I took a trip over to Greenwich to see the Observatory and home of the Prime Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The Cutty Sark, the last surviving clipper ship now preserved at a dry dock in Greenwich. IMG_7144 The station for ferries at Greenwich Pier IMG_7148 A fighter jet outside the National Maritime Museum IMG_7150 The museum itself IMG_7153 Greenwich Park and the museum from the hill near Greenwich Observatory IMG_7161 A time ball to help others mark their clocks. This one on top of the Greenwich Observatory was positioned so that sailors could spy when the ball drops at 1 pm daily to settheir chronometers as a method of finding longitude at sea. This time ball has dropped at 1 pm since installation in 1833. IMG_7167 IMG_7170 No...the clock was not out of order...just too fast (or too slow) for my camera! IMG_7175 A view from the balcony behind the observatory above Greenwich Park IMG_7177 Although nobody talks about it very much...several people made some good guesses at the meridian before it was finally established as the PRIME meridian. This one was about 30 feet off and made by John Flamsteed, so congratulations - I don't think I could have done any better in 1700. Flamsteed accurately calculated the solar eclipses of 1666 and 1668. He was responsible for several of the earliest recorded sightings of the planet Uranus, which he mistook for a star and catalogued as 34 Tauri. The first of these was in December, 1690, which remains the earliest known sighting of Uranus by an astronomer. IMG_7178 The time ball looks a bit beaten up... IMG_7181 Looking out a window of the observatory on the courtyard and a performer entertaining the crowd there IMG_7187 IMG_7189 IMG_7193 A nice field play area and church in Blackheath Village near Shooters Road IMG_7194 Greenwich Park IMG_7203 A color-shifted photo of plant stems in Greenwich Park IMG_7212 IMG_7217 Walking back along the Thames River to the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) connection to the tube IMG_7220 Look...the colonel made it to the UK...but as litter IMG_7227 Back to the Thames River...big military boat IMG_7228 Baker Street tube station with tiles dedicated to the fictional Sherlock Holmes character. IMG_7229 Return to Features