I was browsing the net thinking about the Paris Prime Meridian after reading the post below and also spotting a ref to it in a book i am reading at the moment, and thought it might be of interest to some listees.
In Search of the Arago Line The Observatory of Paris is the oldest observatory in service in the world. It was built in 1667 by the architect Claude Perrault. The four facades of the building are oriented towards the four cardinal points. The median line of the building defined the meridian of Paris from 1667 to 1884: the French then adopted the international meridian that passes through Greenwich near to London. Still today it is one of the world centers for astronomic research, even though it has been associated with the observatories of Meudon and Nancay (Cher department). The observatory diffuses the "coordinated universal time" based on international atomic time. Since 1995, the Netherlands artist Jean Dibbets marked the imaginary Meridian line across Paris with 135 bronze plaques of 12 cm in diameter set in the ground, marked North and South, and bearing the name of Fran�ois Arago (1786-1853), a prominent astronomer and political figure. The route, of course, crosses the Observatoire de Paris (Paris Observatory). <snip> Mark Monmonier notes in How to Lie With Maps that "there were also prime meridians through Cadiz, Christiania, Copenhagen, Ferro, Lisbon, Naples, [Paris], Pulkowa, Rio de Janeiro, and Stockholm, among others. Historians and other users of old maps must be particularly consious of prime meridians and longitude." Hope thats on topic enough :-) >>> "Lars V. Nielsen, GisPro" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 11/04/03 07:08pm >>> Hello Mike, When I was a kid, I read a lot of TinTin comic books, and in one of them the clue to a pirate treasure was a long/lat system originated in Paris, France instead of Greenwich, England. And Paris is - surprise, surprise - about 180 km to the east of London ! Sadly, the story didn't say exactly where in Paris it was originated, but maybe someone on the list can provide some help there. Are you trying to register some old french pirate maps by any chance ? ;-D (8= X Best regards/Med venlig hilsen Lars V. Nielsen GisPro, Denmark http://www.gispro.dk/ http://www.gispro.biz/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Stein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 7:01 PM Subject: MI-L re: French coordinate system problem > Hello all, > > I am having problems bringing in some .dgn data of France - it is appearing > 170-190 km west of centre. I have the usual French projection systems from > the .prj file but this data does not fit. Does anyone have a custom made > map projection that I could use, or any advise why this may happen. I make a > presumption that the data has been drawn to the correct location. > > Many thanks in advance. > > > Mike Stein > GIS Consultant > > A member of the RSKENSR Group plc > > Direct: +44 (0)1928 728153 > Switchboard: +44 (0)1928 726006 > Fax: +44 (0)1928 725633 > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the > individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not > disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender > immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete > this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be > secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, > destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender > therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the > contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If > verification is required please request a hard-copy version. RSKENSR > Environment Limited, 172 Chester Road, Helsby, Cheshire, WA6 0AR, UK, > www.rskensr.com > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Message number: 9020 > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 9021
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