The Southern Skies Project
Southern Skies Earth and Space Centre will be a multifunctional facility that incorporates an 80 seat digital planetarium and a multi-telescope roof observatory housing four telescopes and two dedicated solar telescopes. A removable roof will be constructed for the observatory to allow people to view an open sky rather than the confines of a dome.
The facility will include permanent and temporary exhibitions on astronomy, general science, and unique aspects of the local environment. Conference and function facilities will allow a diverse range of events and courses to be held including school holiday programs, classes and meetings accessible to a wide variety of interest groups. The inclusion of gift shop and snack bar with light catering offers a congenial atmosphere for social engagement.
What is a planetarium?
A planetarium is an indoor facility that uses audio-visual technology to project and simulate stars, planets and other stellar objects onto a domed ceiling.
Planetariums provide programs that operate day and night, independent of weather conditions and in the comfort of cinema style seating.
The original planetarium projectors were essentially only able to project star fields. Today’s digital systems are able to show much more than just astronomical material. This provides the ability to present shows on a wide range of subjects as well having the ability to project real 3D data from sources as diverse as research telescopes to underground mines. The technology is similar to that used by NASA for flight and space simulations.
At the moment there are just a handful of large permanent facilities in Australia. The main ones utilise the same full dome video systems proposed for Southern Skies by OPI.
What is a public observatory?
A public observatory is any place used to allow the public to view the sky with telescopes. It can be a large building with multiple domed rooms or an open area simply allowing a clear view of the heavens. It can also be located anywhere, irrespective of ambient light.
Although being located near a large town is not an ideal location for a research telescope, it is not an issue for a public observatory. Even though the ambient light makes only the brighter objects visible in the sky, most people have never looked through a telescope before. Consequently the brighter objects are more than enough to provide an engaging and fascinating experience for them.
The Site
Over 16 sites located around Orange were given serious consideration before the current location was settled on.
The site finally chosen is located within the Orange Botanic Gardens precinct and situated between the Botanic Gardens and Adventure Playground.
It offers the best overall position for locating Southern Skies when issues such as popular location, ease of access, parking, prominence and complimentary to existing facilities are considered.
Why locate the facility in the Central West?
The Central West region has a long and rich astronomical and science history. Combined with the region steadily growing as a tourist destination and OPI felt that building Southern Skies here was a natural fit.
Aside from the obvious tourism benefits in becoming a unique destination in regional NSW working with other attractions in the region to create themed holidays and activities, OPI also feels it will enhance the social and cultural lifestyle of the Central West.
It will be an ideal way of communicating information to today’s screen-orientated, hands on public, as well as providing local employment and volunteer opportunities for all age groups. It will promote astronomical and general science awareness as well as providing curriculum support to local and regional schools. It will provide significant flow-on benefits to other public and commercial enterprises by complimenting existing and proposed cultural, environmental and social attractions in the region. And perhaps most importantly, it will use affordable technology.
A planetarium and science centre is similar to a library or museum where the benefits and ‘profits’ are considered in terms of the educational, cultural enrichment*, and economic value offered to a community.
What will it look like?
Since March 2010 the UTS School of Architecture and Offshore Studio P/L has been developing designs on behalf of OPI. They have created a bold but low design that is distinctive yet sensitive to the location within the gardens.