TOURING EXHIBITION

The Butterfly Nebula, NASA/ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

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From Royal Museums Greenwich comes Visions of the Universe - an exhibition that shows how we have captured images of the heavens over the centuries, from the earliest hand-drawings to photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and the very latest footage from the Mars Curiosity Rover.

In this exhibition visitors will see an astonishing array of images of stars, planets and galaxies gathered from NASA, the Russian space programme, the European Southern Observatory and more of the world’s greatest telescopes and space missions. Also included is a selection of the best entries from the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition. The exhibition presents intriguing and awe-inspiring science in an aesthetically beautiful and accessible style. With back-lit panels, projections and a 13m ‘Mars Window’ the effect is truly stunning.

Visions of the Universe will captivate your visitors as they wander amongst dazzling galaxies, spectacular nebulae and millions of shimmering stars in this breath-taking collection of some of the most incredible images of our universe ever made.

“To put it bluntly, this is the most beautiful and significant exhibition I have seen in ages”

HHHHH Jonathan Jones, The Guardian  

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Royal Museums Greenwich

Lying at the heart of UNESCO’s Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site in southeast London, Royal Museums Greenwich works to illustrate for everyone the importance of the sea, ships, time and the stars and their relationship with people. The Museum comprises four individual venues: the National Maritime Museum, which holds the world's largest maritime collection and is filled with inspirational stories of discovery and adventure at sea; the Queen’s House, the UK’s oldest Palladian building which now hosts a world-class art collection; the Royal Observatory Greenwich, home of the Prime Meridian Line, Greenwich Mean Time and a modern science centre covering the latest discoveries in astronomy; and the Cutty Sark, a fully-restored 19th Century tea clipper ship in dry dock. With a unique remit combining expertise in art, science and maritime history, the Museum welcomes over 2 million visitors each year and is also a major centre of education and research. The Visions of the Universe exhibition combines the knowledge of the Royal Observatory’s resident astronomers with the wide-ranging experience of the Museum’s exhibitions design team.

For more information visit rmg.co.uk

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Exhibition Content

The exhibition is comprised of 7 thematic zones, and is supplemented by a slide show of additional images.

Visions of the Moon

As our nearest neighbour in space, the Moon was the first astronomical object to be studied in detail through a telescope and the first to be photographed. This zone contains some of the earliest drawings of the Moon to be made with the aid of a telescope and the first image of the Moon’s hidden far side, as well as the very latest images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The Moon, John William Draper, 1840, London Stereoscopic Company, Getty Images

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Visions of the Sun

The Sun is the brightest object in the sky and its immense gravity controls the motion of everything else in the Solar System. The Sun’s intense heat and dazzling light make it difficult and dangerous to observe with the naked eye, presenting astrophotographers with a unique challenge. This zone features close-up images of the Sun’s volatile surface as well as pictures of eclipses and transits.

Visions of the Planets

To the naked eye the planets appear as bright star-like objects, but telescopes and space missions have revealed them to be complex worlds in their own right with features such as polar ice-caps, volcanoes, hurricanes and seasons. Encountering images ranging from the earliest colour photograph of Mars to the most recent pictures sent back from spacecraft, showing astonishing surface detail, visitors will see that each planet is unique, with its own geography, climate and history. This zone includes the 13m-long ‘Mars Window’.

Extreme solar prominence, 2012 NASA, GSFC, SDO

The Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, 1996-7, NASA/JPL/DLR

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Above left: Michael Gernhadt taking a spacewalk, Endeavour space shuttle, 1995, NASA

Above right: Tower of gas in the Eagle Nebula, Hubble Space Telescope 2005, NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Visions of Deep Space

Deep space is everything that exists beyond the Solar System, including our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the billions of other galaxies that lie beyond it, some so far away that they are barely visible even with the most powerful telescopes. This zone includes an array of breath-taking pictures from giant telescopes and sensitive cameras capturing light too faint for the human eye to see and iconic images of stars, nebulae and galaxies from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as a photograph taken by Edwin Hubble himself in the 1920s.

Visions of the Universe and Us

In the 20th and 21st centuries technology has allowed us to record astonishing images of the night sky, and also to look back and see our home planet from space. This zone shows the place of stars and planets within beautiful landscapes of Planet Earth, alongside images of human exploration in space.

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Visions of the Future

As technology advances our understanding of the Universe continues to evolve. This final zone looks at some of the new telescopes and cameras that are currently being planned and asks the question: what visions of the Universe will these new technologies reveal? Awe-inspiring images that continue to challenge even the experts demonstrate how much there is still to discover.

Mars Window

A highlight of the exhibition is the Mars Window, a panoramic projection of the Martian landscape as seen by NASA’s Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on the surface of the red planet. Each panorama has been painstakingly compiled from dozens of individual images, and can be projected at a length of 13m or adapted for smaller surfaces of 2m or over where necessary. Seen on a large scale, the installation gives the feeling of standing on Mars itself.

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB): the oldest light in our universe, Planck spacecraft, 2013, ESA and the Planck Collaboration.

 

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Specifications

Below is an overview of what you will receive and the requirements of hosting the exhibition at your venue. Please contact us if you require further information.

The hosting venue will receive

77 dibond images 26 backlit images 8 framed images 8 separate projections on DVD 2 interactive screens Text for captions and

information panels Detailed support material

Hosting requirements A gallery of 500sqm 18sqm storage for crates Appropriate display walls Projectors and laptops Funding for transportation of

the exhibition Exhibition insurance including

public liability Staff to install and dismantle

the exhibition Print the exhibition text

(where necessary) Translate the exhibition text

(where necessary) Marketing, press and promotion

Installation and transport

To install and dismantle the exhibition we recommend a period of two weeks providing the gallery is ready and the walls prepared.

The exhibition travels in 24 transport cases.

Audience

During its four month run at the National Maritime Museum, Visions of the Universe was seen by over 70,000 visitors, with ticket types divided as shown below:

Adults: 53%

Concessions: 20%

Family 2+2: 15%

Child (under 14): 7%

Family 1+1: 5%

90% were paying visitors.

20% of tickets were sold in advance, via telephone or internet.

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Children’s trail

Children can go on a journey through space and discover drawings, photography and films

of our galaxy and beyond with this Visions of the Universe children’s trail which is

aimed at 7+ years. The document is provided in digital format for you to print and

distribute at your venue.

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Related publication

This book is a collection of beautiful images of space taken by photographers from around

the world. From giant storm systems in Jupiter’s atmosphere to the colourful wispy

remnants of a supernova explosion and the dazzling green curtain of the Northern Lights,

this book brings together some of the year’s best space imagery by astrophotographers

from around the world. It comprises images from Astronomy Photographer of the Year

competition organised by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in association with Sky at

Night Magazine, and powered by the photo-sharing website Flickr. The publication is

redesigned and republished each year, to include recent entries.

Retail offer A stunning range of retail products are available to sell alongside the exhibition. The range

includes magnets, postcards, mugs and t-shirts all with eye-catching imagery from the

exhibition. Details of the full range are available on request.

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Press coverage

Jonathan Jones, The Guardian “To put it bluntly, this is the most beautiful and significant exhibition I have seen in ages.”

Jenny Gilbert, The Independent on Sunday

“Impressively, the exhibition is accessible to all… Simply looking, in fact, yields heady delights.”

Amy Dawson, Metro

“this show makes us realise the extraordinary amount that lies beyond our everyday perception”

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Evening Standard “breathtaking exhibition.”

New Scientist

“Visions of the Universe is a whistle-stop tour through space and time that touches on science, history and art.”

Londonist

“Visions of the Universe, the National Maritime Museum’s first big astronomy exhibition, assembles such a stellar bounty that it should come with a warning: visitors might

experience tears of wonder.”

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Contact

If you are interested in booking this exhibition or would like to find out more information about the exhibition please contact:

Venetia Khan

Director

Exhibitions on Tour Ltd.

020 8682 2801

venetiakhan@exhibitionsontour.co.uk