The Royal Greenwich Observatory will reopen after a 60-year break

The famous Royal Observatory of Greenwich, the United Kingdom, turns again to the sky after a 60-year hiatus.

The Royal Greenwich Observatory features a new state-of-the-art telescope that will allow astronomers to study stars, galaxies and even black holes. The telescope is named after Annie Maunder, one of the first female astronomers to work at the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

"The telescopes that we are going to open this summer bring us back to a" working observatory "in the We feel we can make research-level observations and contribute once again to advancing human knowledge of science. # 39; universe. "Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the Royal Observatory, said in a statement.

1675. Its goal was to improve navigation at sea and reduce shipwrecks by mapping the locations of stars.

ROG was a working observatory until 1957. Light pollution and high levels of smog practically prevented astronomers from observing at night. heaven and forced them to close his roof for more than half a century. With a new telescope, the site will regain its status as a work observatory.

"Urban astronomy has come a long way," said ROG astronomer Brendan Owens. "We now have filters that completely block the wavelengths of light from things like street lights and instead focus on the hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur dioxide that come from the stars and In addition to the very enlarged images of the Sun and the Moon, we have a cooled digital camera to take very wide views of the sky to see nebulae and galaxies. "

Last year Royal Museums Greenwich has launched a $ 66,000 campaign to buy a new telescope. The new astronomical telescope Annie Maunder or AMAT has been installed in the Altazimuth Pavilion of the Grade II Listed Observatory, and consists of four different state-of-the-art telescopes, including one to study the sun and planets in our solar system. Astronomers hope to use the Royal Greenwich Observatory to witness the lunar eclipse next month

"This should be pretty spectacular," said Owens. "Because it will be close to the horizon so it should look huge and be of a reddish color." We can also use the red hue to tell us about the pollution in the background. air, because it changes the color of the moon during an eclipse. "