![]() In 1998 October the Royal Greenwich Observatory was closed by its parent organisation, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council and its functions dispersed or discontinued. Once it left London the institution was referred to as the Royal Greenwich Observatory to distinguish it from its earlier incarnation and from the site itself in Greenwich Park, now a museum and properly referred to as the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. From 1988-90 the Observatory completed its final move to a site next to the university's Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. More information about the Herstmonceux period may be found in George Wilkin's A Personal History of the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux Castle, 1948-1990. By 1957 the institution had reconsolidated at Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex. The Astronomer Royal continued to work on the King's chosen site at Greenwich for nearly 250 years, the buildings and staff expanding and altering to accommodate the developing remit of the Royal Observatory's work. However, process of dispersal (initially in response to such problems as London's increasing light, magnetic and atmospheric pollution and later to the potential for Second World War enemy action) began with the removal of the Magnetic and Meteorological Department to Abinger, Surrey in 1924. The first warrant stated that Flamsteed was '.to apply himself.so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places.' and the second gave the purpose of the construction of the observatory to be '.in order to find out the longitude of places.'. Contemporary copies of both documents are preserved in the Royal Greenwich Observatory archives. On 4 March 1674/5 John Flamsteed was appointed 'royal observator' to the King, and on the following 22 June another warrant authorised the construction of 'a small observatory within our royal park at Greenwich'. The Royal Observatory dates its foundation from two warrants issued under the name of Charles II. Young, Edward Hilton (1879-1960) 1st Baron Kennet, politician.Thomson, William (1824-1907) Baron Kelvin, mathematician and physicist.Stokes, Sir George Gabriel (1819-1903) 1st Baronet, physicist.Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK).Smith, William (1756-1835) politician, and the Smith family 1678 to 1951.Sassoon, Siegfried Loraine (1886-1967) poet and author.Rutherford, Ernest (1871-1937) Baron Rutherford of Nelson, physicist.Perceval, Spencer (1762-1812) statesman.Parkes, Harry Smith (1828-1885), knight, diplomatist.Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727) knight, natural philosopher and mathematician.Needham, Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery (1900-1995) biochemist and sinologist. ![]()
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