The Royal Observatory in Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Prime Meridian of the world.
What is a meridian?
A meridian is a north-south line selected as the zero reference line for astronomical observations. By comparing thousands of observations taken from the same meridian it is possible to build up an accurate [...]
Archive for the 'Science & Nature' Category
Filed under Heritage, Holidays, London 2014, Science & Nature
The Prime Meridian
8 Comments CherryPie on Sep 12th 2014
Filed under Holidays, London 2014, Science & Nature
Distributing Time…
…The Observatory Time-Ball
The first public time signal was broadcast from the roof of Flamsteed House in 1833. The idea of dropping a ball at a predetermined time was the brainchild of Captain Wauchope, RN, and was tested at the Naval College at Portsmouth before Maudslay & Field were commissioned to install the first Greenwich time-ball [...]
8 Comments CherryPie on Sep 10th 2014
Filed under Holidays, London 2014, Science & Nature
The Dolphin Sundial
The gnomon or pointer of the sundial is formed by the tips of two dolphins’ tails, which almost meet. The tails cast a shadow onto the dial plate, which is engraved with thick curved lines representing the hours. Thinner lines indicate 10-minute intervals between each hour.
The dial plate has curved lines rather than straight ones, [...]
10 Comments CherryPie on Sep 9th 2014
Synopsis (from back cover):
Enormous, elephantine and extinct the mammoth is the iconic animal of the Ice Age. These colossal creatures roamed the cold, open landscapes of Europe, Asia and North America as recently as 20,000 years ago. Today, their well-preserved fossil remains generate much fascination and speculation around the world. Mammoths: Ice age Giants reveals [...]
14 Comments CherryPie on Sep 2nd 2014
Filed under Holidays, London 2014, Science & Nature
Human Biology
One of the exhibits in the Human Biology section of the the Natural History Museum is this eight times lifesize model of a seven month old baby living with in its mother’s uterus. The baby will soon turn over so it’s head faces downwards ready for birth.
The sound of a mother’s heartbeat as heard from [...]
8 Comments CherryPie on Aug 30th 2014
Filed under Anecdotes, Holidays, London 2014, Science & Nature
The Blue Whale Hall
I remember being rather disappointed with the Natural History Museum on my first visit there on a school trip. There were lots of tired looking stuffed animals that didn’t capture my imagination. There was however one part of the museum that blew me away and that was the museum’s Whale Hall. At the time it [...]
13 Comments CherryPie on Aug 29th 2014
Filed under Holidays, London 2014, Science & Nature
Space Junk
Thousands of pieces of debris are orbiting the Earth, travelling at over 27,000 km/h.1 This space junk can collide with and destroy essential satellites, knocking out communications – and in turn creating even more junk. As the layer of junk gets thicker, it’s becoming more dangerous to launch satellites and send astronauts into space. Our lifestyle depends on satellites in orbit, [...]
15 Comments CherryPie on Aug 28th 2014
