Walking through Greenwich Park, I find the Royal Observatory at the top of a hill.
I took the Docklands Light Railway to the Island Gardens stop, and proceeded through a foot tunnel under the River Thames to arrive in the London Borough of Greenwich. The focus in Greenwich was the Royal Observatory, where astronomers and geographers have worked for centuries. The Royal Observatory was the location chosen in 1884 for the Prime Meridian -- the imaginary line at zero degrees longitude that all points on earth are measured to the east and west of.
As usual -- click on the provided image to get a bigger and better image.
Walking through Greenwich Park, I find the Royal Observatory at the
top of a hill.
At 1300 GMT every day, the ball on the pole drops. Sailors on the River Thames
would use this in the old days to set their clocks. (In the picture, the ball
is in the process of dropping.)
A view towards Central London from outside of the observatory. The large
building in the center is Canada Tower on Canary Wharf in London's Docklands.
A view northeast.
A view northwest.
The Royal Observatory itself.
A really old clock.
This was a test to see what would happen if I tried to take
exposure number 25 on a roll of film containing 24 exposures.
It apparantly worked.
The high-tech ultra-precise GMT clock as you walk into the
observatory. It was a little out of focus that day.
Everyone stands in line to get their picture taken while
standing on the Prime Meridian in front of the weird thing.
Here's me, standing with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere
of the earth, and one foot in the Western Hemisphere.
Another picture of me at the Prime Meridian.
A view west from a balcony on the southern end of the observatory.
A view north over the roof of the observatory.