The blog is where we'll post news, updates, information about objects in our collection, #betterworkstories, profiles of staff members and visitors, pictures and videos, and really anything we think you'd find interesting. We hope you enjoy.
If there's a topic you'd like us to do a post about, or a post that you think needs a sequel, just let us know!
A close approach of Mercury and Saturn
As darkness falls this week, there’s a fine celestial display in the south-western sky as the planet Mercury pops into view and sails past Saturn. With the sun setting at about 9pm there really is no excuse for local stargazers not to hotfoot it to a local beauty spot with a good view to the south-west and enjoy the spectacle. Once the sun has set, the planet Venus will be the first object you will see as the sky darkens. Often mistaken for an unidentified flying object, the second planet from the sun is spectacularly bright; at sunset it stands just...
3D launching under the Perpetual Guardian Planetarium dome
Otago Museum’s Perpetual Guardian Planetarium will soon become the first 3D planetarium in the Southern Hemisphere with the launch of We are Stars - 3D on Saturday 17 December.
A day in the life of a butterfly pupa
Here at Otago Museum’s Tropical Forest we don’t breed our own butterflies. If we did, the caterpillars would eat all of the foliage and the forest would be unsustainable. Instead, we bring our butterflies in from Costa Rica and the Philippines...
New Zealand’s oldest telescope discovered in Otago Museum collection
Otago Museum has discovered that it is home to what appears to be the oldest telescope in New Zealand.
Both the Otago Museum and Space Place in Wellington have telescopes within their collections made by James Short (1710–1768), a highly significant 18th century telescope maker, who studied classics, divinity and mathematics at Edinburgh University...
The Month Ahead @ OM
Suddenly November is here and it’s another lively month at the Museum, with plenty of options for entertainment, education, or creativity.
Researcher Insights
Q & A with Henry Gard.
The Otago Museum is a busy place, with over 350,000 people through our doors in the last year. A number of these visitors are researchers who have requested access to our world-class collection of 1.5 million+ objects to support their studies.
An epic night of astronomy
Back in July 2015, I described a difficult celestial challenge which I intended to overcome. I set out to spot a marvellous object which astronomers call the great galaxy in Andromeda – a collection of a billion stars some two million light years from Earth.
New categories in 2017 Otago Wildlife Photography Competition
The 18th annual Otago Wildlife Photography Competition, an Otago Museum institution, opens for entries on Monday 14 November 2016.
A Tour of the Deep South
The moon is new next Monday (31 October) at 6.40am, which means we are entering the part of the month known as ‘dark of the moon’. Of course with the nights getting shorter in the run up to the summer solstice, the amount of darkness is decreasing with each passing day, but with the sun setting just before 8.30pm and rising at around 6.15am, Otago skywatchers still get to enjoy almost ten hours of stargazing this week...
Planets in the evening sky
I’m certain that my commute along Otago Peninsula from Dunedin to Portobello is one of the world’s best. After three years of making the journey twice daily, the constantly-changing outlook across the harbour is still awe-inspiring, even on days which are grey and overcast
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About
Our blog aims to keep you informed of the latest happenings at the Otago Museum, through posts about our collections, our people and our work.
Disclaimer
The views expressed here are those of our individual contributors, and are not the views of the Otago Museum.
Copyright
All content of this blog is Copyright Otago Museum, 2017. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the Otago Museum, except for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review, or education, as provided for in the New Zealand Copyright Act 1994.