place

Great Melbourne Telescope

1869 establishments in AustraliaBuildings and structures completed in 1869Demolished buildings and structures in AustraliaPages with non-numeric formatnum arguments
Great Melbourne Telescope 1869
Great Melbourne Telescope 1869

The Great Melbourne Telescope was built by Thomas Grubb in Dublin, Ireland in 1868, and installed at the Melbourne Observatory in Melbourne, Australia in 1869. In 1945 that Observatory closed and the telescope was sold and moved to the Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra. It was rebuilt in the late 1950s. In 2003 the telescope, still in use as an observatory, was severely damaged in a bushfire. About 70% of the components were salvageable; a project to restore the telescope to working condition started in 2013. With a 48 inch (1.2 meter) diameter primary mirror, it was one of the largest telescopes of the late 19th century. This is a significant size even into the 21st century, although the lower reflecting ability of speculum metal mirrors (about 2/3 reflected) makes them inferior to later metal-on-glass designs or large refractors. This was significantly larger than the largest refractors of the period such as the Lick telescope and Yerkes, although those were both in the northern hemisphere (they would view the northern skies as opposed to the southern)

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Great Melbourne Telescope (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Great Melbourne Telescope
Anderson Street, Melbourne South Yarra

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Website Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Great Melbourne TelescopeContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -37.8297 ° E 144.976 °
placeShow on map

Address

Royal Botanic Gardens

Anderson Street
3141 Melbourne, South Yarra
Victoria, Australia
mapOpen on Google Maps

Website
rbg.vic.gov.au

linkVisit website

Great Melbourne Telescope 1869
Great Melbourne Telescope 1869
Share experience

Nearby Places

National Herbarium of Victoria
National Herbarium of Victoria

The National Herbarium of Victoria (Index Herbariorum code: MEL) is one of Australia's earliest herbaria and the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. Its 1.5 million specimens of preserved plants, fungi and algae—collectively known as the State Botanical Collection of Victoria—comprise the largest herbarium collection in Australia and Oceania.The collection includes scientifically and historically significant collections gathered by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during the voyage of HMS Endeavour in 1770, as well as 2,000 specimens collected by Robert Brown during Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia (1801–1805), and three collections made by Darwin during the Voyage of the Beagle to South America, Australia, and the Pacific. The herbarium was established in 1853 by Ferdinand von Mueller, the Government Botanist for Victoria, and is situated within the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. The present building was constructed in 1934 through a donation from philanthropist Sir Macpherson Robertson. It, along with a 1989 extension, houses the entire collection of 1.5 million plant and fungal specimens. The Herbarium's botanic library is an important source for the history of Australian botany, and has contributed some 124 volumes (of the 1212 volumes contributed by Australia Institutions) to the online digital Biodiversity Heritage Library. The herbarium is also a partner in the Australasian Virtual Herbarium project, thereby making all of its collection data available to anyone to use. The herbarium also publishes an online key together with descriptions of plants found in Victoria via VicFlora.

Australian Turkish Friendship Memorial
Australian Turkish Friendship Memorial

The Australian Turkish Friendship Memorial (Seeds of Friendship) is a war memorial in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Kings Domain on Birdwood Avenue. It was built to mark Anzac Day's centennial anniversary and as a tribute to Australian-Turkish relations.The sculpture is a filigreed wreath shaped as a crescent made from interwoven marine-grade stainless steel. Its woven steel strands honours the soldiers who died in the conflict and remembrance poppies can be placed onto the filigreed structure. In front of the wreath are two seed pods based on the Australian casuarina and Turkish pinecone, hand carved from light-coloured granite and symbolising the future and friendship. The "pine needles" are copper etched and contain engraved quotes from troops and their families. The platform has a mosaic made from bluestone pebble. The monument has a height of 3.8 metres and around its base are words from Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk regarding reconciliation. In 2014, the monument was commissioned by the Victorian RSL's Turkish Sub-branch and Matthew Harding, a sculptor designed and was tasked with its construction. Funding for the project came from Australian state and federal sources. Harding stated that the monument represented "the most poignant and most powerful part of remembrance services – the laying to rest of the fallen and the placing of the wreath". The memorial was opened officially on 13 April 2015 for the 100th Anniversary of Anzac Day.

Shrine of Remembrance
Shrine of Remembrance

The Shrine of Remembrance (commonly referred to as The Shrine) is a war memorial in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Kings Domain on St Kilda Road. It was built to honour the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I, but now functions as a memorial to all Australians who have served in any war. It is a site of annual observances for Anzac Day (25 April) and Remembrance Day (11 November), and is one of the largest war memorials in Australia. Designed by architects Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop, both World War I veterans, the Shrine is in classical style, based on the Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus and the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The crowning element at the top of the ziggurat roof references the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. Built from Tynong granite, the Shrine originally consisted only of the central sanctuary surrounded by the ambulatory. The sanctuary contains the marble Stone of Remembrance, upon which is engraved the words "Greater love hath no man" (John 15:13); once per year, on 11 November at 11 a.m. (Remembrance Day), a ray of sunlight shines through an aperture in the roof to light up the word "Love" in the inscription. Beneath the sanctuary lies the crypt, which contains a bronze statue of a soldier father and son, and panels listing every unit of the Australian Imperial Force. The Shrine went through a prolonged process of development, which began in 1918 with an initial proposal to build a Victorian memorial. Two committees were formed, the second of which ran a competition for the memorial's design. The winner was announced in 1922. However, opposition to the proposal, led by Keith Murdoch and the Herald Sun, forced the governments of the day to rethink the design. A number of alternatives were proposed, the most significant of which was the Anzac Square and cenotaph proposal of 1926. In response, General Sir John Monash used the 1927 Anzac Day march to garner support for the Shrine, and finally won the support of the Victorian government later that year. The foundation stone was laid on 11 November 1927, and the Shrine was officially dedicated on 11 November 1934.