astronomical

Brisbane continued to grow, in 1876 the town’s first railway station opened: Roma Street Station. This was followed by the rollout of horse-drawn and then electric trams in 1880 and 90s. The 1880s ushered in considerable changes for Brisbane, large landholdings were opened up to new landowners and speculators by the government. There are over 1,000 digitised land auction posters in the State Library’s collection, hundreds of which are from the 1880s. The population grew in response to these changes, from approximately 6,000 people in 1861 to 88,000 by the 1891 census, mainly due to migration from Britain. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/mappingfuturebrisbane/old-windmill-tower

Many faces of the Old Windmill Tower. From convict punishment to the observatory.

Before the events that would spawn the original AAQ in 1969, the Astronomical Society of Queensland (ASQ) was the only major Queensland astronomical body in Queensland, having existed since 1927. Following the advent of the space age in late 1957, the membership of the ASQ had been growing quite rapidly with a burgeoning public interest in all things space-related. Included on the periphery of these new members were the dreamy and disconnected ‘flying saucer set’ who was the subject of some quiet amusement for some of the younger members such as my friend Peter Smith and myself. The political affiliations of these new members must have raised some concerns because several years later the long-time Secretary Bill Newell told me confidentially that one of our new members was an ASIO agent checking us out! He built a fine 6-inch telescope at night classes (which can be seen in the 1961 TV photo with Bill Newell), but dropped out after a few years. Source: www.aaq.org.au/asq-18-telescope-project-and-the-bundaberg...

What more could you ask for? Mysteries of the Universe

Splendida foto e documento! Grazie per la condivisione.