The Royal Observatory, Greenwich

 In my last post, I promised to continue my story about the park and observatory in Greenwich. You've already seen the park and rose garden. The park adjoins the observatory buildings. The observatory was built in 1675 by order of King Charles II. Since Greenwich Park was a royal estate, no new land was required. At that time, the king also established the position of Astronomer Royal, who was to act as the observatory's director.
The park beautifully complements the buildings; many trees, such as the larches, are slightly younger than the observatory itself. Parrots live in the canopies of the deciduous trees.

 

 

 

You can drive closer along the wide road and explore the museum complex. I photographed a view of the park, and the observatory's domes are visible in the distance.

 

 The Royal Observatory, Greenwich played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and because the Prime Meridian passed through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor to today's Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The prime meridian runs directly from the door of the observatory building, and any visitor can stand in both the eastern and western hemispheres simultaneously.

 

The scientific work of the observatory was relocated elsewhere in stages in the first half of the 20th century, and the Greenwich site is now maintained almost exclusively as a museum. The original observatory housed the Astronomer Royal, his assistant and his family . 

 

 

By the later 18th century it incorporated additional responsibilities such as publishing The Nautical Almanac, advising government on technical matters, disseminating time, making meteorological and magnetic observations and undertaking astrophotography and spectroscopy. 

 

 

 

 

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