https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=HM_Nautical_Almanac_OfficeHM Nautical Almanac Office - Revision history2026-08-10T07:37:35ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.2https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=HM_Nautical_Almanac_Office&diff=270346&oldid=prev~2025-33230-08: Rutherford Lab is nearer Didcot than Abingdon2025-11-12T21:46:47Z<p>Rutherford Lab is nearer Didcot than Abingdon</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|UK government agency}}<br />
{{Use British English|date = August 2019}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date = August 2019}}<br />
{{Infobox government agency<br />
|type = Office<br />
|agency_name = Nautical Almanac Office<br />
|motto =<br />
|logo = <!-- UK Hydrographic Office logo.png --><br />
|logo_width = 200px<br />
|logo_caption =<br />
|seal = <br />
|seal_width =<br />
|seal_caption =<br />
|preceding1 = <br />
|jurisdiction = [[Government of the United Kingdom]]<br />
|headquarters = [[Taunton]], [[Somerset]]<br />
|formed = 1832–current<br />
|dissolved = <br />
|superseding = <br />
|employees =<br />
|budget =<br />
|chief1_name = <br />
|chief1_position = <br />
|chief2_name =<br />
|chief2_position =<br />
|parent_agency = [[United Kingdom Hydrographic Office]]<br />
|child1_agency =<br />
|website = <br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''His Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office''' ('''HMNAO'''), now part of the [[United Kingdom Hydrographic Office]], was established in 1832 on the site of the [[Royal Greenwich Observatory|Royal Observatory, Greenwich]] (ROG), where ''[[The Nautical Almanac]]'' had been published since 1767. HMNAO produces astronomical data for a wide range of users, such as astronomers, mariners, aviators, surveyors, the military, police, lawyers, religious groups, architects, schools, diary and calendar manufacturers, photographers and film crews.<br />
<br />
In 1937, it became part of ROG and moved with it, when it moved away from Greenwich (and was renamed the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO)) first to [[Herstmonceux Castle]], near [[Hailsham]] in [[East Sussex]] in 1948, then to [[Cambridge]] in 1990. When the RGO closed in 1998 HMNAO was transferred to the [[Rutherford Appleton Laboratory]], near [[Didcot, Oxfordshire|Didcot]] in [[Oxfordshire]]. In December 2006, HMNAO was transferred to the [[United Kingdom Hydrographic Office]], which is based in [[Taunton]] in [[Somerset]].<br />
<br />
==Leaders of HMNAO==<br />
===Superintendents of the Nautical Almanac===<br />
*[[Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]] (1818–1829){{snd}} [[physicist]] and [[polymath]]<br />
*[[John Pond]] (1829–1831){{snd}} [[Astronomer Royal]]<br />
*[[W. S. Stratford]] (1831–1853){{snd}} set up a central bureaucracy to replace the system of home-based [[human computer]]s<br />
*[[John Russell Hind]] (1853–1891){{snd}} discovered a number of [[asteroid]]s in the earlier part of his career<br />
*[[A. M. W. Downing]] (1891–1910)<br />
*[[Philip Herbert Cowell]] (1910–1930){{snd}} best remembered for his work with [[Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin|Andrew Crommelin]] on the calculation of the orbit of [[Halley's Comet]] by numerical integration, in preparation for its return in 1910<br />
*[[Leslie Comrie]] (1930–1936){{snd}} a pioneer of numerical computation<br />
*[[Donald Sadler]] (1936–1970)<br />
*George A. Wilkins (1970–1989)<br />
*Bernard D. Yallop (1989–1996)<br />
<br />
===Heads of HM Nautical Almanac Office===<br />
*Andrew T. Sinclair (1996–1998)<br />
*Patrick T. Wallace (1998–2006)<br />
*Stephen A. Bell (2006–present)<br />
<br />
==Publications==<br />
*''The Astronomical Almanac'' (jointly with the [[United States Naval Observatory]])<br />
*''The [[Nautical Almanac]]'' (jointly with the USNO)<br />
*''Astronomical Phenomena'' (jointly with the USNO)<br />
*''The Star Almanac''<br />
*''The UK Air Almanac''<br />
*''Rapid Sight Reduction Tables for Navigation''<br />
*''Planetary and Lunar Coordinates''<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[https://www.gov.uk/HMNAO HMNAO on gov.uk]<br />
*[https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20230113142241/http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/ HMNAO website]<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041109072235/http://www.nao.rl.ac.uk/nao/history/super.html List of Superintendents and Heads of HMNAO]<br />
{{Admiralty Department|state=collapsed}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hm Nautical Almanac Office}}<br />
[[Category:Almanacs]]<br />
[[Category:Government agencies established in 1832]]<br />
[[Category:Organisations based in Taunton]]<br />
[[Category:National hydrographic offices]]<br />
[[Category:1832 establishments in the United Kingdom]]<br />
[[Category:Royal Navy]]<br />
[[Category:Admiralty departments]]<br />
[[Category:Royal Observatory, Greenwich]]</div>~2025-33230-08