Girl who named if for Pluto, God of the Underworld, because the planet is so cold and so far away from the Sun. Lowell predicted the discovery of a ninth planet and spent years searching for it. The observatory has a rich history of observations, among those being the ones that led to the discovery of the planet PLuto by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. USNO works diligently with the city and IDA to maintain the pristine skies over its facility at NOFS.The Lowell Observatory was founded by Percival Lowell in 1894. It has been designated as the world's first (and so far only) International Dark Sky City by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA). The City of Flagstaff has been an enthusiastic supporter of astronomical research within its city limits. NOFS staff support the operation of the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI) sited at Lowell Observatory's Anderson Mesa station located about 15 miles south of Flagstaff. It is expected to begin operation in 2023. It will work in tandem with an identical telescope in Australia to measure astrometric properties of stars in both hemispheres of the sky. An 8-inch astrograph capable of imaging large areas of the sky in visible light has completed two major star catalogs with observations made at NOFS and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile.Ī 1.8-meter telescope is currently under construction at NOFS. A 1.3-meter telescope, optimized for wide-field infrared detection, is used to look for faint sub-luminous stars and "brown dwarfs". An 8-inch transit circle, now completely automated, makes nightly observations of planetary satellites, minor planets, and selected star fields where precise astrometry of those objects is required. Several other telescopes now share the dark skies over the Flagstaff Station. Strand, continues to be the centerpiece of the telescopes at NOFS. In October 1959 funds were appropriated to begin construction, and the new telescope was dedicated in June, 1964. Based at the Flagstaff site, the new telescope, a reflector of 1.55-meter (61-inch) aperture, would be able to photograph very faint stars far beyond the reach of the classical refractors used up to that time. Kaj Strand joined the Observatory staff and worked diligently to oversee the fruition of that idea.
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However, site testing at the various proposed locations showed that a 7,600-foot hill five miles west of Flagstaff had excellent sky conditions, and in 1955 the 40-inch Ritchey-Chretien reflector telescope was moved to that site, where its full potential, previously hampered by the sky conditions in Washington, was finally realized.īy 1957 the idea of building a large telescope for measuring the parallaxes of faint nearby stars began to take root. In 1950 an appropriation of $7 million was passed by Congress to facilitate the move, but in that year's general election Senator Tydings was defeated and plans to move the Observatory were shelved. Several sites were proposed, including Flagstaff, Arizona, home of the Lowell Observatory, but ultimately a site near Charlottesville, Virginia was chosen.
Tydings of Maryland, chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, whose wife served on the site selection committee for the hospital.Īfter much wrangling with the Senator's staff, USNO astronomers succeeded in getting a "stay" of one year to select a new site and to maintain the continuity of observations made from Washington over the previous 100+ years. Spearheading this effort was Senator Millard E. In 1947 SECNAV James Forrestall was informed that the USNO's Georgetown campus had been selected and the property had to be vacated as quickly as possible, ideally within a month. Congress authorized funding for a new Washington Hospital Center, to be built on land ceded from another Federal agency within the District of Columbia. Navy DoD Supercomputing Resource Center.Naval Oceanography Anti-Submarine Warfare Center.Two-Way Satellite Time Transfer (TWSTT).GPS Information: SA, DGPS, Leap Seconds, etc.Fleet Numerical Meteorology & Oceanography Center.
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