Should Dr Who ever need a retirement home, he could do a lot worse than the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The hill-top complex is steeped in associations with both time and space. Everyone knows that it straddles the Prime Meridian, from which the whole planet calculates the time of day. Its galleries hold the original marine chronometers that first gave ships a reliable measure of longitude. And within that famous dome sits the largest refracting telescope in the country.
And it's not all old stuff, either. A couple of years ago, a major refurbishment to the complex brought in a suite of new galleries and event spaces, plus what is now London's only planetarium. Basically, if you've never visited...well it's about time.
We've got three reasons for making the observatory our Museum of the Month for December.
1) This is the final month of International Year of Astronomy.
2) December is one of the best times to visit, as the 115-year-old telescope is cranked into position for public astronomy evenings.
3) This is one of the most important scientific sites in the world and deserves to be Museum of the Millennium, never mind the month.
So over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing you a few selected highlights from this most eminent of venues.
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich can be found slap bang in the middle of Greenwich Park, up on the hill top. Entrance to most areas is free.