
UTC: How Greenwich mean time became the world standard - AxisOfEval
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/05/130526-astronomy-nautical-navigation-space-longitude-moon-science/
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rimantas
Interestingly, article fails to mention John Harrison [1], the inventor of
marine chronometer. There was a rivalry between Maskelyne and him, one
considering lunar positions to be the best method to solve longitude problem,
and the other believing that the accurate timepiece is the answer. You may say
that Harriosn won at the end, but it was kind of bitter victory. Article
quotes praise from Cook, but on next voyages Cook also tested chronometers
made according to Harrison's design and praised them as well. If you are into
this stuff there is a book "Longitude" by Dava Sobel.

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Luc
"Longitude" is a great book as an introduction, but it doesn't let historical
accuracy get in the way of a good story. It's biased against Maskelyne, and
gives undue attention to crazy ideas (about how to determine longitude) that
were ridiculed at the time.

Her other book, "Galileo's Daughter", is just like that. Drama and story above
facts.

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Jamiecon
For those visiting London (or who live here), I highly recommend a visit to
Greenwich. There are several museums, including one at the Royal Observatory,
a planetarium, a brewery that sells its own creations at the naval college and
a huge park for those rare moments of sun.

<http://www1.rmg.co.uk/>

~~~
smcl
I tried to visit when I was last there but the DLR was out of action
completely, and when I asked the staff how else I might get there from where I
was they were completely out of ideas (one said "nah you're pretty much
fucked...")

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jumblesale
If you're ever in that situation again, try this:
[http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?lan...](http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en)

You can select what modes of transport you're interested in (so you could
disable the tube if the DLR isn't running). It'll show you boats too which is
cool and definitely the best way to get to Greenwich.

~~~
ig1
Journey Planner should automatically take into account closures/problems

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ColinWright
Quoting:

    
    
        ... moon's precise motion through the sky is anything
        but regular. Tugged as it is variously by the earth
        and sun and following an oblong orbit ...
    

An "oblong" orbit? Really?

~~~
petepete
Oblong can be used to refer to any shape that's longer than it is wide. It's
an uncommon use of the word these days, though.

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ColinWright
Where I grew up, where I did my PhD, and where I now work, it has only ever
been used as an informal work for "rectangle." I see Wikipedia say "sometimes
used of any shape longer than it is wide." I would find it interesting to see
a world map of that usage - it's completely foreign to me.

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stephengillie
Sometimes, it seems like the world operates in 3 time zones: UTC, China time,
and Pacific (SV/Redmond) time. These time zones are 8 hours apart.

~~~
alan_cx
Please correct me if I am wrong, but that sounds like a very US-centric view.
I'm not sure the "world" operates like that at all.

~~~
stephengillie
How is it "US-centric" to include non-European time zones? Do you know how
many countries use China time?

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YokoZar
I feel like we lucked out with the international dateline being exactly half
way around the world from the observatory -- were it not for the random chance
of geography, the dateline could have easily ended up in the middle of a
populated landmass.

