The Pulkovo Meridian is located along the 30 degrees 19.6 minutes longitude which runs through the Russian Pulkovo Observatory.
The Pulkovo Meridian was used as the base longitude of the Russian Empire before the adoption of the universal Greenwich Meridian in 1884. The Bering Strait was used as a prime meridian, and it is the current location of the International Date Line which runs through the Diomede Islands of the Bering Strait. The easternmost points of Asia and Russia are located at the Bering Strait as well as the westernmost point of North America and the United States. The Bering Strait located between the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic Ocean represents the border between Russia and the United States. Among the resolutions of the International Meridian Conference was the adoption of the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian for the 0-degree longitude as well as the establishing of the Universal Time. The conference was a continuation of the 1888 International Geodesic Conference held in Rome. The countries which participated in the conference included the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark, Germany, France, Great Britain, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Chile, Japan, Liberia, Russia, the United States, Salvador, Paraguay, San Domingo, Venezuela, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico and the Ottoman Empire. was the host of the International Meridian Conference whose aim was to establish a standard prime meridian to unify the local times used in railway timetables. Along its stretch, the Greenwich Prime Meridian passes through nine countries which are Spain, UK, France, Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Ghana, and Queen Maud Land, a Norwegian territory in Antarctica. The Greenwich Prime Meridian starts from the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and runs southwards to the South Pole in Antarctica. It was established so that it lies 5.3 seconds to the west of the actual 0-degree, 0-minute, and 0-second longitude. The Greenwich Prime Meridian was used as the universal base point in the calculation of longitude until the IERS Reference Meridian was established in 1983 through the Global Positioning System (GPS) showed that the Greenwich Meridian was not precisely located along the 0-degree, 0-minute and 0-second longitude.
The Greenwich Prime Meridian was adopted as the universal prime meridian after leaders and scientists from all over the world met for the International Meridian Conference in 1884 which was took place in Washington D.C., USA. Increased globalization experienced in the early 20th century attributed to the improved sea and air travel made it necessary for the countries around the world to have a common prime meridian which could be used as the universal reference point for longitude to be used for trans-continental and trans-oceanic travel by ship and airplane captains. In several instances, the Greenwich meridian was moved few meters eastwards as improvements in technology allowed the use of better instruments. One of such countries was Great Britain which established its distinct meridian which passed through the Royal Observatory situated at Greenwich. Before it was mapped as Greenwich Prime Meridians, countries all over the world used their prime meridian which passed through their respective boundaries and usually cut across such nation’s capital city. The Greenwich Meridian was established in 1851 by 19th-century British mathematician and astronomer, Sir Biddell Airy. The Greenwich Prime Meridian was established at Royal Observatory in London and it is the universal prime meridian. Prime meridians are established on most of the major celestial bodies of the Solar System including the planets as well as some large moons. Any prime meridian is geographically and mathematically defined and is located at the 0-degree longitude and therefore is used as the base point for other longitudes which are measured in the degrees to the west or east of the prime meridian they are located. A prime meridian is a geographic longitude which runs vertically along a sphere dividing it into two hemispheres.
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