Guest post by Observatory Resident Dr Nancy Cushing. In October 1859, a letter of complaint was sent to the Sydney Morning Herald about the excessive ringing of church bells in the city.  To the writer, the bells were an annoyance in an urban area where “clocks, and watches, and time-balls, and time-guns, and all sorts of accessories to punctuality, are in everyone’s eyes and ears”.   The reference to the time ball, which had only begun service the previous year, is intriguing.  The time ball was primarily intended to provide the exact time to marine navigators, but was it also a useful addition to Sydney’s urban timescape in the nineteenth century as the letter suggested?  Or did it trundle up and down its mast unnoticed by those around it, and if so, why did they not pay it attention?  Seeking answers to these questions during a two month Residency has taken me deep into the records of the Sydney Observatory, nineteenth century newspapers and transcripts of oral history interviews as well as up to the top of the time ball tower and out into the streets of Millers Point.

Guest post by Astronomy Ambassador Karlie Noon. Despite the plethora of data supporting human-driven climate change, too many of our world leaders and thought provokers continue to dismiss or misuse science for alternative agendas.