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Museums Victoria

Museums Victoria is responsible for the state’s scientific and cultural collections, providing public access through three museums.

We also oversee a wide range of research programs, the continued development of the state’s collections, and run major education and research based websites.

We are the largest public museums organisation in Australia.

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Displaying 21 - 40 of 132 articles

The Moon passes in front of the Sun during this eclipse at Lake Bolac, Victoria, April 29, 2014. Phil Hart

Watch the Moon hide the Sun from northern Australia

On December 26 a solar eclipse will be visible from northern Australia, southern Asia and parts of the Middle East.
The 2018 Geminids meteor shower recorded over two very cold hours on the slope of Mount Lütispitz, Switzerland. Flickr/Lukas Schlagenhauf

Look up! Your guide to some of the best meteor showers for 2019

Moonlight will spoil some of the big meteor showers this year, but still plenty of others to see. So here’s your guide on when and where to look to catch nature’s fireworks.
Cover of the menu for the AIF Christmas Dinner, Hotel Cecil, London, in 1916. Illustration by Fred Leist. Museums Victoria collection, donated by Jean Bourke

What Australian soldiers ate for Christmas in WWI

For Australians serving overseas in WWI, Christmas was particularly difficult. Menus reveal how soldiers tried to maintain the traditions of home.
An artist’s impression of the path of star S2 as it passes very close to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The very strong gravitational field causes the colour of the star to shift slightly to the red. (Size and colour exaggerated for clarity.) ESO/M. Kornmesser

Einstein’s theory of gravity tested by a star speeding past a supermassive black hole

Astronomers traced a single star as it passed close to the black hole at the centre of our galaxy, and detected the telltale signature of Einstein’s gravity in action.
The Blood Moon from January 31, 2018. Our second chance to see an eclipsed Moon this year is coming up on July 28. Martin George

It’s a busy night sky this July, so make sure you look up

All five five planets visible to the naked-eye are on show in the night skies over Australia, and a Blood Moon on the way too.
Time to peer below the swirling clouds of Jupiter. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

The latest from Juno as Jupiter appears bright in the night sky

Now’s a great time to see Jupiter as it’s about to be the closest to Earth for some time. Time too to catch up with the latest on the Juno mission, exploring the largest planet in our Solar System.
The 2017 Geminids as seen from Ecuador, against the backdrop of the splendid Milky Way (centre) and the Large Magellanic Cloud (right). Flickr/David Meyer

Look up! Your guide to some of the best meteor showers for 2018

Your guide to some of the best meteor showers for 2018. Where to look and when in both the northern and southern skies to catch nature’s fireworks.
Cassini makes the first radio occultation of Saturn’s rings producing this simulated image with green for particles smaller than 5cm and purple where particles are larger. NASA/JPL

The beauty and mystery of Saturn’s rings revealed by the Cassini mission

The Cassini space probe took us up close and through the beautiful rings of Saturn. It captured some amazing images, and even the sound of the rings during its mission.
A Cassini portrait of five of Saturn’s moons. Janus (179km across) is on the far left, Pandora (81km across) orbits between the A ring and the thin F ring, Enceladus (504km across) is centre, Rhea (1,528km), is bisected by the right edge of the image and the smaller moon Mimas (396km) is seen beyond Rhea also on the right side of the image. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

What Cassini’s mission revealed about Saturn’s known and newly discovered moons

The Cassini space probe discovered several new moons on its mission to Saturn, and revealed fresh views of the moons we already knew about.

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