Word: meridian
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...Observatory prepares for its centennial celebration on December 27, its staff scarcely glances back over the arduous way travelled since that meagre beginning in 1846, when the first permanent observation station was founded: a ten-room building on Summer House Hill, equipped only with a 15-inch refractor and meridian circle determinants of time and star positons...
Temporarily, at least, the military meridian which U.S. strategists had sought to push eastward across the Atlantic was rectified in midocean. But far to the south, it bent eastward: the little ash-heap of Ascension, whose importance was not realized until midway in the war, was under British sovereignty, and the British would be reasonable. Nearer home, the chain of Western Hemisphere bases from Newfoundland to British Guiana, obtained in the destroyer deal of 1940, was secure for 93 more years...
...earth's astronomical navel* was about to shift its position. Britain's Royal Observatory was preparing for its first permanent move in 271 years. Left behind in Greenwich (now part of London) would be 1) the original building designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and 2) the "prime meridian of longitude," which passes through the observatory grounds. The "Meridian of Greenwich" could not be moved; every modern map in the world had been drawn with it as a base line...
Greenwich to be set by telescopic observation of the stars. After 1833, their officers watched a 5-ft. ball on a pole above Sir Christopher's building. When it dropped, the "Greenwich time" was 1 p.m. The custom led, in 1884, to an international agreement fixing the meridian of Greenwich as "zero longitude." The maps of the world still use this north-and-south line as a starting point. The world's clocks are still set by reference to its time...
...time is an alphabetical variation of Greenwich Civil Time, a global time system used by navigators since the adoption of the International Date Line in 1884. G.C.T. runs for 24 hours, and is based on the position of the sun in relation to the prime meridian (Longitude 00° 00' 00") which passes through Greenwich, England...