Description: Established in 1890, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory was one of the earliest observatories to practice the "new astronomy," or astrophysics. Originally located behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle, in 1955, the Observatory moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Today, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has observing stations in Arizona,
Description: Although initially skeptical about the effectiveness of the hypsometer, Secretary Joseph Henry soon recognized the value of the instrument, which he discovered from his colleagues in the scientific field.