[3][4] The Flagstaff Station is a command which was established by USNO (due to a century of eventually untenable light encroachment in Washington, D.C.) at a site five miles (8.0 km) west of Flagstaff, Arizona in 1955, and has positions for primarily operational scientists (astronomers and astrophysicists), optical and mechanical engineers, and support staff.

Work at NOFS covers the gamut of astrometry and astrophysics in order to facilitate its production of accurate/precise astronomical catalogs.

The United States Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station celebrated its 50th anniversary of the move there from Washington, D.C., in late 2005.

[13][14][15] NOFS is adjacent to Northern Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, on the alpine Colorado Plateau and geographically above the Mogollon Rim.

[17][18][19][20] Indeed, despite a half-century-young history, NOFS has a rich heritage[21] which is derived from its parent organization, USNO, the oldest scientific institution in the U.S.[22] Notable events have included support to the Apollo Astronaut program hosted by USGS' nearby Astrogeology Research Center; and the discovery of Pluto's moon, Charon, in 1978 (discussed below).

The telescope is used in both the visible spectrum, and in the near infrared (NIR),[25] the latter using a sub-30-kelvin, helium-refrigerated, InSb (Indium antimonide) camera, "Astrocam".

This telescope is particularly well-suited to perform stellar parallax studies, narrow-field astrometry supporting space navigation, and has also played a key role in discovering one of the coolest-ever known brown dwarf objects, in 2002.

Large optics and telescope components can be moved about NOFS using its suite of cranes, lifts, cargo elevators and specialized carts.

Development studies have taken place to successfully show that planned life-cycle replacement of this venerable instrument can be efficiently done within the original dome, for a future telescope with an aperture of up to 3.6-meter (140-inch), by using fast, modern-day optics.

[31] However, the 61-inch telescope remains unique in its ability to operationally conduct both very high-accuracy relative astrometry to the milliarcsecond level, and close-separation, PSF photometry.

The hyperbolic secondary has an advanced, computer-controlled collimation (alignment) system in order to permit very precise positions of stars and satellites (milliarcsecond astrometry) across its wide field of view.

In addition to astrometric studies (such as for Space Situational Awareness, SDSS[45] and SST), research on this telescope includes the study of blue and K-Giant stars, celestial mechanics and dynamics of multiple star systems, characterizations of artificial satellites, and the astrometry and transit photometry of exoplanets.

The Shack–Hartmann AO system allows for corrections of the wavefront's aberrations caused by scintillation (degraded seeing), to higher Zernike polynomials.

It is adjacent to a comprehensive instrumentation shop, which includes sophisticated, CAD-driven CNC fabrication machinery, and a broad array of design and support tooling.

FASTT was also used to help NASA's SOFIA Airborne Observatory correctly locate, track and image a rare Pluto occultation.

NOFS operates the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI)[51][52][53] in collaboration with Lowell Observatory and the Naval Research Laboratory at Anderson Mesa, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Flagstaff.