Series
Board of Longitude: Papers
Catalogue reference: RGO 14
Date: 1605-1830
Records of the Board of Longitude.These include papers about the discovery of methods of measuring longitude at sea, notably the work of John...
Department
Records of the Royal Greenwich Observatory
Catalogue reference: RGO
What's it about?
RGO
Records of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and its predecessor, the Royal Observatory, mainly concerning astronomical observations, and including the papers of several astronomers royal, the records of the Board of Longitude and the Nautical...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- RGO
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Title (The name of the record)
- Records of the Royal Greenwich Observatory
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1605-1998
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Description (What the record is about)
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Records of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and its predecessor, the Royal Observatory, mainly concerning astronomical observations, and including the papers of several astronomers royal, the records of the Board of Longitude and the Nautical Almanac Office.
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Related material (A cross-reference to other related records)
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Records of the Board of Visitors of the Observatory are in ADM 190
Reports of the Admiralty Computing Service, set up at the Nautical Almanac Office in 1943, are in ADM 283
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English, French, German and Latin
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
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- Royal Greenwich Observatory, 1948-1998
- Royal Observatory, 1675-1948
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 211 series
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Research
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Custodial history (Describes where and how the record has been held from creation to transfer to The National Archives)
- Unless otherwise shown, individual series have not been transferred to The National Archives.
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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The Observatory was founded at Greenwich in 1675 and was under the direction of an astronomer royal. In 1828 the Observatory absorbed the Board of Longitude which had been set up in 1714 to carry out work on the calculation of longitude; it also absorbed the Nautical Almanac Office, which came into being after the dissolution of the Board in 1828 and inherited its responsibilities for the annual publication of the almanac which enabled sailors to determine their longitude at sea. In 1948 the Observatory moved to Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex, and its title was changed to the Royal Greenwich Observatory. In 1990 it moved to Cambridge. In August 1965 control of the Observatory was transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the Science Research Council, and subsequently to the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. On 31 October 1998 the Royal Greenwich Observatory was closed down.
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Copies information (Indicates existence, availability, location and format of copies)
- Microfilm copies of RGO 1, RGO 2, RGO 3 and RGO 14 only are available on open access at The National Archives, Kew.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C245/
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Records of the Royal Greenwich Observatory
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