Neptune On Top Of Ship Canal House & Planet Neptune – Manchester, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 28.847 W 002° 14.579
30U E 550237 N 5926023
Manchester is an inland city, 36 miles from the coast and one of the first industrial cities in the world. It was connected to the sea by rivers but the ship canal was built in 1893 to allow ocean going vessels to navigate to Manchester.
Waymark Code: WMEDM2
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/12/2012
Views: 2
This building commissioned in 1926 by the Manchester Ship Canal Company is an English Heritage Grade II listed building and at the time of opening the tallest building around.
On top of the parapet is a statue of the Roman God Neptune holding a trident, with a horse on either side of him.
Although often thought of as being the God of the sea, Neptune is also in charge of all the rivers and springs. This made him a really good choice for the Ship Canal Company as he could look after their goods as they were transported along the canal and across the seas or oceans.
“Neptune was the first planet found by mathematical prediction rather than by empirical observation. Unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus led Alexis Bouvard to deduce that its orbit was subject to gravitational perturbation by an unknown planet. Neptune was subsequently observed on September 23, 1846[1] by Johann Galle within a degree of the position predicted by Urbain Le Verrier, and its largest moon, Triton, was discovered shortly thereafter, though none of the planet's remaining 12 moons were located telescopically until the 20th century. Neptune has been visited by only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, which flew by the planet on August 25, 1989.” (
visit link)
Le Verrier originally proposed the name Neptune for the planet and Neptune became the internationally accepted name in line with all the other planets apart from Earth being named after Roman and Greek gods.
Neptune was the chosen God to name the planet due to the deep blue colour of the planet because of the high concentrations of methane in the atmosphere.
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth but not as dense.[12] On average, Neptune orbits the Sun at a distance of 30.1AU, approximately 30 times the Earth–Sun distance.
The orbital period of Neptune is 165 Earth years and so on July 2011 it completed its first complete orbit since its original discovery.