While in Grahamstown,
I took some of my family to the Observatory Museum. Its Victorian camera obscura is the
only one of its type in the southern hemisphere and one of only two in the
world (the other being in Edinburgh).
A camera obscura is an
optical device which predates the camera. The name originates in Latin and
refers to a darkened room: camera means
“vaulted chamber or room” and obscura means
“dark”.
The museum was
originally a nineteenth century jeweller’s shop and family home. The original owner
and designer of this unusual building, Henry Carter Galpin, was a successful
watchmaker and jeweller who constructed the camera obscura in 1882. He was
interested in natural history, music, mechanics, astronomy and optics. The
museum also includes a Meridian Room where Galpin could ascertain the precise
time of local noon (14 minutes behind South African standard time) and a
Telescope Room which contains the telescope which was originally installed in
the rooftop observatory.
We climbed up a long
and very narrow spiral staircase in the highest tower to reach the camera
obscura. It works through a system of lenses and a mirror in a revolving turret
in its roof and projects a panorama of the city onto a concave viewing surface
in the darkened observation room beneath.
It’s fascinating and
our guide was knowledgeable and friendly (though the building itself looks in need of maintenance).
This photograph of the
image in the camera obscura is not as clear as the image itself. And had it
been a sunnier day the image would have been even sharper.
Once locals would set
their watches by the time on the clock tower but the clock is no longer working
and these days each clock face seems to show a different time..!
You can find out more
about the Observatory Museum at http://www.grahamstown.co.za and on
Wikipedia.
No comments:
Post a Comment