Camera Obscura

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The Great Union Camera Obscura on Douglas Head
The Great Union Camera Obscura on Douglas Head

Camera Obscura is Latin for 'Dark Chamber'. In tourism terms a Camera Obscura is a building that uses lenses and mirrors to project an image onto a viewing table. There have been two on the island located at Douglas Head and Port Soderick, of which only the former still exists.

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Douglas Head

The Great Union Camera Obscura on Douglas Head is a timber building with 12 lenses in the roof. It opened in the early 1890s and remained in private hands until the 1990s when in a state of disrepair it was acquired by the Government and refurbishment was undertaken by the Department of Local Government and the Environment.

Following a £250,000 resoration project that saw the Camera closed off from the weather in a large green cube, it reopened for visitors in 2005. Upkeep and day to day running of the attraction is now looked after by the Isle of Man Victorian Society.

Port Soderick

The Camera Obscura was located at the southern end of the promenade at Port Soderick.


Related Video

Photographer Abelardo Morell [1] turns the room of Venetian palace into a gigantic camera using the ancient technology of the camera obscura, as featured in the new BBC series 'The Genius of Photography'.

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