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From Viking longships and 14th century carracks to 18th century battleships, the way ships were built evolved greatly between 800 and 1800.

From the 19th century onwards, ships began to be built from iron and steel. Sails were also replaced with steam engines and paddles with propellers.

People have travelled by sea using ships and boats for centuries. The Egyptians, Greeks and Phoenicians made some of the earliest vessels

The Great Equatorial Telescope at the Royal Observatory kept Britain at the forefront of astrophysics and greatly expanded our knowledge of stars

The story of Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy and the remarkable Airy Transit Circle telescope he designed at the Royal Observatory Greenwich

How the humble prism helped unlock the secrets of what the Universe is made of and where it is heading.

19th-century astronomers went beyond cataloguing the skies to understanding their composition and predicting what could not be seen.

How and, more importantly, why do we measure the brightness of stars?

The challenges of measuring everything from a fast-moving, wobbly platform through a haze.

Handy tables of orbits, mass, rotation periods and tilts for the planets and their moons in the Solar System.