Royal Museums Greenwich

Explore the history of satellite navigation, from the birth of the idea of artificial satellites in fiction to the launch of the ground breaking European Galileo satellite-navigation system in 2014.

Discover the links between satellite and astronomical navigation and consider how ‘satnav’ has changed the world.

Suitable for

• Any age

Website

http://www.rmg.co.uk/starstosatellites

Five hundred years ago, a fraternity of London mariners was given a charter by Henry VIII and became the Corporation of Trinity House - with instructions to improve the safety of navigation on the Thames.

Since then, Trinity House has looked after pilotage, buoys, beacons and lightships and has become the Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and the Channel Islands. The work of Trinity House over the last 500 years has prevented countless shipwrecks and immense loss of life, and its employees have shown great skill, bravery and endurance.

While Trinity House’s aims have remained constant its methods of achieving them have changed dramatically as new technology is adopted and developed.

This small gallery displays objects and stories from throughout the organisation’s history as well as looking to the future as Trinity House continues to work ‘for the benefit and safety of all mariners’.

Website

http://www.​rmg.​co.​uk

Open from 11 April 2014–4 January 2015, Longitude Punk’d at the Royal Observatory will celebrate the creations of wacky inventors, star-gazing scientists and extremely elegant explorers of the 18th century. Royal Museums Greenwich has commissioned eight UK steampunk artists to create works inspired by the technical inventions that were presented to the Board of Longitude between 1714 and 1828.

To coincide with Longitude Punk'd at the Royal Observatory and Ships, Clocks & Stars at the National Maritime Museum, Royal Museums Greenwich and Jurassic London will be publishing Irregularity, an anthology of original short fiction inspired by the 18th-century quest to impose humanity's order on nature's chaos.

Suitable for

• Family friendly

Admission

Please check website for ticket prices.

Website

http://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/longitude-punkd

The race to determine longitude at sea gripped Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, becoming a focus for serious debate, popular ridicule and single-minded scientific endeavour. Valuable rewards were on offer for whoever could crack the puzzle and Ships, Clocks & Stars presents the ingenious methods and instruments designed to scoop the Board of Longitude’s prize and transform seafaring navigation forever.

The exhibition takes visitors from the coffee houses of London to the tropical climes of Cook’s Pacific voyages, exploring the industry, imagination, relationships and rivalries that shaped one of the largest scientific and technical accomplishments in history; and showing that this world-changing tale does not begin and end with Harrison’s famous timekeepers.

Website

http://www.​rmg.​co.​uk

As part of the National Maritime Museum’s commemoration of World War One this new gallery explores the naval and maritime dimensions of that conflict.

The horrors of the Western Front have long dominated our understanding of those years, and yet the war at sea was fought on an epic scale and with terrible human loss.

Forgotten Fighters foregrounds the personal stories of those who participated through a wide range of objects including weaponry, photographs, medals and ship models; in a gallery which takes visitors from the heroism of merchant mariners to the shattering realities of naval battle, and from the Falkland Islands and the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and the North Sea.

Website

http://www.​rmg.​co.​uk

The Royal Observatory’s hugely popular Astronomy Photographer of the Year returns in 2014 to celebrate the very best in astrophotography from around the world.

The competition opens for entries in January 2014, with photographers invited to submit work to categories including ‘Earth and Space’, ‘Deep Space’ ‘Our Solar System’ and ‘Young Astronomy Photographer’. The winning images are selected by an expert judging panel which includes the Observatory’s Public Astronomer Dr. Marek Kukula.

After the awards are announced in September 2014 the winning photographs will be displayed in a special exhibition at the Royal Observatory.

The 2013 contest received a record number of entries, with over 1,200 outstanding pictures submitted from 49 countries around the globe. More details and previous winning images can be found at www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto

Admission

Please check admission charges before visiting.