Pervenit in Astra: Scaling the stars at the U.S. Naval Observatory, 1845 to the present

Details Pervenit in Astra: Scaling the stars at the U.S. Naval Observatory, 1845 to the present Pervenit in Astra: Scaling the stars at the U.S. Naval Observatory, 1845 to the present

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21320003c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #200.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.186

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

In the spring of 1845 LT Matthew Fontaine Maury and his assistants began regular observations of the stars from their newly-completed observatory in Washington's "Foggy Bottom” district. Initially conceived to support celestial navigation for the U.S. Navy, the "Washington Observatory” used a variety of transit instruments and a 9.6-inch Merz equatorial telescope to chart the positions of navigational stars, determine a reference time-scale for rating chronometers, and measuring the positions of planetary satellites and double stars.
During the course of the next 160 years the Observatory grew, not only in the size of its staff and instruments, but in the scope of its mission as well. Today the United States Naval Observatory is considered to be the world's foremost authority on time-scales, celestial reference frames, and fundamental astrometry.
Thanks to an extensive archive of manuscripts, observing logs, and correspondence, we have an intimate look at the development of instruments needed to meet the Observatory's requirements. I shall present an examination of the development of these instruments in their historic context, and briefly discuss the modern successors to these early "scalers of the stars".

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