Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum in Ballarat, Victoria | History Museum

Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum

Locality: Ballarat, Victoria

Phone: +61 3 5332 7526

Address: 439 Cobden Street Mt. Pleasant 3350 Ballarat, VIC, Australia

Website: https://ballaratobservatory.org.au/

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• Community organisation
• Arts and entertainment
• History Museum
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• Observatory

25.01.2022 11 day old Moon, Boxing Day 2020 by a Junior visitor through the Federation-Adcock Telescope - a steady hand. A beautiful evening, with thanks to the patient visitors waiting for a clear night, finally eventuating. Thank you to the volunteers who came along to make it happen during our holiday break!

24.01.2022 International Observe the Moon Night 2020 Online event Saturday 26th September https://observatory.ballarat.net//international-observe-t/ https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=615375&

24.01.2022 Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, have revealed an extremely distant and therefore very young galaxy that looks surprisingly like our Milky Way. The galaxy is so far away its light has taken more than 12 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just 1.4 billion years old. It is also surprisingly unchaotic, contradicting theories that all galaxies in the early Universe were turbulent and unstable. This unexpected discovery challenges our understanding of how galaxies form, giving new insights into the past of our Universe. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2013/?lang

24.01.2022 Under One Sky is a great theme to unite people around the Earth in looking after our night sky and environment for present and future generations. #underonesky2020 #idadarksky The beautiful and stunning Emu. Image Credit: Mark Justice.

23.01.2022 Currently Jupiter is extremely interesting- just released images of Jupiter highlight Great Red Spot Jr. :) https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2017/?lang

23.01.2022 Bookings for Tonight can be made here, the talk will be about what is up in the night sky tonight and Q&A is welcome. If you are new to the night sky this will be a good starting point. If it is clear, you can join on your smartphone outside, with your binoculars by your side if you have some. Link to join in will be sent after you book. https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=588633&

23.01.2022 Onsite, outside viewing at the telescopes only, (no tours or movies just yet) selected nights as per events listed on website. Small numbers only. Dress for the snow. Jupiter, Saturn and the stunning 9/10 day old Moon visible this weekend. Close Approach of Mars will be very late viewing starting at 10pm from 6th -13th October. http://observatory.ballarat.net #visitballarat... #visitvictoria See more

22.01.2022 HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH ON THE MOON? STUDENT ACTIVITY International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) is an annual worldwide public event that encourages observation, appreciation, and understanding of our Moon and its connection to NASA planetary science and exploration. Everyone on Earth is invited to join the celebration and uniting on one day each year to look at and learn about the Moon together. This will be online and includes a tour of the night sky, you can connect on yo...ur Smart phone and sit outside for the practical tour of the night sky. For Students, join in with our Gravity on Earth and the Moon activity. All Zoom participants on the night receive a 20% discount to visit the Observatory to use in our science shop and/or viewing at the telescopes when we are open again, which should be soon. https://observatory.ballarat.net//international-observe-t/ #visitballarat #visitvictoria

20.01.2022 Jupiter and Saturn are setting earlier now and will disappear from our evening sky by early January. On December 17th a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and a 2 day old Moon occurs and on the 22nd, Jupiter and Saturn will be in conjunction 0.1 degrees apart. Bookings are available for these events. https://ballaratobservatory.org.au//jupiter-and-saturn-co/ #visitballarat #visitvictoria

20.01.2022 Music is an important communication for humans, when all else is lost, music reaches the unreachable. Beautiful statement of music connecting us at many levels in the universe. Enjoy. Jennifer Fowler "Threaded Stars 2" (2006) for solo harp, performed by Jacinta Dennett. Photography, Adrian Dennett, Port Campbell, April 20, 2018, video Ben Plazzer, Ballarat Municipal Observatory, May 11, 2019, and Audio Recording, Haigelbagel Productions, April 8, 2019, Hanson https://youtu....be/hNFRwUZe2V8 #visitballarat #visitvictoria

19.01.2022 New item for the Month - 15th January Hubble Pinpoints Supernova Blast https://ballaratobservatory.org.au//whats-in-the-sky-in-j/

19.01.2022 IOMN 7pm 26th September Online event https://observatory.ballarat.net//international-observe-t/

17.01.2022 Valentines Eve Under the Stars https://ballaratobservatory.org.au//valentines-eve-under-/ #visitballarat #summerballarat #visitvictoria

17.01.2022 Valentine's Eve under the Stars 13th February 7.30pm https://ballaratobservatory.org.au//valentines-eve-under-/ #visitballarat #visitvictoria

17.01.2022 Federation University - Alexander Rubinov Memorial Oration 2020: The Forgotten Geometry of Ancient Mesopotamia This year’s talk is bound to interest those of you who are Indiana Jones fans. The story begins in exotic, ancient Mesopotamia 1700 years ago, when one day, a scribe wrote a message - maybe to a construction supervisor? Archaeology, buried clay tablets, mysterious writings, and mathematical sleuthing make up this intriguing tale of discovery as our speaker, Dr Danie...l Mansfield decodes the purpose of Plimpton 322 and unlocks the secrets of a unique Mesopotamian way of measuring. Yr 9 and above, younger students welcome, and to friends, family and colleagues who may also be interested. https://events.federation.edu.au/event/sessions

16.01.2022 To mark the start of NAIDOC week, CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope has been honoured with a traditional name chosen by Wiradjuri Elders and revealed at a local naming ceremony. The 64-metre telescope is located on Wiradjuri country in central west NSW, approximately 380 kilometres west of Sydney. The Parkes Radio Telescope received the name Murriyang, which represents the ‘Skyworld’ where a prominent creator spirit of the Wiradjuri Dreaming, Biyaami (Baiame), lives. Two smaller... telescopes at CSIRO’s Parkes Observatory also received Wiradjuri names, Wiradjuri Elder Rhonda Towney conducted the naming ceremony, and Elder Dr Stan Grant AM revealed the telescope’s Wiradjuri names. https://www.spaceconnectonline.com.au//4617-csiro-parkes-t

16.01.2022 Earth at Perihelion today, closest approach to the Sun https://ballaratobservatory.org.au//whats-in-the-sky-in-j/

16.01.2022 Jupiter's Swimming Storm Image Credit & Copyright: Andy Casely (From Sydney area) Explanation: A bright storm head with a long turbulent wake swims across Jupiter in these sharp telescopic images of the Solar System's ruling gas giant. Captured on August 26, 28, and September 1 (left to right) the storm approximately doubles in length during that period. Stretching along the jetstream of the planet's North Temperate Belt it travels eastward in successive frames, passing the ...Great Red Spot and whitish Oval BA, famous storms in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. Galilean moons Callisto and Io are caught in the middle frame. In fact, telescopic skygazers following Jupiter in planet Earth's night have reported dramatic fast moving storm outbreaks over the past few weeks in Jupiter's North Temperate Belt. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200910.html See more

16.01.2022 Still a few places left for our NSWK SciVR event. If you book from today, Wednesday 19th August, your headset will not arrive in time as we cannot open for pickup. You can still come online and learn how it works and see actual footage of what you would see in you headset, so you will be know all about it when your headset arrives. https://observatory.ballarat.net//event/science-week-scivr/

14.01.2022 Planet Patrol - Citizen Science for you to learn more about exoplanets. "Automated methods of processing data from the TESS planet-finding mission sometimes fail to catch imposters that look like exoplanets. The human eye, however, is extremely good at spotting such imposters. Citizen scientists can help to distinguish between genuine planets and false positives, and to improve the efficiency of the automated vetting algorithms. Analyzing some of the most exciting planet cand...idates is challenging. For example, planets like Earth are tiny compared to their parent star (about 1:100 size ratio) and have a long orbital period (1 transit per year), which means they would generate a weak signal in the data and be difficult to detect, vet, and ultimately confirm. Planet Patrol will help sift through TESS images of potential exoplanets by answering a set of questions for each. These questions will help narrow down the list of possible planets for further follow-up study." https://www.zooniverse.org/proje/marckuchner/planet-patrol See more

14.01.2022 https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html A Thousand Meteors Video Credit & Copyright: Greg Priestley Explanation: Over a thousand meteors flash through the night in this intriguing timelapse video. Starting in April 2019 the individual video frames were selected from 372 relatively clear nights of imaging from an automated wide-field observatory in rural New South Wales Australia. Arranged by local sidereal time, a timekeeping system that uses the positions of stars to measur...e Earth's rotation, the frames follow the full annual progression of constellations through the wide field of view seen from 33 degrees south latitude. They capture a diverse array of meteors including sporadic meteors, bright fireballs, and shower meteors (plus a lightning sprite), during the period. All frames were processed consistently and so show real variations in the local sky conditions. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

13.01.2022 A few places left for tonight. Should be freezing :) , but stunning viewing in the gaps. Dress for the snow. https://www.trybooking.com/book/sessions?eid=588633

13.01.2022 Gift Vouchers are available online by Card payment at https://www.trybooking.com/book/giftCertificates?aid=5009 Or by Direct Deposit or Click and Collect in our Online Science Shop https://ballaratobservatory.org.au/science-shop/ #visitballarat #visitvictoria

12.01.2022 Ballarat Observatory is supporting ADSA with this event and will be hosting an event onsite followed by Supper, Extended Q&A and Viewing at the telescopes if clear. Event and Bookings details online here: https://ballaratobservatory.org.au//light-and-human-health/ #visitballarat

10.01.2022 With a few spare minutes and your mobile phone or any other internet-connected device, you can join Federation University researchers each day during National Science Week as they introduce you to their work with sheep poo, pet parasites, lichens, nutrition and your immune system. We’ve got demonstrations, interviews and lab tours, virtual reality and augmented reality downloads, card games, online exchanges and more so come and sample life sciences at FedUni. With a differen...t theme each day you’ll have the chance to drop in on our scientists, hear about their research, download related activities to do at home and join their research teams for the week. Register to attend one or all of the themes below Monday 17 August: Car-bonnet sheep-yard science Tuesday 18 August: Nutrition and disease Wednesday 19 August: Parasites and your pets Thursday 20 August: What’s not to like about Lichen? Friday 21 August: You and your immune system need maits. https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/pocket-science/

08.01.2022 We now have a new website :) For information about coming astronomical events here is our new link https://ballaratobservatory.org.au/ Click Sky for the Month

08.01.2022 The Sun is becoming a little more active :)

08.01.2022 Congratulations to these students, a great achievement- https://www.spaceconnectonline.com.au//4715-adelaide-uni-s

07.01.2022 Under One Sky - Cost $5 talk only. https://ballaratobservatory.org.au/event/under-one-sky/ #visitballarat #visitvictoria

07.01.2022 World Space Week and Close Approach of Mars - special late evening viewing whilst Mars is at it's closest, can also fit in Jupiter and Saturn late. https://observatory.ballarat.net//wsw-close-approach-of-m/

06.01.2022 Ballarat Time: 8.00am AEST 17th September

06.01.2022 How appropriate to find the Southern Moon Moth here at the Observatory :)

06.01.2022 The Christmas Day Planets 2020

05.01.2022 A slightly different look on this planet. Nature can be terrifying as in Covid19 or beautiful as in Planets.

04.01.2022 Some Good News for Earthlings about the garbage orbiting Earth. The European Space Agency has signed an 86 million contract with an industrial team led by Swiss start-up ClearSpace SA to purchase a unique service: the first removal of an item of space debris from orbit. As a result, in 2025, ClearSpace will launch the first active debris removal mission, ClearSpace-1, which will rendezvous, capture and take down for re-entry the upper part of a Vespa (Vega Secondary Payload... Adapter) used with Europe’s Vega launcher. https://www.spaceconnectonline.com.au//4670-esa-purchases- See more

03.01.2022 The International Dark-Sky Association presents Under One Sky: 2020 Global Conference 13th-14th of November 2020 (FREE to register - online conference)... Speakers Included Professor Annette Lee Director of the Native Skywatchers Research and Programming Initiative Jeff Dai IDA Beijing, The World At Night project, National Coordinator at Astronomers Without Borders Dajana Bjelajac Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad, Serbia Paul Curnow Adelaide Planetarium University of South Australia Exodus Chun-Long Sit Transmedia Astronomer and Astro-Musician, Hong Kong IDA International Committee Responsible lighting and access to the night and its star-filled sky is a human right. Around the world, light pollution is destroying ancient traditions and knowledge systems. Overlighting in cities and communities poses a significant problem for the people living there. This year’s conference will focus on the environmental and cultural threat that light pollution poses to people who have been underrepresented in the work to protect the night from light pollution and invite discussions about how to address these threats. Learn more here. Sessions will happen across 24 hours in three different time zones beginning with a global opening on Friday, November 13 at 1:00 PM PST (4:00 PM EST, 21:00 UT). The conference will then move to three regional breakout sessions on Saturday, November 14, each two hours long. Then, conference attendees will come back together for a global closing session at 1:00 pm PST (4:00 pm EST, 21:00 UT/London). BOOK ONLINE HERE. https://darksky.salsalabs.org/2020agmconference/index.html

03.01.2022 We are so priviledged to have this beautiful green asset in the middle of our City. We must ensure we do not push the diverse environment towards extinction by imposing more artificial infrastructure onto an already stressed environment. The rights of nature to a dark night is as important as the need for daylight, indeed for all of us. The image below demonstrates the level of light pollution in the vicinity of Lake Wendouree reflected back down to the ground by over head clouds. There is more that we can do to reduce light spill into the atmosphere, slowly over time, as lights are replaced over time. 100% cut off shades, lights 3000K or less, best lights for your backyard are 2700K which reduces impact on wildlife, turn all unnecessary lighting off and use motion sensors. We can reduce our impact on how dark our night is.

03.01.2022 After 57 years of Radio Astronomy, Arecibo Observatory’s 305-meter telescope will be decommissioned due to safety concerns. https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674

02.01.2022 Hubble observes spectacular supernova Time-Lapse of Supernova in NGC 2525 https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2018/?lang

01.01.2022 Our Science Shop is now fully online. The number of items will grow :) A couple of November Specials to celebrate our online opening. You can have items Delivered by Australia Post or Click and Collect them at the Observatory on you next visit. https://ballaratobservatory.org.au/science-shop/... #visitballarat #visitvictoria #ObservatoryBAS See more

01.01.2022 Happy New Year to all, thank you for your support over the past very unusual year.

01.01.2022 Catalina Outer Solar System Survey The Catalina Outer Solar System Survey aims to discover the most distant objects in our solar system, Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). The project takes images of the night sky from the Catalina Sky Survey whose mission is to find the closest objects in the solar system, near Earth asteroids, and looks at them over several months to see the slow movement of TNOs. After possible TNOs have been filtered and identified by a computer, they need a final check by a human to tell if they are real or a false detection. That is where you come in! You are needed to review the image data, and make the final decision. Help to learn more about the farthest reaches of our solar system, and maybe even discover a few new worlds! https://www.zooniverse.org//catalina-outer-solar-system-su

01.01.2022 The Dark Energy Survey saw first light in 2012, after a decade of planning, and completed observations in 2019, with the collaboration of several hundred experts from all over the globe. Join the editors and contributors of The Dark Energy Survey The Story of a Cosmological Experiment to celebrate the release of this title which discusses the results and processes behind this project. Date: 26 Nov 8am Brisbane... 26 Nov 9am Sydney 25 Nov 4pm Chicago 25 Nov 7pm Rio de Janeiro 25 Nov 10pm UK Panel: Ofer Lahav (UCL), Lucy Calder, Richard Ellis (UCL), Nigel Sharp (National Science Foundation), Josh Frieman (Fermilab/Chicago University), Rich Kron (Chicago University), Alistair Walker (NOIRLab/Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory), Tamara Davis (University of Queensland), Chris Lidman (Australian National University), Luiz da Costa (Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia, Rio de Janeiro), Antonella Palmese (Fermilab) Don’t miss this! Reserve your seat now! About The Dark Energy Survey The Story of a Cosmological Experiment This book is about the Dark Energy Survey, a cosmological experiment designed to investigate the physical nature of dark energy by measuring its effect on the expansion history of the universe and on the growth of large-scale structure. The survey saw first light in 2012, after a decade of planning, and completed observations in 2019. The collaboration designed and built a 570-megapixel camera and installed it on the four-metre Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in the Chilean Andes. The survey data yielded a three-dimensional map of over 300 million galaxies and a catalogue of thousands of supernovae. A project of this scale required the long-term commitment of hundreds of scientists from institutions all over the world. Scientific collaborations are human endeavours and the book aims to convey a sense of the wider context within which science comes about. https://bit.ly/2JLtEcP