United States Naval Observatory

The United States Naval Observatory is an Observatory in the Northwest of the American capital Washington, D.C.. The USNO as the abbreviation goes, is also the location of the official residence of the us Vice-President. The USNO is part of the United States Navy.

The USNO was founded in 1830 and became a National Observatory in 1842 which mainly worked on keeping navigation maps and observing the position of the localMeridian star, the meridian of Washington. Since 1893, it is housed in the current location on Observatory Circle. In the Observatory is located a number of atomic clocksthat the official time (Master Clock) in the US partly determine, a responsibility that is shared with the Metrology Institute National Institute of Standards and Technology inBoulder, Colorado.

The USNO has an Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and also manages the Alternate Master Clock on the Schriever air base in Colorado, serving as a reference serves for the GPSnavigation satellites. ==Residence of the Vice President[ Edit] == The building at One Observatory Circle is, and where previously the Chief of staff of the U.s. Navy lived since 1974, is the official residence of the US Vice-President.