Old USNO

$Looking West at old Observatory's south wing. 26--inch refractor building at left, professor's offices at center.$ old10e.jpg

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$The south wing of the old Naval Observatory building, circa 1888. The domed building at the far left housed the 26-inch refractor. It was from here that the two satellites of Mars were discovered. The two-windowed section immediately to the right of the dome was added to the orignial south wing at the same time as the domede section was built, in 1873, and was used as offices for the professors. The next section, with the door and awninged window, was a storeroom. The remaining protion, with the double shutters, housed the Refractions Circle (a 6.6-inch Ertel transit circle desinged by Maury and featuring a rapid-reversing mechanism; it was to be used for refraction and flexure studies, Howver, it proved to be defective in a number of ways and was eventually dismantled. Its objective was used by Newcomb for observing the August 1869 solar eclipse in Des Moines, Iowa), left shutter, and the 5-inch Prime Vertical (used only intermittenly at the old site, this instrument was moved to the new site after extensive renovations, where it remained in operation until 1912). The Refraction Circle portion of the building was fitted out as the library soon after the dismantling of this instrument.$ old11a.jpg

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$26-inch refractor as it appeared shortly after its installation at the Foggy Bottom site in 1873 . Prof. Simon Newcomb sits in the observer's chair; Superintendent RADM Benjamin Franklin Sands sits to Newcomb's left.$ old12a.jpg

$October 6, 1972 Dome atop main building. Believed to have orignally housed the 9 1/2-inch refractor.$ old14a.jpg

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