Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum in Ballarat, Victoria | Observatory

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
• History Museum
• Observatory

25.01.2022 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 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&

24.01.2022 Perseids Meteor Shower peak 12th August, last quarter Moon, centre of radiant is below our North horizon but if you are up in the early hours either side of this date, have a look, you may see something. Rate/hr ~ 110 in Northern Hemisphere so maybe 20 would be good for less than half the horizon at best :)

23.01.2022 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

22.01.2022 The Sun is becoming a little more active :)

21.01.2022 Best Nights continues as an online Talk with Q&A A talk about what is up in the sky, special astronomical events included if happening and Q&A. Set yourself up outside if you can or go outside afterwards. Enjoy! Members have a 100% discount... Your support of the Observatory is greatly appreciated during these unusual times. A link to a Zoom meeting will be sent after you BOOK. For special day online sessions for schools and community groups call 0429 199 312 to discuss. https://observatory.ballarat.net//best-nights-saturday-on/ #visitballarat #visitvictoria

19.01.2022 "These are only the first images and we can already see interesting new phenomena," says Daniel Mller, ESAs Solar Orbiter Project Scientist. "We didnt really expect such great results right from the start. We can also see how our ten scientific instruments complement each other, providing a holistic picture of the Sun and the surrounding environment." https://sci.esa.int//solar-orbiter-s-first-images-reveal-c

19.01.2022 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. Weve 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 youll 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: Whats not to like about Lichen? Friday 21 August: You and your immune system need maits. https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/pocket-science/

18.01.2022 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&

18.01.2022 Parkes Observatory is now heritage listed. https://www.environment.gov.au//national/parkes-observatory

18.01.2022 SCINEMA @ HOME Until 31 August, you can now stream a wide range of award-winning films and festival entries online for free in celebration of National Science Week. With more films than ever before, you can make every night movie night and enjoy even more SCINEMA films from the comfort of your home.... https://mailchi.mp/a8e7daf/host-a-scinema-screening-495776

17.01.2022 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

17.01.2022 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

16.01.2022 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

15.01.2022 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

15.01.2022 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

15.01.2022 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

14.01.2022 Jupiters 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 Systems 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 planets North Temperate Belt it travels eastward in successive frames, passing the ...Great Red Spot and whitish Oval BA, famous storms in Jupiters southern hemisphere. Galilean moons Callisto and Io are caught in the middle frame. In fact, telescopic skygazers following Jupiter in planet Earths night have reported dramatic fast moving storm outbreaks over the past few weeks in Jupiters North Temperate Belt. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200910.html See more

14.01.2022 Ballarat Time: 8.00am AEST 17th September

13.01.2022 Due to level 3 restrictions in place from 11.59pm Wednesday 5th August, the Observatory will be closed and this event can only be carried out from your home. You can order your SciVR headset and have it delivered to your home and then you can connect to the SciVR app and use the headset anytime you like. We will still go ahead with an online event 11.15am 22nd August. Purchase your SciVR headset here:... https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=643634& Thank you for your support, every little bit helps us through this very trying period.

12.01.2022 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 Earths 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

11.01.2022 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.

11.01.2022 First Ever Image of a Multi-Planet System around a Sun-like Star Captured by ESO Telescope. Released 22 July 2020 https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2011/?lang

10.01.2022 7.00pm Friday 14th August Online Talk Dr Russell Cockman will speak on the subject of the Sun. Russell is the Solar Section Director at the Astronomical Society of Victoria. A retired Industrial Chemist, Russell now lectures on Chemistry at RMIT. The topic will be: "The Search for the Suns Siblings".... Summary: Today, the consensus amongst astronomers is that the Sun did not form alone 4.6 billion years ago. It is believed to have been just one of hundreds, possibly thousands, of newly forming stars within an open cluster. As far as we know the Sun is alone today so what happened to that cluster and its siblings? Until recently, it was a near-impossible task to find out as the data was not available to identify members among the 100 trillion stars that is our Milky Way galaxy. The data is available now and a systematic search for the Suns siblings is underway. This talk will explain how the search is being done. Cost $3 helps to cover costs. Book here: https://www.trybooking.com/BKWBE

09.01.2022 Comet Neowise will be setting about 7.48pm AEST on 28th July but will be dimming, about mag 5.2 predicted so it could be a binocular event depending on how much it dims Moon is 8 days old so plenty of competition.

09.01.2022 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

07.01.2022 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

07.01.2022 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

07.01.2022 Citizen Science Help to understand how climate change is affecting the development of embryos in aquatic environments. https://www.zooniverse.org/proj/embryophenomics/embryo-cam

06.01.2022 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/

05.01.2022 Stefan Dieters thanks. My image info for Comet Neowise was incorrect. Neowise has faded rapidly and is no longer visible without binoculars minimum or telescope at best.

05.01.2022 Comet Neowise at its best in northern hemisphere

04.01.2022 Citizen Science Help us count Galapagos Marine Iguanas from aerial photographs https://www.zooniverse.org//andreavare/iguanas-from-above

04.01.2022 The David Malin awards were announced last weekend. An astrophotography highlight of the year. https://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au//awards/2020_AstroFest_DM

04.01.2022 Resembling a butterfly with its symmetrical structure, beautiful colours, and intricate patterns, this striking bubble of gas known as NGC 2899 appears to float and flutter across the sky in this new picture from ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT). This object has never before been imaged in such striking detail, with even the faint outer edges of the planetary nebula glowing over the background stars. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2012/?lang

04.01.2022 Who has not felt the power of the Moon at some time, it is part of the fabric of human beings as well as all life forms. https://theconversation.com/the-moon-and-stars-are-a-compas

04.01.2022 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

04.01.2022 Under One Sky - Cost $5 talk only. https://ballaratobservatory.org.au/event/under-one-sky/ #visitballarat #visitvictoria

03.01.2022 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

03.01.2022 IOMN 7pm 26th September Online event https://observatory.ballarat.net//international-observe-t/

03.01.2022 A little bit of history and where we are heading: There are forecasts that by 2030, as many as 57,000 new satellites could be jostling for an orbital position. With so many new operators in space and even more satellites, there are fears that entire orbits could be rendered unusable as the risk of satellite collisions increases.... https://www.abc.net.au//spacex-amazon-satellites/12512978

02.01.2022 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.

02.01.2022 The Observatory has a critical role in that the land is part of the green corridor linking habit in Mt Pleasant and the greater Canadian Corridor. Many varieties of wildlife are observed onsite. (We observe other things besides the night sky!) Spotted in brilliant sunshine these Black Cockatoos are enjoying the fruits of the heritage protected treeline (not necessarily Pine trees, Eucalyptus are also included) which performs a critical role in reducing light spill from the Ballarat CBD. You can help to reduce light pollution by following these five steps: https://bdsc.ballaratobservatory.org.au/take-action/

01.01.2022 Taking advantage of a total lunar eclipse, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have detected ozone in Earths atmosphere. This method serves as a proxy for how they will observe Earth-like planets around other stars in the search for life. This is the first time a total lunar eclipse was captured from a space telescope and the first time such an eclipse has been studied in ultraviolet wavelengths. https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2013/?lang

01.01.2022 A slightly different look on this planet. Nature can be terrifying as in Covid19 or beautiful as in Planets.