The Space Museum Project

Some of the models on display.
 
 

A visit from Te Awamutu Playcentre.

This is a privately-funded project run by me (Dave Owen) with the help of my family. As of 2012 it's in the early stages of development, being not much more than a bunch of wall displays in a reasonably large office. The modest collection of memorabilia is interesting enough but it's a long way from being "museum quality"—something we don't expect to happen for a long time. Perhaps the most interesting thing we're working on is our spaceflight simulator, but again, it's in the very early stages.

Currently, the only real service we offer is group bookings for Dave's space shows (see below).

Venue & Location

The collection is housed in my office in Te Awamutu, about half an hour south of Hamilton, New Zealand.

The venue itself is a single room, 9 x 7 metres. This room serves as both a video production studio and space presentation room, so if you're interested in digital media you might also like to have a chat about that while you're here. If we've been using the studio we do need about half an hour to switch "modes", i.e. get the cameras and lights out of the way so you can see the space stuff.

Collection & Exhibits

At this stage the collection is very small and mostly made up of plastic models and home-made items, but we do have some genuine historic artifacts including a cue card that was used in space aboard the Apollo 9 mission.

Live Shows

We take group bookings of up to 30 people for live space presentations. Pick one of the standard shows or ask for a customized talk on any space-related topic. Please book well in advance - phone Dave on 07-870-1966 or 0274-448-621.

Telescopes

We have two telescopes that are occasionally used for public viewing: A 12" Dobsonian and a 4" Newtonian. However, for a good telescope viewing experience we recommend going to the Hamilton Observatory — you'll see some much nicer views through their excellent telescopes (including the big 24" in the dome).