USNO Millennium Logo

The U.S. Naval Observatory's millennium logo is shown above.

The original logo that I submitted to the Millennium Committee on 1 December 1998 is shown below. The logo was intended to represent the Naval Observatory's role as the nation's timekeeper as well as its equally important work in various aspects of fundamental astronomy.

The Millennium Committee requested several changes:

Change "Millennium Year" to "Millennial Year"
Make dome larger, and more like USNO Building 2 [the 26" telescope dome]
Put a recognizable constellation in the sky

These are reflected in the final version above. Ms. Annette Hammond sharpened the lettering and incorporated the standard USNO Building 2 graphic.

The constellation of Orion is in the sky just to the right of the dome, and Canis Major (with the bright star Sirius) is just to the left of the dome. This is the configuration of the sky looking south at midnight every New Year's Eve from Washington (although the picture is much the same in this regard for just about everywhere in the northern hemisphere). The stars falling through the hourglass drift to the left, forming the winter Milky Way.

—George Kaplan