dubbo observatory

Owned and operated by a passionate sky watcher who will talk your legs off explaining the stars and what they mean. His wife will amaze you with her knowledge, both look like born again hippies but are amazingly friendly and great with kids.

Located about 2km's past the Dubbo Zoo.Some of the previous reviews are substantiated, although, a bit harsh with a “terrible” rating.The display and the information is informative and presented well. The guy is knowledgeable about the planets, stars and it is in a shed.It’s not really and observatory as such, although this is more of a passion/hobby/interest of a personal nature and he has some nice telescopes.

If you have a nerd hubby that want to see the stars this is the place to go. We both enjoyed the experience and staff was friendly. We will comeback with our grandsons soon.

We visited the observatory during the daylight hours, so missed the excitement of the night skies. In the main, we visited so the kids could play mini golf (putt putt). There are very few mini golf circuits around these days. Enjoyable morning.

We really enjoyed the presentation and the star-gazing at the observatory on our recent visit. The night was cold but the heaters next to the telescopes kept us warm. The presenter was great. Good family fun

After walking through the dusty reception area, with ancient books on all sorts of rubbish (e.g. a book on how to play the recorder, which must be circa 1950), you'll go into a room with a dozen lines of uncomfortable fold up chairs and watch three ancient videos of space related themes that are not very interesting - the last one consisting of astronaut high jinx in zero g which is nothing but astronauts trying to sleep, eat, salute, etc.The proprietor tries to be funny but just comes across as a cynical and abrasive old man who has been drinking too much. As well as waving around his green laser and actually shining it into someones eyes; when she complained, he merely said it was 'safe' - well, I would actually prefer not to take the risk of getting my retina sizzled.The telescopes are mounted outside on a concrete slab and at a guess are about 8 inch reflectors that are incapable of showing any details of any planets, mind you, it could have just been the smudgy eyepieces blurring everything. e.g. Mars is transformed from a red dot using the naked eye to a blurred red dot using the telescope. I can't recall the owner saying anything particularly interesting about what we were looking at.Complete waste of money and time.We'd promised our kids that we would play minigolf and since they are not ones to forget a promise, they held us too it - we then got to experience the joy of the minigolf course. Rough concrete ditches in the ground that is absolutely impossible to navigate with the ball, splats of concrete painted to look like mountains and the course run down and crumbling. Kids seemed to enjoy it, but they would enjoy smacking a golf ball around anywhere.A second offensive cash grab by the owner.

What a missed opportunity... A poorly spliced out of date DVD at the beginning and a look through the telescopes outside (this could have been so much better, some background to what we were looking at for example...). No scientific content from the guides and a few climate science sceptic factoids thrown in without context or explanation. Give this one a miss.

Awesome looking at the planets, moon and stars through an outdoor telescope. Learn't more about the solar system……..

Most of us think we know something of the story of The Dish, courtesy of the movie. I recommend a visit to the site, just North of Dubbo on the Newell Highway and a few kilometers off the road. The display and all the information is well presented, easy to read and informative. You have to experience the Listening Shells at the entrance, everyone is surprissed.The CSIRO is trully a special institution and to experience their work and the impact it has had, helps me to understand the importance of continuing to support and fund their research.The Dubbo Observatory is well worth a visit and can be enjoyed at many levels.

This was a great experience my kids asked a million questions and every question was answered without annoyance. It wasn't so busy that kids only got one look they got quantity and information.

Previous reviews are accurate, it is an old shed with two telescopes out in the back yard, with a dodgy movie to kill time while half the group is queuing for a look through the 2 telescopes. As I said if you don't go with high expectations you won't be that disappointed. We saw the funny side of the whole experience and we did see an extremely blurry picture of Saturn- that was the best part. If you thought the movie The Castle was funny, then it's worth a trip for the whole Australiana experience. Our group started with 24 people and by the time the movie had finished there were only 8 people left sitting in the shed....as a family we had a few laughs at the whole experience....our 11 year old says she won't forget the experience!!

I Have visited Peter's Observatory,many time's & each time something different,Peter is a very dedicated Star Gazer,& is well versed in all thing's Skyward,(Astronomy)I highly recommend you & your Family visit DUBBO OBSERVATORY..

Ok, this not an observatory like we would think.. But this guy has some nice telescope ( better than what Any standard guy would have) and is quite knowledgable about stars, planets, etc... So if you come with questions, he will give you answers... For 20$ this is worth going, looking at saturn or the moon like you have never done with your own eyes before. Ok, if you are an expert, don't go there!!!

Sat down for 1 hour out of 1.5 to watch ancient video. Not a good experience just a good money maker for the old owner.

This place was awesome! The guides were really funny and affable, and we got to see a bunch of stars and planets on the telescopes. It was a great, inexpensive night and totally worth it!