page_title: Time ball
section_title: New Zealand
hierarchical_section_title: Time ball / Around the world / New Zealand
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of Wellington's Dominion Observatory showing the time light signals
context_page_description: A time ball or timeball is an obsolete time-signalling device. It consists of a large, painted wooden or metal ball that is dropped at a predetermined time, principally to enable navigators aboard ships offshore to verify the setting of their marine chronometers. Accurate timekeeping is essential to the determination of longitude at sea.
  Although the use of time balls has been replaced by electronic time signals, some time balls have remained operational as historical tourist attractions.
context_section_description: Lyttelton Timeball Station
  The Lyttelton Timeball Station in Lyttelton, New Zealand, was operational until it was damaged in the 2010 Canterbury earthquake. Further severe damage occurred in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and a decision was made in March 2011 to dismantle the building, a danger to the public, but the tower collapsed during the major aftershock that hit the Lyttelton area on 13 June 2011.  In November 2012, a large financial donation  was made available to contribute towards rebuilding the tower, a project the community considered. On 25 May 2013, it was announced that the tower and ball would be restored, and that funds were to be sought from the community to rebuild the rest of the station. The station was officially reopened on 2 November 2018.
  Wellington
  The Wellington time ball service started in March 1864. It received its time information from the Dominion Observatory which was also communicated to the Lyttelton time ball service. Dunedin used local observatory facilities.
  Wellington had two time ball sites – the time ball was erected at the first site by mid-January 1864 on top of the Custom House building on the Wellington waterfront  and later relocated in 1888 to the J Shed Woolstore on top of the accumulator tower. This building and the time ball burnt down on 9 March 1909.
  Instead of replacing the Wellington time ball after the second site burnt down, time light signals were introduced at the Dominion Observatory. The earliest record of this was 22 February 1912. They were in use until 1937 when wireless signals took over as the new way to keep time.
caption: The Time Light arrangement at Dominion Observatory in Wellington circa 1913
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