Greenwich in south-east London has long been famous for its connections with time and longitude... and at the centre of this important role is the beautiful Greenwich Royal Observatory.
In this video, the wonderful people from the Royal Museums Greenwich Collection were kind enough to invite me to the Observatory for an after-hours look around- which means in this video, we'll pretty much have this historic site all to ourselves!
As we go around, I'll be explaining why the Royal Observatory came to be based in Greenwich, and how it sealed its position as the planet's prime time keeper, along with showing you some of its most beautiful treasures... including the Sir Christopher Wren designed 'Octagon Room' and John Harrison's revolutionary Chronometers, which are amongst the most stunning time-keepers ever crafted...
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Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:58 Longing for Longitude
03:14 Establishing the Royal Observatory
04:54 Flamsteed House
06:01 The Octagon Room
08:07 Edmond Halley
09:44 The Camera Obscura
10:34 Harrison's Chronometers
14:53 Greenwich Mean Time
15:30 The Prime Meridian
16:09 The Greenwich Time Ball
17:17 The Shepherd Gate Clock
18:31 The BBC Pips Time Signal
19:10 The Great Equatorial Telescope
21:12 Outro
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I'd like to express my heartfelt thanks to the staff at the Royal Museums Greenwich Collection for inviting me along for this opportunity, with special thanks in particular to Victoria Mottram who showed me around the Observatory.
If you would like to visit the Royal Observatory, you can find further information on their website:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory
The Royal Observatory YouTube channel:
https://m.youtube.com/@RoyalObservatoryGrnwich
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Thanks again for watching, friends. Stay well, and please be sure to stay tuned!
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Credits:
Images:
Global Positioning Satellites, 1981: U.S National Archives (Public Domain)
Lattitude & Longitude Globes: Pearson Scott Foresman (Creative Commons)
Halley's Comet: NASA (Creative Commons)
The Longitude Act image: LiveRail (Creative Commons)
Time Ball Drop Footage: mckenndk YouTube Channel
AMAT Telescope images: © National Maritime Museum
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Music:
Drunken Sailor (Cooper Cannell)
A Baroque Letter (Aaron Kenny)
Invitation to the Caste Ball (Doug Maxwell)
Juno in the Space Race (Loopop)
AnaCaptainslogue (Noir Et Blanc Vie)
Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 - Classical Whimsical by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100303
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Blue Danube (Strauss)
Confident Kurt (TrackTribe)
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