The Museum
The museum is a small but historically accurate Georgian house in a quiet side-street in Bath, with excellent visitor facilities, aural history guides and a small shop. The museum is situated over three floors of the house (the upper two floors are privately occupied) and includes the garden that has been restored in the style of an eighteenth century town garden. A virtual tour on the ground floor (designed specifically with wheelchair users in mind) takes visitors on a step by step journey around the house. Many astronomical and musical artifacts are on display, including a replica of a telescope similar to that with which Herschel discovered Uranus, and a full scale reproduction of a lamp micrometer. This was a typical Herschel invention that consists of a disc with moving arms, a couple of oil burning lamps and some string. With such simple components, Herschel was able to measure the distance between stars and galaxies with almost one hundred per cent accuracy. The vaults at garden level have been equipped as a tiny cinema showing a film of the Herschels' lives and discoveries. Herschel's workshop with original furnace and many tools is accessible to visitors who can handle some of the equipment. The Caroline Lucretia Gallery opened in 2011. Privately funded this new gallery provides a modern space for temporary exhibitions and leads from the workshop into the garden.
The museum's patron is Sir Patrick Moore, astronomer.
The museum's opening times vary throughout the year. Further details can be found at the museum's page on the website of the Bath Preservation Trust.
Read more about this topic: Herschel Museum Of Astronomy
Famous quotes containing the word museum:
“It is the space inside that gives the drum its sound.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 1189, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“A fine-looking mill, but no machinery inside.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 1702, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)