3-D SPACE THEATRE AND DOME TOUR

Departs from reception

2.30 & 3.30 pm, Monday – Friday during school term
11.00 am, 12.00 noon, 2.30 & 3.30 pm, Saturday, Sunday and holidays
After exploring the displays inside the Observatory, experience the amazing 3-D Space Theatre and
telescope viewing (weather permitting). Each tour is guided by an astronomer and lasts for 30 minutes.
In the day time visitors can view the Moon, Venus, bright stars and safely view the Sun using a special
solar telescope. The 3-D theatre technology was developed in Australia by the Centre for Astrophysics
and Supercomputing at the Swinburne Institute of Technology in Melbourne and shows short films on
the solar system and space exploration.
Self-guided tour
WELCOME TO SYDNEY OBSERVATORY
Sydney Observatory is both a public observatory and a museum, showcasing an amazing collection of
instruments, artefacts, books and photos. This self-guided tour will help you find your way through the
display rooms to discover the history of astronomy and weather watching in Australia. Please ask our
staff if you have any questions or are interested in a staff-guided tour. Explore and enjoy!

No bookings are required. Visitors should arrive 15 minutes before the start of the tour.
GROUND FLOOR
Cost $7 per adult / $5 per child or concession / $20 per family (2 adults & 2 kids or 1 adult & 3 kids). Room 1 ‘Watchers of a different sky’
Children under 5 and Powerhouse Museum members are free. Find out what makes the southern sky special and ‘meet’ some of
the astronomers and explorers who have observed the night sky.
Tours are also available every night for booked groups.
See reception for details or phone (02) 9921 3485. Bookings essential. Additional costs apply. Some of the things you will see:
• 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 finding 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 five 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 first 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 sufficiently 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, astronomical regulator clock
Above: inside the 3-D space theatre; Sydney Observatory, north dome; a lunar eclipse, photo by Melissa Hulbert; Sydney
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. © 2009 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 reclassified 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 five 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 first 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 floods 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 significant astronomer who lived and worked at the Observatory
Australia. Australia is in a prime location to observe the next 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 first 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 floor. EXIT first floor.