Royal Observatory & history of astronomy

An exhibition of instruments and artefacts from the Royal Greenwich Observatory collection.

Astronomy today is the product of centuries of development, transmitted across continents.

The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) made extremely accurate star charts for his time.

The relationship between the Observatory and the Herschel family lasted over a century.

Solar astrophysics started at the Royal Observatory with George Biddell Airy's observation of the solar eclipse of 1842.

Christopher Wren is best known as the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral and other London churches, but his first love was science and mathematics.

The 28-inch Greenwich refracting telescope is the largest of its kind in the UK and the seventh largest in the world.

The year 2000 was exactly 400 years since William Gilbert published the first scholarly work on magnetism.

The Airy Transit Circle was designed by George Biddell Airy and came into use 150 years ago.

The primary concern of the Observatory had always been the production of accurate tables of star positions.

19th century developments in maths, physics, chemistry and geology were applied to astronomy.

Little known facts about the Royal Observatory, its history and the development of time keeping.

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park, London, was subject to an anarchist bomb attack in 1894.

Why does a GPS receiver operated on the zero meridian at Greenwich differ by about 100 metres from zero?

View a selection of images highlighting the construction and rennovation that took place at Royal Observatory during the last century.

Find out why The Royal Observatory in Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Prime Meridian of the world.

Portraits of the Astronomers Royal

Hooke was a leading figure of a new scientific age based on experimentation and observation.