I have read that the night life is something that everyone needs to experience while visiting the city, so this evening we put our shoes back on and headed out after dark.
Our destination was the National Observatory of Athens.
We toured the visitor’s center and learned how Athens calculated the time until the 1960s. The observatory announced noon to the local population by dropping a ball and ringing church bells at noon daily.
We also visited a room with a 3x size reproduction of a machine (The Antikythera Mechanism) that was discovered in a shipwreck off a small Greek island. The machine dates to around 140 BC and was made of wood and bronze. Unfortunately there are not many pieces left, but scientists have been working for 100 years in an attempt to put it back together and form a greater understanding of technology that existed at that time. This box appears to be a calendar that tells zodiac and months, phases of the moon, dates of the different Games (think Olympic, but done in various city-states around greater Greece).
After admiring how far they have come with this discovery, it was time for the grand event.
We headed to the hilltop observatory to look through the 100 year old refracting telescope at the planet Saturn. The view showed us its rings and three of its moons.
Wow! What a great experience! I remember the first time I saw Saturn’s rings in my neighbor’s telescope when I was a teen. Remarkable!