Join Dr Warren Hankey for a guided tour of the Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory, one of Lutruwita/Tasmania’s great hidden scientific treasures.

Explore the observatory’s famous big dish, peek inside the control room where old-school control panels still hum with signals from space, and discover how radio astronomers study the universe without ever looking through a telescope eyepiece. Instead of visible light, radio telescopes detect faint radio waves emitted by planets, galaxies, pulsars, black holes, and distant spacecraft, transforming invisible cosmic signals into information scientists can analyse here on Earth.

Originally built for NASA satellite tracking, Mount Pleasant’s 26m telescope now forms part of Australia’s radio astronomy network, continuing a long legacy of listening to the cosmos from a part of the world uniquely positioned to observe the southern sky.

You’ll also visit the Grote Reber Museum to uncover the story of the man widely considered the father of radio astronomy. After moving to Tasmania in the 1950s for its unique location at high magnetic latitude in the southern hemisphere, Reber spent decades building experimental telescopes and mapping the southern radio sky. The museum includes his original radio shack and equipment, alongside exhibits exploring Tasmania’s surprising role in space science.

This event is part of Beaker Street Festival 2026