History of astronomy

Shining a light on the lunar ancestors of Mirror Moon in our collection

Explore 350 years of the world-renowned institution and the people who worked there through six intriguing objects

This beautiful 17th-century telescope needed careful treatment before going on display. Object Conservator Rachel Roberts eyed up the issues

Find out more about the founding of the Royal Observatory, and how Greenwich came to be known as the 'Home of Time'

In this blog we explore the remarkable life of Charles Todd, a Greenwich astronomer who championed Australia's Overland Telegraph Line

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

In this blog we look at a practical astronomical work written by the husband and wife team of Walter and Annie Maunder. The Maunders worked in the Solar Department of the Royal Observatory Greenwich in the early 1890s.

Learn more about how William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, the first new planet that had been discovered since antiquity

Discover the history and stories behind the Royal Observatory's weathervanes