Royal Observatory in Greenwich - not a scientific institution, and the museum of astronomical and navigational instruments. Tourists come here in droves. They can understand: a quiet place played a huge role in the development of Britain - a great naval power.

In 1674, an influential nobleman, mathematician and surveyor Sir Jonas Moore persuaded King Charles II set up the example of the French royal observatory. Work there was a young astronomer John Flamsteed. The monarch agreed on the condition that Sir tools Moore Observatory will provide at his own expense.

Project Flamsteed House, designed by the architect Christopher Wren (with the assistance of the great physicist and mathematician Robert Hooke). The budget was limited, was used to save the old foundation, the orientation of the building was broken. Flamsteed was disappointed. However, the Royal Observatory has quickly become one of the leading research institutions of its kind in the world.

The future of Britain depended on its fleet, and the fleet was a problem: because of the inability to determine the precise location of ships in 1707 alone in the sea killing 2,000 people. In 1714, Parliament established a prize of 20,000 pounds (about 2 million pounds today) to anyone who will decide the problem of determining longitude at sea. Success achieved unknown carpenter and clockmaker John Harrison. In the observatory you can visit the gallery of Harrison, which stores made them legendary marine chronometers. All of them are in working order and regularly ticking.

More two centuries ago Britain is the time and the distance from Greenwich, France - from Paris meridian, Russia - from Pulkovo. But the development of international trade demanded unification. In 1884, the world agreed to accept a zero is Greenwich meridian. We denote it by a brass band that crosses the courtyard of the observatory. The visitor of the museum has a rare opportunity to stand with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and the other in the west, and take a picture of their feet. More precisely, however, the prime meridian is shown bright green laser beam emanating from the observatory due north - it is clearly visible in the night sky of London.

The phrase "Greenwich Mean Time" is familiar to all. In 1833, astronomer John Pond staged here spire with "time ball" - exactly 1300 GMT he fell down sharply. Signal allows quite accurately set the chronometer. Now Universal Time is calculated from the extragalactic radio sources, but the ball Greenwich everything just falls every day.

The museum's collection - devices for accurate measurement of time, including the astronomical clock of the Soviet scientist Theodosius Mabuza, the most accurate among the series of pendulum clocks. You can also explore the 28-inch refractor telescope, created in 1893 by Sir Howard Grubb, - to this day it is the largest refractor UK. Astronomical observations from Greenwich, however, has long been underway: More after the Second World Observatory leave here - observations prevented the proximity of London.