History
The Gaithersburg observatory was established as part of the International Polar Motion Service in 1899. The Gaithersburg observatory was built by Edwin Smith, chief of the Instrument Division of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, who had conducted similar measurements as a volunteer in 1891-92 from his home in Rockville, Maryland. During its operation twelve groups of stars were studied in the program, each group containing six pairs of stars. Each night, the station observed two of the star groups along a preset schedule and later compared the data against the measurements taken by the five sister stations. The station operated on this schedule until 1915, when it was temporarily closed as a result of economy measures. Operations resumed in 1932 and continued until 1982 when advances in computer technology and satellite observations rendered it obsolete, although data collected by the observatory over the years still has use to scientists, and has been applied to studies of polar motion, the physical properties of the Earth, climatology and satellite tracking and navigation.
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