Description of the attraction
Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium is located in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens in the suburb of Tuwong, 5 km from the city's downtown. It was officially opened on May 24, 1978, and was named after Sir Thomas of Brisbane, Governor of New South Wales in 1821-1825, a renowned astronomer and explorer of the southern sky.
Sir Thomas Brisbane is called "the creator of systematic science in Australia."
When he became Governor of New South Wales in 1821, he founded the Astronomical Observatory at Parramatta, where he made observations with two assistants. As a result, the Brisbane Star Catalog was published, which included a list of 7385 stars not mapped to the southern sky. A copy of this catalog is kept today at the Planetarium. After Thomas Brisbane returned to England, the observatory, without receiving official support, was closed in 1847. During his short stay in Australia, the Governor of Brisbane made a number of significant discoveries in the sky of the southern hemisphere, for which today the Planetarium and a crater on the moon were named after him.
In the Planetarium, you can see many new devices for studying distant stars: this is a 12.5 meter hemisphere with a recently improved digital projection system on the dome (the latest technology!); and an observatory with a permanent 15 cm Seiss refractor and a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope; and huge photo displays and mockups in the foyer and gallery, including a photo of the 1969 lunar landing, a mock space shuttle, evidence of an expedition to Mars, and a news feed from the Institute for Space Research with a telescope.
The Planetarium regularly hosts lectures for visitors and school groups, joint observations at the observatory, and sometimes night vigils.
The Planetarium gift shop sells books on astronomy and space exploration (for both adults and children), planispheres (star charts) for southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, solar system and space shuttle models.
