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Re: Longitude of Greenwich Observatory
From: Wolfgang K?berer
Date: 2005 Dec 18, 10:30 +0100
From: Wolfgang K?berer
Date: 2005 Dec 18, 10:30 +0100
And to the left you can see "Gipsy Moth IV" - the yacht that Sir Francis Chichester sailed around the world - in her concrete berth. She has recently been restored and returned to the place right next to "Cutty Sark". There is a website www.gipymoth.org where you can read more. Wolfgang Koberer (Another Google Earth addict) -----Ursprungliche Nachricht----- Von: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]Im Auftrag von Frank Reed Gesendet: Sonntag, 18. Dezember 2005 05:56 An: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Betreff: Longitude of Greenwich Observatory When you visit the old Royal Greenwich Observatory, you can stand in line with the transit instrument's building and put one foot on either side of a stripe in the paving stones and get your photo taken "with one foot in East longitude and one foot in West". My question is, with various revisions and refinements in the geodetic system, is that precisely true today? That is, does zero degrees longitude still pass right through that transit instrument's original mounting point by definition? For fans of Google Earth (and if you're not a fan, you will become one when you try it out!), the longitude displayed for this location is 0d 0' 05.36" W. Pretty close to zero, and I assume that the difference is nothing more than the usual difficulty of registering aerial photography exactly in lat/lon, but maybe the old RGO is drifting... By the way, if you go down to the river from here in Google Earth, you can see the spars and even the shadows of the shrouds on Cutty Sark. If you want Google Earth: http://earth.google.com/ And coincidentally, the lead story on Sky & Telescope's web site this week is about the renovations and expansion of exhibits at Greenwich: http://skyandtelescope.com/ -FER 42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W. www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars