official name	Naval Observatory Historic District (New Naval Observatory)^[1]
Site history
Built	1830 (1830) (as Depot of Charts and Instruments)
In use	1830-present
Garrison information
Current commander	Captain Mark Burns
Garrison	United States Naval Observatory

The Seal of the USNO with a quote from the Astronomica by Marcus Manilius, Adde gubernandi studium: Pervenit in astra, et pontum caelo conjunxit [Increase the study of navigation: It arrives in the stars, and marries the sea with heaven].

The observatory is located in Northwest Washington, D.C. at the northwestern end of Embassy Row. It is among the few pre-20th century astronomical observatories located in an urban area; initially located in Foggy Bottom near the city's center, it was relocated to its Northwest DC location in 1893 to escape light pollution.

The USNO has conducted significant scientific studies throughout its history, including measuring the speed of light, observing solar eclipses, and discovering the moons of Mars.^[5] Its achievements including providing data for the first radio time signals, constructing some of the earliest and most accurate telescopes of their kind, and helping develop universal time.^[4] The Naval Observatory performs radio VLBI-based positions of quasars for astrometry and geodesy with numerous global collaborators (IERS), in order to produce Earth orientation parameters and to realize the celestial reference system (ICRF).

Aside from its scientific mission, since the 1970s the Naval Observatory campus hosts the official residence of the vice president of the United States.

History

 

The 26 inch (66 cm) aperture telescope, with which Asaph Hall discovered the moons of Mars in 1877; the telescope is shown at its modern Northwest DC location.

Early presidential astronomical interest

President John Quincy Adams, who in 1825 signed the bill for the creation of a national observatory just before leaving presidential office, had intended for it to be called the National Observatory.^[6]

The names "National Observatory" and "Naval Observatory" were both used for 10 years, until the Secretary of the Navy officially adopted the latter.^[7]

Adams had made protracted efforts to bring astronomy to a national level.^[8][9] He spent many nights at the observatory, watching and charting the stars, which had always been one of his interests.

Establishment as an optical equipment depot

Established by order of the United States Secretary of the Navy John Branch on 6 December 1830 as the Depot of Charts and Instruments,^[10] the Observatory rose from humble beginnings: Placed under the command of Lieutenant Louis M. Goldsborough, with an annual budget of $330; its primary function was the restoration, repair, and rating of navigational instruments.

Federal observatory

It was established as a national observatory in 1842 by federal law and a Congressional appropriation of $25,000. Lt. J.M. Gilliss was put in charge of "obtaining the instruments needed and books."^[11] Lt. Gilliss visited the principal observatories of Europe with the mission to purchase telescopes and other scientific devices, and books.^[12]

The observatory's primary mission was to care for the United States Navy's marine chronometers, charts, and other navigational equipment. It calibrated ships' chronometers by timing the transit of stars across the meridian. It opened in 1844 in Foggy Bottom, north of the site of the Lincoln Memorial and west of the White House (see: Old Naval Observatory). The observatory moved to its Northwest DC location in 1893^[13] located on a 2000 foot circle of land atop "Observatory Hill", overlooking Massachusetts Avenue.

The facilities were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.^[14]

The time ball

The first superintendent was Navy Commander M.F. Maury. Maury had the world's first vulcanized time ball, created to his specifications by Charles Goodyear for the U.S. Observatory. Placed into service in 1845, it was the first time ball in the United States and the 12th in the world. Maury kept accurate time by the stars and planets.

The time ball was dropped every day except Sunday, precisely at the astronomically defined moment of mean solar noon; this enabled all ships and civilians within sight to know the exact time. By the end of the American Civil War, the Observatory's clocks were linked via telegraph to ring the alarm bells in all of the Washington, D.C. firehouses three times a day.

The USNO held a one-off time-ball re-enactment for the year-2000 celebration.^[15]

The Nautical Almanac Office

In 1849 the Nautical Almanac Office (NAO) was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a separate organization. It was moved to Washington, D.C. in 1866, operating near Fort Myer. It relocated to the U.S. Naval Observatory grounds in 1893.^[16]

On 20 September 1894, the NAO became a "branch" of USNO; however, it remained autonomous for several years.^[16]

The site houses the largest astronomy library in the United States (and the largest astrophysical periodicals collection in the world).^[17] The library includes a large collection of rare physics and astronomy books from the past millennium.

Measuring the astronomical unit

An early scientific duty assigned to the Observatory was the U.S. contribution to the definition of the Astronomical Unit, or the AU, which defines a standard mean distance between the Sun and the Earth. This was conducted under the auspices of the congressionally-funded U.S. Transit of Venus Commission. The astronomical measurements taken of the transit of Venus by a number of countries since 1639 resulted in a progressively more accurate definition of the AU.

Relying strongly on photographic methods, the naval observers returned 350 photographic plates in 1874, and 1,380 measurable plates in 1882. The results of the surveys conducted simultaneously from several locations around the world (for each of the two transits) produced a final value of the solar parallax, after adjustments, of 8.809″, with a probable error of 0.0059″, yielding a U.S.-determined Earth-Sun distance of 92,797,000 mi (149,342,000 km), with a probable error of 59,700 mi (96,100 km). The calculated distance was a significant improvement over several previous estimates.^[18]

The 26 inch and 40 inch refractors

The telescope used for the discovery of the Moons of Mars was the 26 inch (66 cm) refractor telescope, then located at Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC.^[19] In 1893 it was moved to its Northwest DC location.^[20]

 

Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station

In 1934, the largest optical telescope installed at USNO saw "first light". This 40 inch aperture instrument^[21] was also the second (and final) telescope made by famed optician, George Willis Ritchey. The Ritchey–Chrétien telescope design has since become the de facto optical design for nearly all major telescopes, including the famed Keck telescopes and the space-borne Hubble Space Telescope.

Because of light pollution in the Washington metropolitan area, USNO relocated the 40 inch telescope to Flagstaff, Arizona. A new Navy command, now called the USNO Flagstaff Station (NOFS), was established there. Those operations began in 1955.^[22] Within a decade, the Navy's largest telescope, the 61 inch "Kaj Strand Astrometric Reflector" was built; it saw light at Flagstaff in 1964.^[23]

USNO continues to maintain its dark-sky observatory, NOFS, near Flagstaff. This facility now oversees the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer.^[24]

History of the time service

By the early 1870s the USNO daily noon-time signal was distributed electrically, nationwide, via the Western Union Telegraph Company. Time was also "sold"^{[citation needed]} to the railroads and was used in conjunction with railroad chronometers to schedule American rail transport. Early in the 20th century, the service was broadcast by radio, with Arlington time signal available to those with wireless receivers.

In November 1913 the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna, exchanged sustained wireless (radio) signals with the U.S. Naval Observatory to determine the exact difference of longitude between the two institutions, via an antenna in Arlington, Virginia.^[25]

The U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington continues to be a major authority in the areas of Precise Time and Time Interval, Earth orientation, astrometry, and celestial observation. In collaboration with many national and international scientific establishments, it determines the timing and astronomical data required for accurate navigation, astrometry, and fundamental astronomy, and calculation methods — and distributes this information (such as star catalogs)^[26] on-line and in the annual publications The Astronomical Almanac and The Nautical Almanac.^[27]

Former USNO director Gernot M. R. Winkler initiated the "Master clock" service that the USNO still operates,^[28][29] and which provides precise time to the GPS satellite constellation run by the United States Space Force. The alternate Master Clock time service continues to operate at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado.

Departments

In 1990 two departments were established: Orbital Mechanics and Astronomical Applications, with the Nautical Almanac Office a division in Astronomical Applications.^[16][30] The Orbital Mechanics Department operated under P. Kenneth Seidelmann until 1994, when the department was abolished and its functions transferred to a group within the Astronomical Applications Department.^[16]

In 2010, USNO's astronomical 'department' known as the Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS) was officially made autonomous as an Echelon 5 command, separate from, but still reporting to the USNO in Washington. In the alpine woodlands above 7,000 feet altitude outside Flagstaff, Arizona, NOFS performs its national, Celestial Reference Frame (CRF) mission under dark skies in that region.

Official residence of the vice president of the United States

 

Number One Observatory Circle, official home of the U.S. vice president.

Main article: Number One Observatory Circle

A house situated on the grounds of the observatory, at Number One Observatory Circle, has been the official residence of the vice president of the United States since 1974. It is protected by tight security control enforced by the Secret Service. The house is separated from the Naval Observatory.

It formerly served as the residence of the observatory's superintendent, and later was the residence of the chief of naval operations, and finally the vice president.^[31]

Time service

See also: Radio stations WWV, WWVH, and WWVB – NIST time & frequency broadcast

 

Atomic clock ensemble at the U.S. Naval Observatory

The U.S. Naval Observatory operates two “Master Clock” facilities, one in Washington, DC, and the other at Schriever SFB near Colorado Springs, CO.

• The primary facility, in Washington, D.C. maintains 57 HP/Agilent/Symmetricom 5071A-001 high performance cesium atomic clocks and 24 hydrogen masers.^[32]
• The alternate facility, at Schriever Space Force Base, maintains 12 cesium clocks and 3 masers.^[32]

The observatory also operates four^[33] rubidium atomic fountain clocks, which have a stability reaching 7×10⁻¹⁶.^[34] The observatory plans to build several more of this type for use at its two facilities.^[32]

The clocks used for the USNO timescale are kept in 19 environmental chambers, whose temperatures are kept constant to within 0.1°C. The relative humidities are kept constant in all maser, and most cesiums enclosures, to within 1%. Time-scale management only uses the clocks in Washington, DC, and of those, preferentially uses the clocks that currently conform reliably to the time reports of the majority. It is the combined ‘vote’ of the ensemble that constitutes the otherwise-fictitious “Master Clock”. The time-scale computations on 7 June 2007 weighted 70 of the clocks into the standard.^[32]

 

US Naval Observatory outside display of the master clock time

The U.S. Naval Observatory provides public time service via 26 NTP^[32] servers on the public Internet,^[35] and via telephone voice announcements:^[36]

• [phone] (Washington, DC)
• [phone] (Washington, DC)
• [phone] (Colorado Springs, CO)

The voice of actor Fred Covington (1928–1993)^[37] has been announcing the USNO time since 1978.^[38]

The voice announcements always begin with the local time (daylight or standard), and include a background of 1 second ticks. Local time announcements are made on the minute, and 15, 30, and 45 seconds after the minute. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is announced 5 seconds after the local time.^[39] Upon connecting, only the second-marking ticks are heard for the few seconds before the next scheduled local time announcement

The USNO also operates a modem time service,^[40] and provides time to the Global Positioning System.

Instrument shop

The United States Naval Observatory Instrument shop has been designing and manufacturing precise instrumentation since the early 1900s.^[41]

Publications

 

Navy Precision Optical Interferometer, Flagstaff, Arizona

• Astronomical Observations made at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNOA) (v. 1–6: 1846–1867)
• Astronomical and Meteorological Observations made at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNOM) (v. 1–22: 1862–1880)
• Observations made at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNOO) (v. 1–7: 1887–1893)
• Publications of the U.S. Naval Observatory, Second Series (PUSNO) (v. 1–16: 1900–1949)
• U.S. Naval Observatory Circulars^[42]
• The Astronomical Almanac
• The Nautical Almanac
• The Air Almanac
• Astronomical Phenomena

See also

Astronomy and observatories

• dark-sky movement
• List of astronomical observatories
• The Old Naval Observatory
• USNO Flagstaff Station

Technology and technical resources

• Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
• Naval Observatory Vector Astrometry Subroutines
• railroad chronometer
• time ball
• Time signal
• time service radio stations WWV, WWVH, & WWVB

USNO personnel

• Rear Admiral Samuel P. Carter
• Lieutenant James Melville Gilliss
• Lieutenant Louis M. Goldsborough
• Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury
• astronomer P. Kenneth Seidelmann
• director Gernot M. R. Winkler

Notes

References

1. "District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites" (PDF). DC.GOV – Office of Planning. State Historic Preservation Office, D.C. Office of Planning. 30 September 2009. p. 107. (PDF) from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
2. "National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing". pnt.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. 2011-06-17. from the original on 2011-07-30. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
3. . usno.navy.mil. Naval Oceanography Portal. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. Archived from the original on 2009-12-24. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
4. "USNO - Our Command History — Naval Oceanography Portal". www.usno.navy.mil. from the original on 2021-12-09. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
5. "A Brief History of the Naval Observatory — Naval Oceanography Portal". www.usno.navy.mil. from the original on 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
6. Dick, Steven J. (2003). Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory 1830-2000. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521815994. Retrieved 2013-08-04 – via Google Books.
7. Williams, Frances Leigh (1963). "VIII. Scientific opportunity at last". Matthew Fontaine Maury: Scientist of the Sea. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. p. 164. These different names for the observatory, and the term 'Hydrographic Office', were used interchangeably until December 1854, when the Secretary of the Navy officially ruled that the proper designation was "The United States Naval Observatory and Hydrographical office".
8. Dick, S.J. (1991). "The origins of the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 22: 45–53. Bibcode:1991JHA....22...31D. doi:10.1177/002182869102200106. S2CID 117369344.
9. Portolano, M. (2013-03-25). "John Quincy Adams' rhetorical crusade for astronomy". Isis. 91 (3): 480–503. doi:10.1086/384852. PMID 11143785. S2CID 25585014. from the original on 2020-09-27. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
10. Matchette, R.B.; et al. (1995). Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration. from the original on 2017-12-03. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
11. "Naval Oceanography Portal". www.usno.navy.mil. The James Melville Gilliss Library. from the original on 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
12. "The Naval Observatory". The Baltimore Sun. 14 December 1842. p. 1. ProQuest 533000734 – via ProQuest.
13. "The new U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 54 (4): 261. 1894. Bibcode:1894MNRAS..54..261.. doi:10.1093/mnras/54.4.240.
14. "Weekly list of actions, 12/20/2016 through 1/13/2017". National Park Service. from the original on 2017-01-25. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
15. Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds. (1999-10-29). "The USNO millennium time ball". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
16. Dick, Steven J. (2003). Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830–2000. Cambridge University Press. pp. 547–548, 574. ISBN 978-0-521-81599-4.
17. . usno.navy.mil. Naval Oceanography Portal. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
18. Dick, Steven J. (23 May 2005) [2004]. "The American Transit of Venus Expeditions of 1874 and 1882". Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union (abstract). 2004: 100–110. Bibcode:2005tvnv.conf..100D. doi:10.1017/S1743921305001304.
19. "Telescope: Naval Observatory 26 inch refractor". Baltimore, MD: Space Telescope Science Institute. Archived from the original on 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
20. . U.S. Naval Observatory. usno.navy.mil. United States Navy. Archived from the original on 2012-10-08. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
21. . nofs.navy.mil. U.S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff. 1998-01-25. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
22. . nofs.navy.mil. USNO Flagstaff Station. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
23. . nofs.navy.mil. U.S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff. 2001-05-24. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
24. "Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI)". Lowell Observatory. from the original on 2009-12-15. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
25. "Paris time by wireless". The New York Times. 22 November 1913. p. 1.
26. . usno.navy.mil. Naval Oceanography Portal. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
27. "Interactive catalog and image search". usno.navy.mil. Naval Oceanography Portal. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
28. . usno.navy.mil. Naval Oceanography Portal. Archived from the original on 2010-12-07. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
29. . Archived from the original on 2022-01-20.
30. Seidelmann, P.K. (1997). "Nautical Almanac Office 1975–1996". American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts. 191: 01.05. Bibcode:1997AAS...191.0105S. from the original on 2013-03-09. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
31. "The Vice-President's residence and office". archives.gov. U.S. National Archives. from the original on 2023-10-28. Retrieved 2013-02-27.
32. Matsakis, Demetrios; et al. (Civil GPS Service Interface Committee) (2010-09-20). Report from the U.S. Naval Observatory (PDF) (Report). United States Coast Guard. (PDF) from the original on 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
33. "U.S. Naval Observatory declares full operational capability for rubidium fountain clocks" (Press release). from the original on 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
34. (PDF). U.S. Naval Observatory (Report). United States Navy. 2006-01-27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
35. . tycho.usno.navy.mil. Archived from the original on 2006-01-16. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
36. "Telephone Time". from the original on 2023-07-01. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
37. "The timekeeper behind America's master clock". Washingtonian. 5 December 2012. from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
38. "Keeping time by rubidium at the Naval Observatory". NPR. from the original on 2015-03-29. Retrieved 2015-03-11.
39. "Telephone Time". www.usno.navy.mil. Naval Oceanography Portal. from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
40. "USNO Master Clock via Modem". Tycho.usno.navy.mil. from the original on 2017-12-27. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
41. Fey, Alan L. "The USNO Instrument Shop". ad.usno.navy.mil. from the original on 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
42. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. "U.S. Naval Observatory Special Publications — Naval Oceanography Portal". Usno.navy.mil. from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2011-07-27.

Further reading

• Alden, Henry Mills; Wells, Thomas Bucklin; Hartman, Lee Foster; Allen, Frederick Lewis (March 1874). "Observatories in the United States: [Section] II.—The United States Naval Observatory". Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Vol. XLVIII, no. 286. pp. 531–539.
• Dick, Steven J. (2003). Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory 1830–2000. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81599-1. OCLC 689985797. Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory 1830–2000 at Google Books (British edition).

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to United States Naval Observatory.

• Official website
• Old photographs at the Paris Observatory 2018-04-26 at the Wayback Machine