An Evening with the Stars at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
14 December, 2010
by: Tom Jeffreys
Tom Jeffreys stares into space...
When I was a kid, my dad gave me a little telescope for Christmas. I used to spend hours, staring through the panes of my bedroom window, up at the vast, dark, night-black sky, searching all over for brightly winking mysteries. Always searching, never finding. Then, one day, at the age of 13, I discovered the lens cap...
Science and I have never been the happiest of bedfellows. But I was always fascinated by the universe, particularly through the books of controversial astronomer and mathematician fellow Fred Hoyle. There's nothing I like more than a largely discredited scientist.
Anyway, the point is that the universe is not only endless but endlessly fascinating. And where better to find out more about it (in London at least) than at the Royal Oberservatory in Greenwich? Commissioned way back in 1675 by King Charles II, the Observatory has had a long, illustrious and really rather intriguing history.
The evening kicks off – after an uphill night-time stroll and pause to gaze back on wonderful views of London's lights and life – with the Sky Tonight planetarium show. This, I have to say, is mega awesome. The narrator helps you find your way around the sky at night by first locating The Plough (part of Ursa Major) and then to Polaris, or the North Star. From here we journey across the galaxy, exploring the Milky Way, discovering the W-shaped Cassiopeia, Queen of Ethiopia, meeting the Seven Sisters and finding out there aren't actually seven of them; there's thousands.
This is a fascinating event, and handled in a light, deft and clear fashion. You don't feel patronised or intimidated. You just marvel and learn. How about the fact that the Andromeda Galaxy is the farthest object visible to the naked eye? When we see it now though, the light that comes to earth is from 2.5 million years ago. Basically we're looking into the past, right back to when man-like creatures used primitive stone tools for the very first time. It's truly amazing.
The evening is then marred a tad by the bloody British weather. It's too foggy to see anything so we don't get to look through the Observatory's massive 28” telescope (that's in diameter, not length, as I originally thought...). This is a bit of a shame but can't be helped, and after all we've learnt we are able to spot Jupiter as the clouds periodically part. Which is pretty cool.
In addition, two further guides are on hand to talk us through the Observatory's history. One of the most interesting things that emerges is the positioning of Prime Meridian, which was all agreed by various international big-wigs in 1884, but has actually existed in four separate places in Greenwich. It highlights both the frailty and the immensity of human knowledge and achievement – the foundations of geography, of time itself, are simply a series of a historically contingent (and more or less arbitrary) decisions. And yet so much has been built upon them. Including the wonderful, beautiful, much treasured Royal Observatory, one of my new favourite places in London.
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