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Nick Ansell / PA Wire via ZUMA Press
This story was originally published by Slate and appears here in as part of the collaboration of Climate Desk .
The famous Royal Observatory of Greenwich, UK, reopens more than 60 years after London smog forced its closure in 1957.
1675 by King Charles II of England, in the aim to improve navigation at sea and reduce shipwrecks by mapping the locations of the stars. The Greenwich Observatory is the site of the main meridian, the line that separates the western hemispheres east and west (in the same way that the equator divides the northern and southern hemispheres). It also houses the historic time of Greenwich, which is the basis of the world system of time zones
In the 1940s and 1950s, the industrialization of London – which extended the railways and resulted in extreme light pollution – began to interfere. with the operations of the Royal Urbanized Observatory. Louise Devoy, curator of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, said recently in an interview with the Telegraph: "The observatory really began to disconnect in 1948 because … [the] Greenwich Power Station was vomiting smoke and telescopes became useless. She added that nearby train vibrations and signals from metal frame buildings made it difficult to accurately read sensitive equipment from the observatory.
Moreover, the city's air pollution was becoming so bad that astronomers could no longer do their job. In the middle of the 20th century, London was periodically infested with thick yellow smog blankets, which were so severe that they stopped traffic and even closed the theaters because the audience could not see the performers on stage through the mist. (The phenomenon appeared in an episode of Season 1 The Crown .) Seeing distant stars through telescopes was almost impossible under these conditions.
Due to the challenges and limitations of operating an urban observatory In 1948, the Royal Observatory began transferring its instruments and functions to Sussex, which had a more darker and lighter than London. In 1957, the Royal Observatory Greenwich reopened at Herstmonceux Castle and the late London Observatory became a museum and outreach center to educate the public on astronomy.
In 2017, the Royal Museums Greenwich launch a successful campaign to restore the observatory in Greenwich and modernize the building in which it was housed.
The revamped Royal Observatory was equipped with a new telescope named after Annie Maunder, who was one of the first scientists to work at the Greenwich Observatory. Maunder was hired in 1891 to process the data as a "lady computer". His later research on sunspot mapping and solar eclipse observation helped to shed light on the link between sun activity and the Earth's climate. four different telescopes that fulfill different functions. The taller one can produce enlarged views of the moon and planets in our solar system. Another telescope will track and record the changes in the sun. The observatory will also be able to observe nebulae and galaxies with the help of a specialized digital camera
Many observatories around the world are located in remote areas with low pollution, such as the Very Large Telescope (yes, that's really his name) in the heart of the Atacama Desert, Chile. However, advances in technology have made urban astronomy more feasible. Astronomer Brendan Owens explained to the Telegraph: "We now have filters that completely block the wavelengths of light from streetlights and focus on hydrogen, oxygen and oxygen. sulfur dioxide from stars and planets. "
Astronomers from the Royal Observatory, who reopened, hope to witness the lunar eclipse of "blood moon" on July 27, during which the moon will turn a reddish color across the river. shadow of the Earth. of the upcoming eclipse. "We can also use the red hue to tell us about air pollution because it changes [Moon’s color] during an eclipse." Fortunately, although the London air is still quite polluted, the air quality has visibly improved since the big smog.
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