Royal Observatory Greenwich

Famous Londoners – John Flamsteed…

by exploringlondon

Memorialised in the name of the house where he once lived at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, John Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal.

Flamsteed was born in Denby, Derbyshire, on 16th August, 1646, and was the only child of Stephen Flamsteed, who among other things was involved in the brewing industry, and his first wife Mary (who died when John Flamsteed was still quite young).

A bust of John Flamsteed at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

He was educated at local schools but left off his studies at the age of 15 due to his own ill health and his father’s need for his assistance in the household and with his business.

His poor health meant he pursued some more sedentary activities and it was during this period that he established interest in astronomy, writing his first paper in 1665. Flamsteed did briefly attend Jesus College in Cambridge in the early 1670s, although it’s not thought he ever took up full residence.

Flamsteed was ordained a deacon and was preparing to take up a living in Derbyshire in 1675 – having by then obtained an MA from Cambridge – when his patron Jonas Moore, whom he’d met in the summer of 1670 during a visit to London and then visited again in mid-1674, invited him to return to the city, ostensibly to establish an observatory which Moore, who was Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, had offered to pay for.

Flamsteed arrived in February, 1675, stayed with Moore in the Tower before, after meeting King Charles II, was made an official assistant to a Royal Commission which the king had established charged with examining the merits of a proposal – put forward by a “le Sieur de St Pierre” to find longitude by the position of the Moon.

The commission decided the proposal wasn’t worth taking further but did recommend the establishment of an observatory from which the movement of the stars and Moon could be mapped in the hope of developing a method of finding longitude. Flamsteed was subsequently appointed “The King’s Astronomical Observator” – the first Astronomer Royal – on 4th March, 1675, by royal warrant, and in June that same year, another royal warrant provided for the founding of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Flamsteed laid the foundation stone on 10th August.

He was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Society in February the following year and in July he moved into the observatory, now known as Flamsteed House (it contains famed Octagonal Room with large windows from which celestial events could be watched), which was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It was to serve as Flamsteed’s home for next decade or so.

Flamsteed House, Royal Greenwich Observatory, its named after John Flamsteed. PICTURE: Dmitry Djouce.

Flamsteed’s achievements as an astronomer included the accurate calculation of the solar eclipses of 1666 and 1668 and recording some of the earliest sightings of Uranus which he mistakenly thought was a star. He was also in regular contact with many other scientific luminaries of the day and famously fell out with both Sir Edmond Halley (his one-time assistant and future successor as Astronomer Royal) and Sir Isaac Newton.

Flamsteed’s own catalogue of almost 3,000 stars wasn’t published until after death in 1725 thanks to the effort’s of his wife Margaret – whom he had married on 23rd October, 1692 (they were to have no children although Flamsteed’s niece, Ann Heming, did live with them). Margaret also published his star atlas, Atlas Coelestis, posthumously in 1729.

In 1684, Flamsteed was elevated to the priesthood and made rector of the village of Burstow, near Crawley in Surrey – a post, which, along with that of Astronomer Royal, he held until his death on 31st December, 1719.

He was buried in Burstow and there is a plaque on the wall of the church there marking his grave (which was added long after his death). Aside from his earthly honours – which includes the name of Flamsteed House at the Royal Observatory, a crater on the Moon is named after him as is an asteroid.

This Week in London – Astronomical wonders; Lambeth Mayor’s homemade chain; a gift for conservation; and, a Darwinian donation…

by exploringlondon
Winner of the People’s Choice Awards 2020 – The Cave of the Wild Horses © Bryony Richards (Winner)

• A photograph of the Milky Way taken from the Cave of the Wild Horses in the southern Utah desert has won the Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year: People’s Choice Awards 2020. The stunning image by Bryony Richards was captured in the cave after a long hike through the desert. It was selected from 25 images short-listed by the Royal Observatory Greenwich. ‘Reflection of the Stars’ by Linh Nguyen won second place award and Qiqige (Nina) Zhao won third for ‘Anniversary of Apollo 11 Mission’. Meanwhile, the deadline for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 13 competition run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine is looming – photographers need to have submitted their images by 12pm on 5th March. The overall winner of the competition will take home a top prize of £10,000 and see their image in the accompanying exhibition, which is scheduled to open at the National Maritime Museum on 18th September. For more details, see www.rmg.co.uk/astrocomp.

• The Mayor of Lambeth’s homemade ceremonial chain has been acquired by the Museum of London as part of its ‘Collecting COVID’ initiative. The chain was made by the mayor, Councillor Philip Normal, for the virtual ceremony in which he was created mayor on 22nd April, 2020, during the first national lockdown. Made of card and plaited t-shirt fabric, it features Lambeth’s coat of arms painted within a fluorescent pink oval with the words ‘Spectemur Agendo’ meaning, ‘Let us be judged by our acts’. For more on ‘Collecting COVID’, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.

• An oil painting of Sir John Maitland by an unknown Anglo-Dutch artist, part of the art collection at Ham House in London’s south-west, is among artworks which are to undergo restoration thanks to a £3 million gift to the National Trust from American charity, the Royal Oak Foundation. The gift will support the Trust’s conservation work for the next five years mainly based at its specialist conservation studio in Knole, Kent. It was made in honour of the 125th anniversary of the National Trust, which cares for more than 200 historic properties containing more than a million objects – everything from artworks to furniture, textiles and ceramics. The painting of Sir John came to public attention in 2017 when X-ray analysis revealed what is believed to be an unfinished portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, hidden underneath it. For more, see www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

• Looking further afield and a keepsake box containing mementos associated with Charles Darwin – including shells gathered on his famous voyage in the HMS Beagle – have been donated to English Heritage. The charity announced the gift this week to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1871 publication of his book, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. The red leather box and its contents will go on display at Down House in Kent later this year following conservation work. Charles and Emma Darwin initially gave the box to their eldest daughter Annie but, following her death at the age of 10 in 1851, it passed to her sister Henrietta, known as “Etty”. Among the souvenirs placed in it were locks of hair belonging to different members of the Darwin family (including Emma and Henrietta), a silk handkerchief embroidered with Charles’ initials CD, and the shells which his daughters later carefully labelled using scrap paper from the naturalist’s draft manuscripts. English Heritage is appealing for donations for the care and display of the box. To support the work, head to www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/.

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LondonLife – The beauty of space revealed…

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A “creative and artistic” composition of the 35 phases of the total lunar eclipse that took place on 21st January has won the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year for 2019. The win, which carried a £10,000 prize for Hungarian photographer László Francsics, also means the image is now at the heart of an exhibition featuring all the competition’s winners, runners-up and highly commended, as well as 68 short-listed pictures running at the National Maritime Museum until 26th April. Competition judge Ed Robinson described the Francsics’ work as “nothing short of masterful”. “The colours of our atmosphere projected onto the Moon’s disc during the eclipse are not only artistically pleasing but also offer an understanding of such events that can reveal aspects of our own, thin, yet essential part of our atmosphere,” he said. “In a year that celebrates 50 years since the first lunar landings it is fitting that this year’s overall winning image captures such a dynamic and captivating view of our Moon.” Other images on display include German photographer Nicolai Brügger’s image showcasing the Aurora Borealis over the Lofoten Islands in Norway (winner of the ‘Aurorae’ category), an image featuring UK photographer Ben Bush and his dog Floyd surrounded by Mars, Saturn and the galactic core of the Milky Way galaxy (‘People and Space’), and a sequence of images by Australian Andy Casely following the progress of the great global dust storm on Mars (‘Planets, Comets and Asteroids’). The display also includes an image of the Rosette Nebula by 11-year-old Davy van der Hoeven, of The Netherlands, who won Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year. The Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year, now in its 11th year, is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-photographer-year/galleries/2019/overall-winners. PICTURES: Top – ‘Into the Shadow’ © László Francsics (overall winner); Below (from top down) – ‘The Watcher’ © Nicolai Brügger (winner of the ‘Aurorae’ category); and, ‘Shells of Elliptical Galaxy NGC 3923 in Hydra’ © Rolf Wahl Olsen (winner of the ‘Galaxies’ category) .

This Week in London – Cosmonauts at the Science Museum; space on show at the Royal Observatory; Simon Schama’s portrait picks; and, celebrating iconic road signs…

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Vostock-• The greatest collection of Soviet spacecraft and artefacts ever exhibited outside of Russia can be seen at the Science Museum from tomorrow. Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age tells the story of Russia’s involvement in the ‘space age’ from the late 19th century through to life onboard Mir and the International Space Station. Exhibits cover the 1957 launch of Sputnik – the world’s first artificial satellite, the sending of the first human into space – Yuri Gagarin, in 1961, as well as the first women – Valentina Tereshkova – in 1963. Star objects include rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s 1933 drawings depicting spaceflight, an original model of Sputnik from 1957, and Vostok-6, the capsule that carried Tereshkova, as well as some of the many technologies developed for use on board the Salyut and Mir space stations and the ISS. The exhibition, a collaboration between the Science Museum, the State Museum Exhibition Centre ROSIZO and the Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, runs at the South Kensington museum until 13th March. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.sciencemuseum.ac.uk. PICTURE: Visitors study the Vostok 6 descent module, which safely returned Valentina Tereshkova from space. © Science Museum

• Still talking of space and an exhibition of images of space goes on show at the Royal Observatory Greenwich from tomorrow. The Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015 awards, now in its seventh year, received more than 2,700 entries from amateurs and professionals who live in more than 60 countries across the globe. The winners, which will be announced today at a special ceremony at the Royal Observatory, were selected from short-listed pictures which include a meteor flying through space above Mt Ranier in the US, the night sky mirrored on the world’s largest salt flat of Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, and images capturing a range of phenomena from across the universe – from the hyper giant star, Eta Carinae, to the supernova remnant known as the Jellyfish Nebula. The exhibition is free. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk.

• Historian Simon Schama has joined with the National Portrait Gallery in creating five new temporary displays featuring portraits arranged by theme rather than year. Simon Schama’s The Face of Britain, which coincides with the launch of a five part TV series and book, will feature a range of portraits taken from the gallery’s collection around the themes of power, love, fame, people and self-portraits. It juxtaposes portraits of the likes of former PM Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher with Queen Elizabeth I; and those of explorer Francis Drake and Thomas Carlyle alongside Amy Winehouse. The displays are integrated into a free trail with eight to 12 works in each of the five rooms. A full programme of events accompanies the displays which will be in the gallery, just off Trafalgar Square, until 4th January. Admission is free. For more, see www.npg.org.uk.

• The London Design Festival kicks off on Saturday and as part of the event, the Design Museum is marking the 50th anniversary of Calvert and Kinneir British road signage with a free exhibition. MADE NORTH has commissioned a number of leading designers and artists to create their own interpretations of Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir’s circle, triangle and square signs including Sir Peter Blake, Sir Terence Conran, Sir Keith Grange, Betty Jackson, Julian Opie and Richard Rogers. A display of more than 40 of the new signs – along with a number of Calvert and Kinneir originals and a one-off version of the Road Works sign specially created by Calvert – are on show at a free installation in the Design Museum’s Tank and Riverside Hall until 25th October. More of the newly designed anniversary signs can be seen at locations across the city and at www.britishdesignproject.co.uk. For more on the London Design Museum, see www.designmuseum.org, and for the full programme of the London Design Festival, which runs until 27th September, check out www.londondesignfestival.com.

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This Week in London – War fashions; the “inventor” of Impressionism; looking a Gift Horse in the mouth; and, having a look at the Queen’s House…

by exploringlondon

• A new exhibition exploring how fashion survived and even flourished during World War II has opened at the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth to mark the 70th anniversary of the war’s end. Fashion on the Ration brings together more than 300 exhibits including clothes and accessories like the ‘respirator carrier handbag’, photographs and films as well as official documents from the period, letters and interviews. The exhibition is divided into six parts which examine in detail everything from the uniforms worn during the period to clothes rationing (introduced in 1941) and how the end of the war impacted fashion. Runs until 31st August. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk.

• The UK’s first major exhibition devoted to Paul Durand-Ruel, the man who “invented Impressionism”, has opened at the National Gallery off Trafalgar Square this week. Inventing Impressionism features around 85 works including some of Impressionism’s greatest masterpieces, a number of which have never been seen in the UK before. The majority of the works were traded by Durand-Ruel (1831-1922) who is noted for having discovered and supported Impressionist painters like Monet, Pisarro, Degas and Renoir. Durand-Ruel purchased an astonishing 12,000 pictures between 1891 and 1922, including more than 1,000 Monets, about 1,500 Renoirs, more than 400 Degas’, some 800 Pissarros and close to 200 Manets. The images on display include a series of rarely-seen portraits of the dealer and his family by Renoir which are being exhibited in the UK for the first time as well as five paintings from Manet’s ‘Poplars’ series and all three of Renoir’s famous ‘Dances’, not seen in the country together since 1985. The exhibition finishes with a reference to an exhibition Durand-Ruel organised in London in 1905. Held at the Grafton Galleries, it presented 315 paintings. Admission charge applies. Runs until 31st May. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

• Gift Horse, New York-based German artist Hans Haacke’s sculpture of a skeletal riderless horse, will be unveiled on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square today. The horse, derived from an etching by English painter George Stubbs – whose works are in the nearby National Gallery, features an electronic ribbon tied to the horse’s front leg showing a live ticker of the London Stock Exchange. The statue, described as a ‘wry comment’ on the equestrian statue of King William IV which was originally to occupy the plinth, is the 10th to occupy the plinth since the first commission – Marc Quinn’s sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant – was unveiled in 2005.

•  Contemporary artist Dryden Goodwin’s first feature-length film is on show as part of a new exhibition, Unseen: The Lives of Looking, at the Queen’s House in Greenwich. Continuing Goodwin’s investigations into portraiture, the newly commissioned film focuses on three individuals who have a “compelling” relationship to looking – eye surgeon Sir Peng Tee Khaw, planetary explorer Professor Sanjeev Gupta and human rights lawyer Rosa Curling. Alongside the screening is a series of drawings made by Goodwin after observing the three individuals as well as tools and papers related to each of their trades and a series of objects connected three leading observers related to the history of the Royal Museums Greenwich sites – John Flamsteed, first Astronomer Royal, Edward Maunder, who observed Mars from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, and the artist Willem van de Velde the Elder who made detailed drawings of naval battles in preparation for producing paintings in his studio at the Queen’s House. Runs until 26th July. Admission is free. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk.

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This Week in London – Churchill’s Scientists; Waterloo online; a Chelsea murder case reopened; exploring Crossrail; and, astronomical photography…

by exploringlondon

Churchill-with-a-Spitfire-from-Castle-Bromwich,-credit-Philip-Insley,-CBAF-Archive-Vickers-ArchiveSyndics• Marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Winston Churchill, a new exhibition at the Science Museum in South Kensington looks at his passion for science and the influence that had on bringing World War II to an end. Churchill’s Scientists celebrates the individuals who flourished under Churchill’s patronage (and , as well as helping to bring about the end of World War II, also launched a post-war “science renaissance”) – from Robert Watson-Watt (inventor of radar) through to Bernard Lovell (creator of the world’s largest telescope) – and also delves into more personal stories of Churchill’s own fascination with science and tech. The display include objects from the museum’s collection as well as original archive film footage, letters and photographs. Highlights include the high speed camera built at Aldermaston to film the first microseconds of the detonation of the UK’s first home grown atomic bomb, the cigar Churchill was smoking when he heard news of his re-election as PM in 1951, and a one-piece green velvet “siren suit” designed by Churchill to wear during air raids (only one of three originals known to exist, it’s never been on public display outside of the tailors who created it). The free exhibition runs until 1st March and is part of the Churchill 2015 programme of events. Visit www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/churchill for more. PICTURE: Churchill with a Spitfire from Castle Bromwich (Philip Insley, CBAF Archive Vickers ArchiveSyndics).

• The National Army Museum and Waterloo2oo have launched an online gallery which will eventually comprise images and information on more than 200 artefacts associated with the Battle of Waterloo ahead of the 200th anniversary in June. Among the objects featured on Waterloo200.org are the Duke of Wellington’s boots, a French eagle standard captured in battle and the saw used to amputate the Earl of Uxbridge’s leg. One hundred items – drawn from the Army Museum’s collection as well as from European museums and private collections – can already be seen on the site with a further 100 to be added before the bicentenary on 18th June.

• The Talk: Death in Disguise: The Amazing True Story of the Chelsea Murders. On 12th February, the Guildhall Library in the City of London will host Gary Powell as he examines the facts of this double murder which took place in Chelsea in May, 1870, and left Victorian society reeling. For more events at the library, follow this link.

• On Now: Breakthrough: Crossrail’s tunnelling story. This exhibition at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden brings a new perspective on the massive Crossrail project currently underway in the city. Visitors will experience the tunnel environment through a five metre high walk-through installation featuring a computer simulation of a giant boring machine as well as learn about how the project is shaping up, play interactive tunnelling games and hear firsthand from those who work underground. Admission charge for adults applies. Runs until August. For more, see www.ltmuseum.co.uk.

• Extended: Astronomy Photographer of the Year Exhibition. This exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich features the winning images from last year’s competition. They include the Briton James Woodend’s image of a vivid green aurora in the Icelandic night sky; American Patrick Cullis’ view of earth taken from 87,000 feet above ground; and, New Zealander Chris Murphy’s image of dusty clouds dancing across the Milky Way. The exhibition can be seen for free in the Observatory’s Astronomy Centre until 19th July. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto.

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