Love stargazing? Take your nights up a notch with a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, where you can take a guided tour of the historic Melbourne Observatory. Dating all the way back to 1861, this space was once a crucial instutition for astronomy in the southern hemisphere. Join the Astronomical Society of Victoria on their Stellar Nights tour, and admire the cosmos through two telescopes. Stellar Nights is run on select nights from June 1 to August 31. Bookings are essential, and limited to just 30 people per session.
Stellar Nights at Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Meet your guide just outside the Visitor Centre, and wander into the Observatory for an illuminating night. Learn all about its place in Victoria’s history, as well as its continued importance as a cultural and heritage site.
Then, take a look through two of the telescopes within the Observatory, and feel amazed by the wonders of the universe, including lunar landscapes, other planets and even distant nebulae. You’ll find one telescope in the Astrograph House, which was built as part of an international project in 1889 to photograph the stars. You’ll also see a telescope in the Southern Equatorial House. This building, along with the Photoheliograph House, was built to observe the Transit of Venus in 1874.
On the tour, you’ll also have some time on the Observatory Viewing Lawn, where you’ll learn how to use a telescope yourself.
The tour takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes, and will go ahead even in rainy conditions, so do dress for the weather. Tickets are $45 for adults and $25 for children. To learn more about it, or make a booking, click here.
Solar Tours
If you can’t make it to Stellar Nights, but you still love space, why don’t you try one of the Solar Tours instead? Taking place during the day, you’ll observe the Sun with instrumants like a Photoheliograph telescope and a Troughton & Simms telescope. See details like sunspots and solar granulation, and learn the history of solar astronomy at Melbourne Observatory.
This event runs on Sundays from June 14 to August 23. Once again, tickets are $45 for adults and $25 for children. Learn more about it here.