I had one more place which I wanted to visit in Greenwich. The recognizable Royal Observatory was it. The Greenwich Meridian runs here, zero degree of east and west longitude. As for the latitude, I can understand that the equatorial line is set for zero degree of north and south latitude. It's the line to separate the earth into northern and southern hemispheres. However, why was the site of the observatory set to zero degree of longitude? I can imagine how strong a power the U.K. had kept in the late 19th century. The U.K. used to have been the center of the world and the eastern side was the East and the western alike. "The Middle East" would be the word viewing from the U.K.
The Royal Observatory stood on a hill. After walking in the town of Greenwich, we moved to the observatory by taxi. We had to skip the national maritime museum due to shortness of time. Firstly I did what I wanted to do. I straddled the Meridian Line with my right leg in the West and the left in the East.
There were several historic mechanical clocks inside the Observatory. They were implying that lots of researchers made strenuous efforts to measure the time. There was an octagon room under the distinctive dome-like roof and Queen Elizabeth had visited the room. As the queen did - you can see her in the following picture - , I peeped into the telescope. I found that the picture of Saturn was attached. (grin)
(Vocabulary)
recognizable すぐにそれとわかる, 見覚えがある，誰もが知る
__ degrees of east longitude 東経＿度
equatorial line 赤道
hemisphere (地球の) 半球
the Northern/Southern Hemisphere 北［南］半球
グリニッジではもう一つ、訪れたかった場所があった。恐らく誰もが知るグリニッジ天文台だ。東経、西経ゼロの子午線が通る場所。緯度については地球の真ん中の赤道がゼロになることは理解できる。この場所が経度ゼロになったのはどういう経緯があったのだろう。当時のイギリスの国力が想像できる。イギリスが中心で、東と西、中東というのはイギリスから見た言い方だろう。
天文台は小高い丘の上にあり、グリニッジの街を散策した後、時間の関係で王立海事博物館はパスしてタクシーで天文台の入口まで移動した。まずは子午線を跨いで記念撮影。大勢の観光客がいて順番待ち！
天文台の内部へ入ると、歴史的な時計がいくつも並んでいた。１７世紀から、この場所で大勢の研究者達がいかに時間を操るか苦心をしていたことがわかる。天文台の特徴とも言えるドーム状の最上部は８角形をしており、エリザベス女王の来訪もあったようだ。
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