Prime Meridian

This piece of what appears to be modern sculpture is the marker at the Royal Observatory, Greenwhich, London, showing the line of zero degrees (the metal strip recessed in the ground), the 'prime meridian' of the world from which navigation calculations derive. There have been others in the past, the French had a coordinate system with zero passing through Paris, and I believe there was a Russian system based on Moscow. This one is a tourist mecca, and everyone needs to stand with a foot in each of the eastern and western hemispheres at once. The oblique 'mast' of this gyroscope-like structure is almost certainly aligned on the celestial north pole, therefore reproducing the axial tilt of the Earth. The photograph was a simple composition piece in which the principle challenge was taking it in the moments when the monument was not obscured by the thronging visitors. Sharpened only. November, 2007; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Aspiring to Understanding

The symbolism in this image is so strong -- the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, featuring the solar telescope through which passes the Prime Meridian (zero degrees) of the world's modern navigational reference system, against a clear winter sky in mid-November 2007, laced with the contrails of international flights passing over London. The observatory is a standing museum to the sciences of astronomy, navigation and timekeeping, so vital to the exploration of the world in the days when sail ruled the seas. Two centuries later new forms of transport have taken over, created by engineers who stood on the shoulders of the giants of the past. The photograph was a simple one, a mere snapshot, but the material so offered itself to the lens! Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Photo by Mike, 2007.