Self-Guided Tour.Indd

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3-D SPACE THEATRE AND DOME TOUR Departs from reception Self-guided tour 2.30, 3.30 & 4.00 pm, Monday – Friday during school term 11.00 am, 12.00 noon, 1.00, 2.30 & 3.30 pm, Saturday & Sunday Holiday programs may apply WELCOME TO SYDNEY OBSERVATORY

After exploring the displays inside the Observatory, experience the amazing 3-D Space Theatre and Sydney Observatory is both a public observatory and a museum, showcasing an amazing collection of telescope viewing (weather permitting). Each tour is guided by an astronomer and lasts for 30 minutes. instruments, artefacts, books and photos. This self-guided tour will help you fi nd your way through the In the day time visitors can view the Moon, Venus, bright stars and safely view the Sun using a special display rooms to discover the history of astronomy and weather watching in Australia. Please ask our solar telescope. The 3-D theatre technology was developed in Australia by the Centre for Astrophysics staff if you have any questions or are interested in a staff-guided tour. Explore and enjoy! and Supercomputing at the Swinburne Institute of Technology in Melbourne and shows short fi lms on the solar system and space exploration. GROUND FLOOR No bookings are required. Visitors should arrive 15 minutes before the start of the tour. Room 1 ‘Watchers of a different sky’ Cost $8 per adult / $6 per child or concession / $22 per family (2 adults & 2 children or 1 adult & 3 children). Find out what makes the southern sky special and ‘meet’ some of Children under 4 and Powerhouse Museum members are free (limit one session per day). the astronomers and explorers who have observed the night sky.

Tours are also available every night for booked groups. Some of the things you will see: See reception for details or phone (02) 9921 3485. Bookings essential. Additional costs apply. • Brisbane’s telescope — used by Governor Thomas Brisbane to observe Encke’s Comet in 1822 • Repeating circle — used at Parramatta Observatory in the 1820s to measure angles between stars • Apollo feedhorn — converted Neil Armstrong’s 1969 transmissions from the Moon into television images watched by millions on Earth

Room 2 ‘Knowing the time and fi nding the way’ This room looks at the instruments used by Matthew Flinders to chart the Australian coastline in the early 1800s.

Some of the things you will see: • Earnshaw 520 chronometer — one of the fi ve chronometers used A BRIEF HISTORY OF SYDNEY OBSERVATORY on Flinders’ voyage around Australia and the only one still working The Australian Aboriginal people have been observing the southern sky for tens of thousands of years, at the end of the journey and the early colonists also recognised the importance of studying the stars. A young lieutenant by the • Earnshaw astronomical clock — this highly accurate clock was built name of William Dawes was given the task of setting up an observatory when he travelled to Australia in 1791 and used by Flinders to check the timekeeping of the with the First Fleet in 1788. He set up his instruments in a wooden building at what is now called Dawes chronometers on his ship Point, only a few hundred metres to the north of Sydney Observatory, and the location of the southern • Sextant — navigators like Flinders used a sextant to determine pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. both the time and the latitude

In 1821, Governor Thomas Brisbane established Australia’s fi rst permanent observatory near Room 3 ‘Transit circle: the biggest clock in the world’ Government House in Parramatta. Personally paying the salaries of two astronomers and installing his This room is the home of the transit circle, a telescope which was own equipment, Governor Brisbane with the help of his staff studied the southern sky and began used to determine the exact time, the positions of stars and the documenting unknown stars. The observations were published in the Catalogue of 7385 stars from observations geographical coordinates of the Observatory. made at the observatory at Parramatta in 1835. Some of the things you will see: With little support for its continuation, Parramatta Observatory was forced to close in 1847. However, by • Transit circle — a special telescope that only moves north and 1855, the colonial government could not ignore the need for a time ball and an observatory in Sydney. south and relied on the regular daily spin of the Earth to Three years later construction of the time ball tower and the new observatory was suffi ciently advanced determine the time for observations to begin. Work at the Observatory included determining star positions, measuring • Chronograph — a machine used to record the transit circle precise longitudes and latitudes, keeping time and making meteorological (weather) observations. observations Above: repeating circle, made about • Pendulum clock — purchased in 1860, this is a highly accurate 1804–14; Earnshaw 520 chronometer, Above: inside the 3-D space theatre; Sydney Observatory, north dome; a lunar eclipse, photo by Melissa Hulbert; Sydney astronomical regulator clock made about 1790–1801; astronomer Observatory at night. H A Lenehan using the transit circle Sydney Observatory, part of the Powerhouse Museum, is a NSW government cultural institution. © 2012 Trustees of the Powerhouse Museum at Sydney Observatory 1907–1908. Room 4 ‘Planets and stars of the southern sky’ FIRST FLOOR (VIA RECEPTION STAIRCASE) Explore the solar system and discover the constellations! Did you Room 7 ‘Observing the weather: measuring and forecasting’ know that Pluto is no longer considered a planet? In 2006, When the Observatory opened in 1858, its astronomers began astronomers reclassifi ed the ice-covered sphere by dubbing it a recording Sydney’s rainfall and temperature. This room displays the ‘dwarf planet.’ many instruments that have measured the weather over the many Some of the things you will see: years since that time. • Southern Cross 3-D model — peer through the eyepiece and view Some of the things you will see: the famous fi ve star constellation that can only be seen from the • Laser ceilometer — a modern instrument used to measure the southern hemisphere height of clouds. • Solar system models (orreries) — watch a year go by as the Moon • Newman and Bros mercury barometer — an instrument used at the circles the Earth and the planets circle the Sun Observatory in the late 1800s to measure atmospheric pressure. Room 5 ‘Cadi Eora Birrung: under the Sydney stars’ Room 8 ‘Observing the weather: surviving the extremes’ Aboriginal people were Australia’s fi rst astronomers and have An exhibition looking at 150 years of Sydney’s weather. Find out about watched the southern sky for more than 50,000 years. The stars were the heatwave of 1939, the fl oods of 1984 and the hailstorm of 1999. used as a calendar, for navigation by land and sea and to convey laws to future generations. This room looks at some of the Some of the things you will see: Indigenous Dreaming stories about the different constellations. • Cloud maker — learn about different types of clouds through an interactive touch screen. If you spot white puffy rolls on a humid FIRST FLOOR (VIA TRANSIT ROOM STAIRCASE) morning, expect these altocumulus clouds to bring rain in the afternoon Room 6 ‘Transit of Venus: the biggest ruler in the world’ The transit of Venus is of special interest to Australians. Captain Room 9 Russell Room James Cook travelled to Tahiti to observe Venus passing in front of H C Russell was an important pioneer of photography and a the Sun in 1769 and on his return voyage mapped the east coast of signifi cant astronomer who lived and worked at the Observatory Australia. Australia was in a prime location to observe the last transit between 1870 and 1905. of Venus in 2012. Some of the things you will see: Some of the things you will see: • Historic astronomical, weather and family photographs • The photoheliograph — a telescope for photographing the Sun • Stunning views of the city, Harbour Bridge and the time ball tower and one of only half a dozen such instruments in the world from the balcony • The photographic revolver — designed for use with the photoheliograph and the forerunner of the movie camera. The time ball tower The time ball atop Sydney Observatory dropped for the fi rst time on 5 June 1858, alerting Sydneysiders and ships in the harbour of the exact time. Today the timekeeping tradition continues, with Observatory staff dropping the time ball daily at 1.00 pm.

TOILETS (outside)

5 EMERGENCY WHEELCHAIR/GROUP EXIT ENTRY Lecture room Balcony 10 GROUND FLOOR

4 FIRST FLOOR 6 Russell room Above: solar system montage, photo EMERGENCY 9 courtesy NASA; ‘Gemstones’ in the EXIT Above: sunshine or solar recorder, southern sky, photo courtesy NASA; ENTRY/EXIT made about 1892–1905; view of cover of H C Russell’s Observations of the Observatory Hill and Sydney Harbour transit of Venus, 9 December 1874, 3 Bridge from Sydney Observatory; Planetarium Government Printer, 1892. 1 (occasional sessions) Sydney Observatory time ball. 7 8 2 Right: Sydney Observatory, Right: Sydney Observatory, EMERGENCY ground fl oor. EXIT fi rst fl oor.