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Stephen Carkeek, the Wellington Time Ball, and New Zealand’s Oldest Surviving Observatory

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Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 422))

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Abstract

Stephen Carkeek, as the Controller of Customs in Wellington, played a key role in the founding of New Zealand’s first professional observatory, the Colonial Observatory on the Wellington waterfront. After his retirement in 1867 he moved to Featherstone in the Wairarapa, where he was able to combine farming with his passion for astronomy. Accordingly, he built a commodious wooden observatory with a hexagonal dome room and an adjacent transit room and office. This observatory still exists, and despite its dilapidated condition is currently the oldest surviving example of an astronomical observatory in New Zealand. As such, it is an important part of New Zealand’s astronomical heritage, and experts need to be consulted to determine whether it is still possible to preserve and restore it.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Subsequently, time balls were installed in Dunedin in 1868 and at the port of Lyttelton, near Christchurch, in 1876 (see Bremner and Wood 1979; Kinns 2009). The attractive and architecturally-distinguished Lyttelton Timeball Station was seriously damaged during the 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011 major earthquakes, and collapsed during an aftershock on 13 June 2011. Plans are afoot to rebuild it.

  2. 2.

    When I first published on Carkeek’s observatory (Orchiston 2001) I also suggested that Thames’ Henry Severn would have had an observatory to house his 27.9-cm (11-in) reflector, which was then the largest telescope in New Zealand. Information that has subsequently come to light shows that Severn in fact did not have an observatory and that his reflector was set up outdoors (see Chap. 21 in this book).

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the following for their assistance: Jenni Chrisstoffels (Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, NZ), late Syd Cretney (Wellington, NZ), the late Tony Dodson (Wellington, NZ), Dr Roger Kinns (Glasgow, Scotland), the late Gary Wilmshurst (Wellington, NZ), staff at the Alexander Turnbull Library (Wellington, NZ) and especially Gordon Hudson (Wellington, NZ) who kindly visited Featherstone in November 2014 and photographed the Carkeek Observatory. I also wish to thank Dr Richard Dodd (Martinborough, NZ), Roger Kinns and Gordon Hudson for reading and commenting on the first draft of this chapter, and the Alexander Turnbull Library, Gordon Hudson the late Tony Dodson and the late Gary Wilmshurst for kindly supplying Figs. 8.1, 8.3, 8.4, 8.7, 8.9, 8.10, 8.11, 8.12, 8.13, 8.14 and 8.15.

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  1. National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Wayne Orchiston

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  1. Wayne Orchiston
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Orchiston, W. (2016). Stephen Carkeek, the Wellington Time Ball, and New Zealand’s Oldest Surviving Observatory. In: Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 422. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22566-1_8

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