Abstract
IN 1880 a site was purchased for a new Naval Observatory a short distance beyond Georgetown, in the district of Columbia; but no appropriation has yet been made for erecting the necessary buildings and removing the instruments from the present location. On account of this delay the Secretary of the Navy, in April 1885, called upon the National Academy of Sciences for an expression of opinion as to the advisability of proceeding promptly with the erection of a new Naval Observatory; and the reply of the Committee of the Academy is contamed at length in a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, just published as Executive Document No. 67. The conclusions of the Committee we give in the language of the Report. This Report is signed by F. A. P. Barnard, A. Graham Bell, J. D. Dana, S. P. Langley, Theodore Lyman, E. C. Pickering, C. A. Young. (1) It is advisable to proceed promptly with the erection of a new Observatory upon the site purchased in 1880 for this purpose. (2) It is advisable that the Observatory so erected shall be, and shall be styled, as the present Oh- servatory was styled originally, the “National Observatory of the United States,” and that it shall he under civilian administration. (3) It is advisable that the instruments in the present Observatory, with the exception of the 26-inch telescope, the transit circles, and the prime vertical transit, shall be transferred to the Observatory at Annapolis, with such members of the astronomical staff as may be required to operate them; also that such books of the library as relate chiefly to navigation shall take the same destination; the instruments above particularly specified, with the remainder of the library, being reserved as part of the equipment of the new National Observatory, to which also the remaining officers of the astronomical staff shall be assigned for duty. (4) It is advisable that the Observatory at Annapolis shall be enlarged, if necessary, and adapted to subserve as effectually as possible the wants of the Naval Service, whether practical, scientific, or educational; that it shall be under the direction of the department of the Navy, and shall be styled the “Naval Observatory of the United States.” The grounds upon which this decision is based are set forth in the document to which we have referred; and numerous letters are appended, from astronomers and others, in regard to the administration of the Observatory, and from physicians of Washington, upon the healthfulness of the portion of the city in which the Observatory is at present situated. It will be seen immediately that this report is intended to favour the establishment of an Observatory worthy of the country, and the placing its control in the hands of those who have made astronomy their life-work The Navy will be provided, if the recommendations are carried out, with an Observatory well suited to its special needs, and would be relieved from the task of supervising work in which it has no interest aside from that felt in scientific work in general.
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The U.S. Naval Observatory 1 . Nature 33, 494–495 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/033494a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/033494a0