First light in Flagstaff in 1955

First light in Flagstaff in 1955:

"The first U.S. Naval Observatory was built in 1830 in Washington, D.C.

"By about 1930 or so, it became obvious that Washington, D.C., is a terrible place to look at a dark sky," Shankland said.
The agency looked at some sites in the Appalachians and a few others across the United States before settling on Flagstaff, where the current observatory opened in 1955.

"From that time in 1830, the [U.S.] Navy has always been involved in navigation on the high seas using star maps and celestial navigation," Shankland said. "That's roughly what we're still doing today. Unlike the old days, we don't run around [creating maps] -- and it would be a really bad day if we were relying on sextants in our world now. But we practice because it's a good skill set and there's an automated process where we still provide star maps for navigation. These are primarily for spacecraft.""

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