Grahamstown - Observatory Museum

Opposite the City Hall Bathurst Street runs south from the High Street. At the near end, on the left, is the Observatory Museum, in a house occupied from 1850 until his death in 1886 by Henry Carter Galpin, a watchmaker and goldsmith who was also interested in astronomy. Here in 1882 he constructed a camera obscura, still the only one in South Africa.

In clear weather, with the help of a mirror on the roof, this shows an image of the whole town and its immediate surroundings.

The museum, with a Victorian-style interior, displays old furniture and furnishings and a collection of old telescopes.