The Measure of the World
A Technical History of the Royal Observatory Greenwich
A comprehensive history spanning 350 years (1675–present), documenting how the Royal Observatory at Greenwich transformed astronomy into a modern scientific discipline.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Overview
Key themes explored.
- — Celestial positioning with increasing precision
- — Standardization of timekeeping globally
- — Determining cosmic distances
- — Mapping Earth's coordinates and orientation
417
pages
40+
illustrations
50+
tables
25
chapters
Structure
How the book is organized.
Foundations
Chapters 1–6
The founding of the Observatory and its early instruments
Discovery
Chapters 7–13
Scientific breakthroughs and the challenge of measuring cosmic distances
Precision
Chapters 14–19
Advanced measurement techniques and the standardization of time
Modernity
Chapters 20–23
Automation, relativity verification, and atomic timekeeping
Reflection
Chapters 24–25
Contemporary observations and historical perspective
Appendices
Supplementary materials.
- — Mathematical derivations
- — 30+ instrument specifications
- — 16 astronomer biographies
- — Glossary with 100+ terms
- — Bibliography with 160+ sources
- — Chronologies and reference tables