Have you ever been to a planetarium?

[Warrigal]

Sure have, and an observatory too!

Me too. Top marks to the planetarium in Winnipeg. Sydney observatory, now decommissioned due to light pollution, was fascinating because years ago we could still see a lot of features of the night sky (southern hemisphere view).

Siding Springs in NSW is a wonderful location not only for a large optical telescope; it is still great for naked eye observations of the night sky. It is there that I was able one evening to see the Magellanic Clouds low on the horizon, just as Magellan did when he sailed around Cape Horn.

I've also visited the telescope at Parkes, NSW. The dish array was able to pick up and relay video of the first lunar landing (Appollo 11) when Armstrong and Aldrin became the first human beings to set foot on the Moon. At the time that they did that, US was unable to pick up the signal. However, Siding Springs was in the right position to receive both audio and video.

That's how I know that the lunar landing was not a hoax.

For a light hearted account of what happened I recommend the Australian film The Dish, starring Sam Neill as one of the astronomers charged with tracking Apollo 11.