The Time Ball
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The Blue Marble, Earth, as seen from from Apollo 17
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Crab Nebula taken from Hubble Space Telescope
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Maritime signal flags flown from the Flagstaff
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Sydney Observatory
The Observatory is State-listed heritage site opened in 1858. It is home to Australia’s most accessible telescope domes, a 3D Space Theatre and Sydney Planetarium.
A visit to the Space Theatre is a must - don 3D glasses to view a video that demonstrated size differences between the multitude of suns, stars, planets, moons which look from Earth to be similar in size but in fact have enormous differences in dimension.
A favourite is the Planetarium where you sit in a circular room under a dome onto which were projected images of the southern sky and its daily movements – in daytime, we viewed the sky without an atmosphere to block out the stars – at night time we saw the Milky Way and the billions of stars that form constellations named in ancient times by the Greeks and Romans; and the Emu named by various tribes of Aboriginal People, to reinforce the relationship to their daily lives.
View Matthew Flinders’ chronometer and sextant, critical to his mapping of Australia; the vintage 7.25-inch refracting telescope on a Equatorial mount, manufactured by the German company Georg Merz and Sons which arrived at the Observatory in 1861 – very important Scott’s celestial observations; and a precious record book of early scientific observations.
Visit the East Dome, which was returned to the Observatory by Macquarie University, restored and opened to the public on 27 January 2015. Evening visitors can observe the stars and planets through a modern 40cm schmidt-cassegrain telescope and a historic 29 cm refractor telescope built in 1874, the oldest telescope in Australia in regular use. On a clear night sky you can see the spectacular image of the Great Orion Nebula. On a daytime visit you can view a colourful advertisement on the top of a building being erected at Barangaroo. A measuring machine manufactured by Troughton and Sims in Britain called ‘Sydney A’ is exhibited here, as well as descriptions of women who contributed their “computing” skills to astronomical calculations.
The Observatory uses modern technology, explaining in lay terms the advancement in astronomy through cosmic exploration, amazing discoveries and scientific research.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
History
Sydney Observatory is located on Observatory Hill, the highest point south of the Harbour from which, in the early days, could be seen far and wide from the Heads to Parramatta. The first observatory was established in 1788 on Dawes Point. The site evolved from a fort, to astronomical observatory, to its present status as a working museum. In 1797, a windmill was built on Windmill Hill, it deteriorated and was replaced by Fort Phillip in 1803, purpose built to defend the settlement against possible attack by rebellious convicts. In 1825 the eastern wall of the fort was converted to a signal station. In 1848, a new signal station was built on top of the fort wall. Seven years later, the British Government agreed to fund a full-sized observatory next to the signal station and approved the appointment of the first Government Astronomer; Reverend William Scott commenced 3-months’ training at Greenwich Observatory before arriving with his family in November 1856.
Opened in 1858, the observatory is a sandstone building in the Italianate style. There are two telescope domes on octagonal bases and a four story tower for the time ball. After the federation of Australia in 1901, meteorology became a function for the Commonwealth Government while the observatory continued in its astronomical role. A proposal to close the observatory in 1926 was narrowly avoided; by the mid-1970s, increasing problems of air pollution and city light made work at the observatory more difficult. In 1982, the NSW Government decided to convert the Sydney Observatory into a museum of astronomy and related fields - as part of the Powerhouse Museum.
Flagstaff and Time Ball
Sydney Observatory has two impressive timekeeping features that played significant roles in Sydney’s early history – time-keeping and communications.
Time Ball
Before the Observatory was built, Sydney didn’t have an accurate time standard. The Observatory’s first function was to calculate the correct time from the movement of the stars. The time ball signalled the time to ships and to the Post Office in Martin Place at 1pm each day, accompanied by a cannon blast to provide an audio as well as visual notification.
At noon on 5 June 1858, the first time ball was raised manually and dropped at exactly 1pm to signal the correct time to the town’s people and for the ships’ captains to reset their chronometers. Simultaneously a cannon on Dawes Point was fired – it was later moved to Fort Denison where the practice still occurs daily using the original mechanism but with the aid of an electric motor.
Flagstaff
Another popular stop for our group was the Flagstaff with probably 20 different flags fluttering in the light breeze off the harbour. The current flagstaff was installed in June 2008. Everyone in our group was handed a Flag Decoder showing the many flags that can be flown according to the activity in the harbour, among which are:
Flags informed port authorities of the names, origin and cargo of new arrivals in Sydney Harbour. Weather and other information was communicated to ships in the harbour and neighbouring signal stations.
A visit is highly recommended to both adults and children – hear a potted history of the site, look back in time to the extremities of the Universe; hear astronomers’ glimpses as to what the future holds for finding life elsewhere and even time-travel! If you haven’t visited for a while you will be amazed.
For tours and activities at Sydney Observatory, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences: https://maas.museum/sydney-observatory/
© Arthur Phillip Chapter of Fellowship of First Fleeters 2021-
Images: Courtesy of G. Doyle
The Observatory is State-listed heritage site opened in 1858. It is home to Australia’s most accessible telescope domes, a 3D Space Theatre and Sydney Planetarium.
A visit to the Space Theatre is a must - don 3D glasses to view a video that demonstrated size differences between the multitude of suns, stars, planets, moons which look from Earth to be similar in size but in fact have enormous differences in dimension.
A favourite is the Planetarium where you sit in a circular room under a dome onto which were projected images of the southern sky and its daily movements – in daytime, we viewed the sky without an atmosphere to block out the stars – at night time we saw the Milky Way and the billions of stars that form constellations named in ancient times by the Greeks and Romans; and the Emu named by various tribes of Aboriginal People, to reinforce the relationship to their daily lives.
View Matthew Flinders’ chronometer and sextant, critical to his mapping of Australia; the vintage 7.25-inch refracting telescope on a Equatorial mount, manufactured by the German company Georg Merz and Sons which arrived at the Observatory in 1861 – very important Scott’s celestial observations; and a precious record book of early scientific observations.
Visit the East Dome, which was returned to the Observatory by Macquarie University, restored and opened to the public on 27 January 2015. Evening visitors can observe the stars and planets through a modern 40cm schmidt-cassegrain telescope and a historic 29 cm refractor telescope built in 1874, the oldest telescope in Australia in regular use. On a clear night sky you can see the spectacular image of the Great Orion Nebula. On a daytime visit you can view a colourful advertisement on the top of a building being erected at Barangaroo. A measuring machine manufactured by Troughton and Sims in Britain called ‘Sydney A’ is exhibited here, as well as descriptions of women who contributed their “computing” skills to astronomical calculations.
The Observatory uses modern technology, explaining in lay terms the advancement in astronomy through cosmic exploration, amazing discoveries and scientific research.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
History
Sydney Observatory is located on Observatory Hill, the highest point south of the Harbour from which, in the early days, could be seen far and wide from the Heads to Parramatta. The first observatory was established in 1788 on Dawes Point. The site evolved from a fort, to astronomical observatory, to its present status as a working museum. In 1797, a windmill was built on Windmill Hill, it deteriorated and was replaced by Fort Phillip in 1803, purpose built to defend the settlement against possible attack by rebellious convicts. In 1825 the eastern wall of the fort was converted to a signal station. In 1848, a new signal station was built on top of the fort wall. Seven years later, the British Government agreed to fund a full-sized observatory next to the signal station and approved the appointment of the first Government Astronomer; Reverend William Scott commenced 3-months’ training at Greenwich Observatory before arriving with his family in November 1856.
Opened in 1858, the observatory is a sandstone building in the Italianate style. There are two telescope domes on octagonal bases and a four story tower for the time ball. After the federation of Australia in 1901, meteorology became a function for the Commonwealth Government while the observatory continued in its astronomical role. A proposal to close the observatory in 1926 was narrowly avoided; by the mid-1970s, increasing problems of air pollution and city light made work at the observatory more difficult. In 1982, the NSW Government decided to convert the Sydney Observatory into a museum of astronomy and related fields - as part of the Powerhouse Museum.
Flagstaff and Time Ball
Sydney Observatory has two impressive timekeeping features that played significant roles in Sydney’s early history – time-keeping and communications.
Time Ball
Before the Observatory was built, Sydney didn’t have an accurate time standard. The Observatory’s first function was to calculate the correct time from the movement of the stars. The time ball signalled the time to ships and to the Post Office in Martin Place at 1pm each day, accompanied by a cannon blast to provide an audio as well as visual notification.
At noon on 5 June 1858, the first time ball was raised manually and dropped at exactly 1pm to signal the correct time to the town’s people and for the ships’ captains to reset their chronometers. Simultaneously a cannon on Dawes Point was fired – it was later moved to Fort Denison where the practice still occurs daily using the original mechanism but with the aid of an electric motor.
Flagstaff
Another popular stop for our group was the Flagstaff with probably 20 different flags fluttering in the light breeze off the harbour. The current flagstaff was installed in June 2008. Everyone in our group was handed a Flag Decoder showing the many flags that can be flown according to the activity in the harbour, among which are:
- the Australian flag
- the New South Wales flag
- the Australian Aboriginal flag
- the Torres Strait Islander flag
- constellations visible during night sessions
- planets visible in the night sky
- phases of the Moon
- maximum expected temperature for Sydney (three flags)
- astronomical events including equinoxes, solstices, meteor showers and eclipses
- various shipping signals
Flags informed port authorities of the names, origin and cargo of new arrivals in Sydney Harbour. Weather and other information was communicated to ships in the harbour and neighbouring signal stations.
A visit is highly recommended to both adults and children – hear a potted history of the site, look back in time to the extremities of the Universe; hear astronomers’ glimpses as to what the future holds for finding life elsewhere and even time-travel! If you haven’t visited for a while you will be amazed.
For tours and activities at Sydney Observatory, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences: https://maas.museum/sydney-observatory/
© Arthur Phillip Chapter of Fellowship of First Fleeters 2021-
Images: Courtesy of G. Doyle
