Royal Observatory Greenwich
Royal Observatory Greenwich
According to the Royal Mail...'this set of six vertical se-tenant pair special stamps, celebrate the history and scientific developments achieved at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich since its foundation in 1675.
This set of stamps features photography of key aspects to the founding of the Royal Observatory and the innovations made there, from Flamsteed House to the Airy Transit Circle Telescope.
Flamsteed House was the home to ten successive astronomer Royals who observed the stars and developed new instruments such as the Airy Transit Circle (the telescope that defined the Prime Meridian) and the Great Equatorial Telescope (28-inch refracting telescope, the largest of its kind in the UK.)
At sea Royal Navy surveyors plotted their longitude from Greenwich using chronometers based on John Harrison’s revolutionary marine timekeepers.
The widespread use of charts by ships globally based on the Greenwich Meridian contributed to the international recognition of Greenwich as Prime Meridian of the world in 1884'.
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