Prime meridian (Greenwich)

The prime meridian is a geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London.

Expedition 44 off to the International Space Station launched on Soyuz TMA-17M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
Credit: Roscosmos

The prime meridian was first established by Sir George Airy in 1851, and by 1884, over two-thirds of all ships and tonnage used it as the reference meridian on their charts and maps. In October of that year, at the behest of US President Chester A. Arthur, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., United States, for the International Meridian Conference. This conference selected the meridian passing through Greenwich as the official prime meridian due to its popularity.

The prime meridian was long symbolised by a brass strip in the Royal Observatory courtyard, now replaced by stainless steel, and since 16 December 1999, it has been marked by a powerful green laser shining north across the London night sky.

Main source:	Wikipedia
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Haycroft Gardens, NW10 Added: 7 Jul 2024 16:26 GMT	Haycroft Gardens, NW10 My Grandfather bought No 45 Buchanan Gdns in I believe 1902 and died ther in the early 1950s Reply
Haycroft Gardens, NW10 Added: 7 Jul 2024 16:20 GMT	Haycroft Gardens, NW10 I lived in No 7 from 1933 to 1938 Reply
Sylvia guiver Blandford Square, NW1 Added: 4 Jul 2024 14:52 GMT	Grandparents 1937 lived 37 Blandford Square Y mother and all her sisters and brother lived there, before this date , my parent wedding photographers were take in the square, I use to visit with my mother I remember the barge ballon in the square in the war. Reply
Roy Mathieson Southwark Added: 27 Jun 2024 16:25 GMT	St Saviours My great grandmother was born in Bowling Green Lane in 1848. The family moved from there to Earl Terrace, Bermondsey in 1849. I have never been able to locate Earl Terrace on maps. Reply
Buckhurst Street, E1 Added: 26 Jun 2024 13:10 GMT	Buckhurst Street, E1 Mt grandfather, Thomas Walton Ward had a musical instrument workshop in Buckhurst Street from 1934 until the street was bombed during the war. Grandfather was a partner in the musical instrument firm of R.J. Ward and Sons of Liverpool. He died in 1945 and is buried in a common grave at Abney Park Cemetery. Reply
Mike Dowling Undercliff Road, SE13 Added: 15 Jun 2024 15:51 GMT	Family ties (1936 - 1963) The Dowling family lived at number 13 Undercliffe Road for Nearly 26 years. Next door was the Harris family Reply
Evie Helen Erith Added: 13 Jun 2024 00:03 GMT	Vickers Road The road ’Vickers Road’ is numbered rather differently to other roads in the area as it was originally built as housing for the "Vickers" arms factory in the late 1800’s and early 1900s. Most of the houses still retain the original 19th century tiling and drainage outside of the front doors. Reply
Paul Harris Ellen Place, E1 Added: 12 Jun 2024 12:54 GMT	Ellen Place, E1 My mother’s father and his family lived at 31 Ellen Place London E1 have a copy of the 1911 census showing this Reply

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This image of Pluto, released on 23 July 2015, clearly shows the now familiar heart-shaped region nicknamed Tombaugh Regio. The photo is actually a combination of observations from the main camera on New Horizons (called LORRI) and the probe’s visible/infrared imager (known as Ralph) which provided data for the colours in the view. The enhanced colours allow scientists to identify differences in the composition and texture of Pluto’s surface, according to a NASA image description. TUM image id: 1620402347 Licence:	Letter to Chuck Berry from Carl Sagan (1986) TUM image id: 1621596953 Licence:	Russell Croman took this detailed photo of the waxing Moon. Credit: Russell Croman TUM image id: 1621874487 Licence:	Saturn and its rings, as seen from above the planet by the Cassini spacecraft Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute TUM image id: 1620648753 Licence:	The establishment of a Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London was proposed in 1674 by Sir Jonas Moore who, in his role as Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, persuaded King Charles II to create the observatory, with John Flamsteed installed as its director. Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG) played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and because the Prime Meridian passes through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor to today’s Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The ROG has the IAU observatory code of 000, the first in the list. Credit: Kjetil Bjørnsrud TUM image id: 1621597663 Licence:
Greenwich Pier Credit: Wiki Commons/Cnbrb TUM image id: 1707497209 Licence:	The Statue of Yuri Gagarin in Greenwich, London, is a zinc statue depicting the cosmonaut wearing a spacesuit and standing on top of a globe. Credit: Anatoly Novikov TUM image id: 1621892426 Licence:	The foothills of the Andes Mountains near the southern coast of Peru were captured by the Kompsat-2 satellite. The Andes stretch from Venezuela down South America’s west coast to the top of Argentina. The mountain rage is the result of the Nazca and Antarctic tectonic plates moving under the South American plate—a geological process called subduction. This process is also responsible for the Andes range’s volcanic activity. Credit: KARI TUM image id: 1621890979 Licence:	Star Dunes in Algeria. The image was acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite on October 27, 2012. It was made from a combination of near-infrared and visible light. In this type of false-color image, sand is tan and shadows are black or gray. The blue-tinted areas are likely mineral-rich evaporites. The image is centered at 29.8°north latitude, 7.9°east longitude, near the town of Gadamis. As is common with star dunes, some of the dunes have long interlacing arms connecting to nearby dunes. Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS/ASTER Science Team TUM image id: 1621679144 Licence:	Crooms Hill (1937) TUM image id: 1657290361 Licence: CC BY 2.0
Gloucester Circus (1960s) TUM image id: 1657291606 Licence: CC BY 2.0	Tram in Greenwich Church Street TUM image id: 1657290753 Licence:	Maze Hill SE10 Credit: GoArt/The Underground Map TUM image id: 1584890270 Licence:	The summit of Mount Everest is marine limestone created 40 million years ago when the Indian subcontinent began a slow-motion collision with Asia. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data TUM image id: 1621873745 Licence:	The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched into orbit on 24 April 1990. Viewed from the HST, the Horsehead Nebula is located just next to Orion’s belt. This cloud of dust and gas is a region where stars are forming. When viewed in visible light the Horsehead appears dark, a cosmic chess piece silhouetted against pink and red glowing gas. In infrared light, as in this image, the dust becomes visible, delicate billows of clouds surrounding baby stars just getting their start in the Universe. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) TUM image id: 1621889002 Licence: