The Naval Observatory photo gallery has been updated with a new responsive design. The old design was “responsive,” but the images were too small, and the JavaScript was awkward.
In July 2007, as part of a science partnership with the U.S. Navy, I visited the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. The Naval Observatory was established to provide the Navy with the best possible navigation tools in the 19th century and, by extension, help improve the safety and security of United States maritime commerce.
While the current location dates to 1893, the Naval Observatory was brought into being through actions by John Quincy Adams in 1825. The U.S. needed accurate charts and chronometers for safe and reliable maritime navigation. Accurate sextants, telescopes, charts and chronographs (very precise mechanical clocks) were essential for “precision” navigation, and the Naval Observatory set the standards, synchronized chronographs, worked with the U.S. Coast Survey to create nautical charts, and made astronomical surveys in support of these tasks.
James Melville Gilliss (for whom the current Naval Observatory Library is named) was instrumental in these efforts, and headed the Observatory during the American Civil War. During the war his son was captured by the Confederacy and held in a prison camp. Gilliss was planning on meeting his son after his release in 1865, but died of a stroke earlier in the day.
Once located in a rural area of the District, the District eventually filled with people, and today the Naval Observatory is surrounded by residences and businesses. But within the 2000-foot circle of the Observatory grounds, you enter a quieter, greener space. The grounds were built away from roads (as the vibration from traffic interfered with the delicate master chronometers) and lights (which interfered with nighttime viewing of the stars), and even though the city has surrounded the Observatory, the Observatory still has the look and feel of a quieter, gentler time.
