Carkeek Observatory

270 Murphys Line, FEATHERSTON

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Built in circa 1867 on a farm south of the Wairarapa town of Featherston, the Carkeek Observatory possesses outstanding historical significance as Aotearoa/New Zealand’s earliest surviving astronomical observatory. Built by civil servant, timeball instigator and amateur astronomer Stephen Carkeek, the place reflects the crucial role of amateur practitioners in the foundation and development of science in this country. As a local version of the popular Romsey-style of observatory used in Britain, it represents the transfer of a British tradition of amateur astronomy to colonial settings. The place has technological significance through the use of construction methods and materials similar to the Romsey model, and it possesses enough original elements to demonstrate how these observatories worked. As the only surviving nineteenth century stand-alone astronomical observatory in the country, it is a rare historic place. Due to their light-weight construction, Romsey-style observatories are rare internationally, making the Carkeek Observatory a remarkable survivor in a global context. Rediscovered by historians of astronomy in the 1980s, the observatory has provided this community and local astronomers with a connection to their past, which affords the place social significance, a quality heightened by its location next to the proposed South Wairarapa International Dark Sky Reserve. Stephen Carkeek built the timber observatory on the farm he bought following his retirement from the civil service in 1866. Carkeek was a dedicated astronomer, establishing latitude and longitude points by astronomical means and tracking planetary satellites, eclipses and culminations. His expertise was recognised in the lead-up to the 1874 transit of Venus, which attracted many international astronomical expeditions to New Zealand. Carkeek was also an active member of the Featherston community, providing meteorological observations to a local newspaper and serving on committees. Likely made from locally-sourced tōtara, the structure was typical of modest, low-cost observatories built by western amateur astronomers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was comprised of two main parts, an octagonal equatorial room with a revolving canvas dome and a rectangular transit annex. The equatorial room housed a refracting telescope used to monitor astronomical objects while the north-south path of stars across the meridian was tracked with the transit telescope. Stephen Carkeek died suddenly in 1878 and the farm was leased and subsequently sold. The observatory was no longer used for its original purpose, instead housing farming equipment, and gradually fell into a ruinous state. By the twenty-first century it was a partial yet authentic ruin, with enough original fabric surviving in-situ for the structure’s function to be discernible.

Carkreek Observatory, Featherston | Christine Barnett | 20/11/2019 | Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
Carkreek Observatory, Featherston. Detail - Example of mortice and tenon construction (joint with peg) and hand-made iron nails in the transit annex | Kerryn Pollock | 12/09/2019 | Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
Carkreek Observatory, Featherston. Detail - Example of an iron wheel, part of the mechanism which allowed the canvas dome of the equatorial room to revolve when in situ. It is now on the ground in the transit annex | Kerryn Pollock | 12/09/2019 | Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Place Category 1

Access

Private/No Public Access

List Number

9808

Date Entered

6th June 2020

Date of Effect

7th July 2020

City/District Council

South Wairarapa District

Region

Wellington Region

Extent of List Entry

Extent includes part of the land described as Lot 5 DP 482853 (RT 679923), Wellington Land District and the building known as Carkeek Observatory thereon. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).

Legal description

Lot 5 DP 482853 (RT 679923), Wellington Land District

Location Description

Additional Location Information NZTM E 1794984; NZTM N 5442525

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