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Airy's Transit Circle and the dawn of the Universal Day
The story of Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy and the remarkable Airy Transit Circle telescope he designed at the Royal Observatory Greenwich
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Astronomical spectroscopy
How the humble prism helped unlock the secrets of what the Universe is made of and where it is heading.
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Astronomy in the 19th century
19th-century astronomers went beyond cataloguing the skies to understanding their composition and predicting what could not be seen.
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Photometry - how bright are the stars?
How and, more importantly, why do we measure the brightness of stars?
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Positional astronomy
The challenges of measuring everything from a fast-moving, wobbly platform through a haze.
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Telescopes
With a telescope we can see billons of miles and travel effortlessly back billions of years in time
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Getting involved in astronomy
Everything you need to know to start you on the road to becoming an amateur or professional astronomer.
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Becoming Queen Elizabeth I
Various dramatic events led to Elizabeth I taking over the throne from the Catholic Queen Mary I.
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The Solar System through your own telescope
What can you see in the Solar System through binoculars or a small telescope?
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What was the bright object I saw in the sky last night?
Is it a star, is it a planet or is it a plane? A handy guide to identifying that bright object you saw