In 1845, at the request of the Secretary of the Navy, the Observatory installed a time ball atop the 9.6-inch telescope dome. The time ball was dropped every day precisely at Noon, enabling the inhabitants of Washington to set their timepieces. Ships in the Potomac River could also set their clocks before putting to sea. The Observatory's Time Service was initiated in 1865. A time signal was transmitted via telegraph lines to the Navy Department, and also activated the Washington fire bells at 0700, 1200, and 1800.

SOURCE: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/history.html

The map above shows the location of the US Naval Observatory... The Observatory is located at 3450 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC.

Right beside the observatory is a large Masonic center that has also been around a very long time. Looking at Google Earth to have a closer look at the observatory however, meets with a road block. For some reason they do not want us to have a clear look into their area. We have mentioned several other 'coverups' on google areas before but this one is extremely obvious... Following are a series of images taken from Google Earth...

Even from this distance you can see the deliberate blurring of the area within the circle. Below we zoom in a little closer...

There is no doubt that this area has been blocked out from viewing. The question has to be why? What is so secret about this area?

This image was taken by Virtual Earth's Satellite from the USGS, but even this one, though much better viewing, still does not allow high detail on closeup...

The image below is of the Masonic Center adjacent the Observatory grounds. The first image is from Google Earth clearly showing the distortion withing the observatory grounds circle. The next image is from theUSGS satellite

Below are two more angles showing the Masonic Center in two sections...

You will notice that in the image above the area within the observatory circle is very degraded compared to the area just outside the perimeter...