CLEARER SKIES FOR ROYAL OBSERVATORY
-Press Association
By Telegraph-
Received Sunday 7 p.m. LONDON, April 13. Smoke, fog and eiectric igihting has led the Admiralty to shift the Royal Ohservatory 30 miies east of the prime meridian, into the ancient Hurstmonceaux Castle, Surrey. Neither time nor longtitude standards are changed by the move hut navigators must find a new term for the traditional definition of zero longitude, as that which passed through the transit telescope at the Royal Ohservatory. The change was decided on after many years of search for a site where astronomers were able to scan the sk-y without the hindrabces of London's night lighting and smoke-iilled atmosphere. Hurstmonceaux, which is nine miles east of Hailsham, was huilt by Henry sixth's treasurer, Sir Roger de Fiennes, in 1446. .The Ohservatory thus moves from one historic building to another as Greenwich was built ir. the reign of Charles II, who gave the land and ordered Christopher Wren to draw up plans. He provided £5.0( from the sale of old gunpowder to defray the cost.
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Bibliographic details
Chronicle (Levin), 15 April 1946, Page 5
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175CLEARER SKIES FOR ROYAL OBSERVATORY Chronicle (Levin), 15 April 1946, Page 5
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