It was Charles II who appointed John Flamsteed to be the first Astronomer Royal. Flamsteed’s sole task was to work out the “longitude of places” for perfecting the art of navigation. Flamsteed was provided with accommodation within the new building of the observatory for both himself and his assistants. Our tour started at this accommodation, which included a kitchen, bedroom and study – all very modest in comparison to his French counterpart who evidently had marble walls and sumptuous furniture.
Part of the tour included the time and longitude gallery where we were able to see John Harrison’s great clocks. Harrison had taught himself the theory and practical skills in clock making and after the “longitude prize” was announced he was sure that one of his clocks would win it.
The clocks are beautiful works of art and are still in full working order today. What is amazing is that some of the working parts of these clocks are made of a particular type of wood and this wood is so high in natural oils that they have never required oiling! If you haven’t been to Greenwich before it is worth going just to see the clocks.
Working our way through the galleries we then went onto the largest telescope in Britain.
The telescope is the seventh largest in the world and is still in perfect working order today. There are regular viewing sessions for visitors, mostly in late autumn and winter evenings; perhaps an opportunity for another WAS trip?
After the tour several members then went on to visit the new Peter Harrison Planetarium. An experience well worth while. We toured the universe, visiting the Sun – traveling deep into its interior. We went through nebula – the ring, horse head and crab nebulae and then onto the outer reaches of the solar system – globular clusters, pulsars and black holes before making our journey back to Earth. The planetarium is housed in an impressive looking structure made of copper and with solar panels.
