The historic Townsend Teece telescope was badly damaged in the 2011 earthquake, but has been expertly restored and is now reinstalled back in its central city home at the Arts Centre.
The half-tonne telescope was buried under 35 tonnes of rubble when the Observatory tower collapsed in the February 2011 earthquake.
After a lengthy fundraising effort, more than $100,000 was raised privately to restore the rare scientific instrument and fund its installation and ongoing operation.
It took more than three years of painstaking work by a dedicated team at the University of Canterbury to bring the important piece of the city's astronomical heritage back to life.
The team decided on a "sympathetic restoration", repairing and renovating as many original parts of the telescope as possible, while keeping many of its scars from the earthquake.
"It's been 12 years since we've had the telescope open for open-nights because it was damaged in the earthquake. And it's been quite a voyage and a mission to get the telescope restored."
Pollard believes astronomy helps towards our thinking about our place in the universe.
"It makes you think about some of the big questions, you know, why are we here? Is there life in the universe? How did life arise on the earth?"
The public are invited to view the stars every Friday night, with tickets now on sale for sessions running through winter.
- Geoff Sloan, Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
