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The Greenwich meridian is a prime meridian, a geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England. [1] From 1884 to 1974, the Greenwich meridian was the international standard prime meridian, used worldwide for timekeeping and navigation.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The town became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia, from the 15th century and was the birthplace of many Tudors, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
The reference longitude adopted by the British became known as the Prime Meridian and is now accepted by most nations as the starting point for all longitude measurements. The Prime Meridian of zero degrees longitude runs along the meridian passing through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; [1] known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in Greenwich Park in south east London, overlooking the River Thames to the north.
The meridian through Greenwich (inside Greenwich Park), England, called the Prime Meridian, was set at zero degrees of longitude, while other meridians were defined by the angle at the center of the Earth between where it and the prime meridian cross the equator.
A prime meridian is an arbitrarily chosen meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. On a spheroid, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great ellipse.
Longitude is given as an angular measurement with 0° at the Prime Meridian, ranging from −180° westward to +180° eastward. The Greek letter λ (lambda) [38] [39] is used to denote the location of a place on Earth east or west of the Prime Meridian. Each degree of longitude is sub-divided into 60 minutes, each of which is divided into 60 ...
Agreement of the Greenwich meridian as the international standard for 0° longitude The International Meridian Conference was a conference held in October 1884 in Washington, D.C. , in the United States , to determine a prime meridian for international use. [ 1 ]