You are Here: Home

Go to our events page for “sky of the month”.
The Observatory will be open for the Heritage Weekend on 10^th and 11^th May. Click here for details.

BAS will be celibrating its 50^th anniversary on 31^st May 2008. The progam and booking information is available here. A new 3D movie will be launched on the day.

-VASTROC “Galileo to Google”

-international year of astronomy

-membership

-school bookings

-3D movie information
a new movie is coming

This Observatory, situated at Mount Pleasant in Ballarat,  was established on the initiative and with the financial support of James Oddie, and was formally opened to the public in 1886.  When Oddie presented the Observatory to the people of Ballarat, it became the first municipal observatory in Australia.

Ballaarat or Ballarat?

For over 100 years, it has served the Ballarat community and for the last 40 years it has been managed by the Ballaarat Astronomical Society. This is a unique situation; a municipal observatory, run by an amateur group. Apart from its astronomical use, the Observatory buildings and telescopes are of great historical interest, and were classified by the National Trust in 1989, and added to the Historic Buildings Register in 1992.

The Observatory is located on the corner of Magpie and Cobden Street, Mount Pleasant, Ballarat East and is open every Friday and Saturday evening