Melbourne
Queen’s or Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne
Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was reserved on the slopes of south side of the Yarra River for a new botanic garden. It extends across 38 hectares planted with trees, garden beds, lakes and lawns. It displays almost 50,000 individual plants representing 8,500 different species, which are displayed in 30 living plant collections.
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is home to the State Botanical Collection, which is housed in the National Herbarium of Victoria. The collection, which includes 1.5 million preserved plants, algae and fungi, represents the largest herbarium collection in Australia and wider Oceania. It also includes Australia’s most comprehensive botanical library.
Within garden grounds stands Melbourne Observatory – a great reminder that ours is a visit to observe solar eclipse in few weeks.
Melbourne Observatory
Observatory was founded in 1862 to serve as a scientific research institution for the rapidly growing city of Melbourne. It was tasked by the Victorian government with maintaining an accurate time reference for the colony through observations of stars using a transit telescope. Shortly after founding a 48-inch (120 cm) telescope was installed at the observatory for astronomical research and for a while it was the largest fully steerable telescope in the world. This instrument was referred to as the “Great Melbourne Telescope”.
In 1874 the observatory took part in the worldwide effort to observe the Transit of Venus in order to better determine the distance of Earth to the Sun.
Halloween at Federation Square
Later that day we stumble upon crowds celebrating Halloween at Federation Square.
1 COMMENT
Ciekawe że znalazłeś tyle czasu żeby napisać coś niecoś – ale przynajmniej masz tam ciepło bo tutaj zima.