Geraldton's museum gets space fever

Geraldton got a taste of space fever today when Culture and the Arts Minister John Day launched the 'Space Lounge' exhibit at the Western Australian Museum -Geraldton.

The exhibit, part of the museum's National Science Week celebrations, covers space exploration and discovery.  It features photographs, a video dome and films.

Mr Day said the WA Museum - Geraldton was an appropriate launching pad for Geraldton's National Science Week calendar of events, with the growing focus in the region on technological projects.

The Minister said the exhibition used a number of formats to give viewers a real experience of space that many may not have seen before.

"The exhibitions and films will encourage visitors to think about both science and space differently and will celebrate and promote scientific discovery in Australia and on a global scale," he said.

"The photographs in 'Celestia Photographica: A photographic study of our breathtaking universe' are a spectacular display of astronomic photography. 

"They were taken by astrophotographer and technical officer at the Perth Observatory Richard Tonello and show a small, yet amazing display of objects found in our galaxy and beyond."

The exhibition also features 'The Video Dome', an Arts on the Move exhibition with artist David Carson, which is an inflatable dome that visitors enter and can see the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights.

The museum will also be host to Scinema, the festival of science film from CSIRO, featuring a series of science drama, documentaries and short stories.

The exhibition will run until September 29 and the films will be shown from August 4 to August 28.