Where is the Greenwich Observatory?
Published in Daily Trivia
The Greenwich Observatory is currently located at Cambridge University's Institute of Astronomy in Central England. However, the site of the observatory was originally in Greenwich, and was arbitrarily established in 1884 as longitude 0 degrees. The observatory was moved because London's fog made celestial observations difficult. A plaque in the original structure marks the zero point from which longitude is calculated. The observatory was founded in 1675 by King Charles II to keep accurate tables of the position of the moon for the calculation of longitude by English ships. Photographs of the sun were taken daily at the observatory, conditions permitting, and a continuous photographic record of sunspots was kept starting in 1873.
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