The Computer Museum contains a collection of computers, components and peripherals, demonstrating the rapid development of computing devices, remote data transmission, mainframes, personal computers, laptops and even microcomputers and smartphones. Special attention is paid to Apple design and the development of human-computer interaction and usability.

The collection of the Centre for the History of Science and Technology comprises about 500 objects of physical, astronomical, chemical, technical instruments, and mathematical and technical models, photographic glass plates and slides, in addition, functional models on ancient Greek technology (e.g. Heron of Alexandria). There are also the computer science collection (calculating machines, slide rules, planimeters, and computers), of special interest is a collection of abaci from Russia, Japan, Indonesia, China, Mongolia, and other countries. The majority of the objects date from the 20th century.

Historical large-scale equipment neo-baroque buildings and domes (constructed 1906-1912) - the entire ensemble of Hamburg Observatory has been listed as a national monument of cultural heritage. It is also discussed as a possible aspirant for the UNESCO world heritage list. It comprises star catalogues, globes, and celestial atlases, Johannes Kepler's "Tabulae Rudolphinae" (1627), the "Atlas novus coelestis" by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (1742), and eyewitness accounts of the solar eclipse expedition to Mexico in 1923. There are more than 35,000 historical photographs of planets, comets, star nebulae, and other celestial bodies as well as documents, texts, drawings and photographs on the work of the optician and inventor Bernhard Schmidt (1879-1935), one of the most important people in the development of optics in the 20th century .

The Schmidt Museum is dedicated to the work of the Estonian optician Bernhard Schmidt (1879-1935), an optician specialised in astronomical optics, who had his workshop at Hamburg Observatory. Here, in 1930, he succeeded in inventing a completely new kind of reflecting telescope, which, today, is known as a Schmidt Camera or Schmidt Telescope, and revolutionised astronomical photography from the mid 20th century onwards. In addition to instruments and the workshop tools, the original Schmidt telescope and models of the Large Hamburg Schmidt Telescope as well as scientific documents that he left behind are on display at the museum.

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schott (1866-1961), founder of the Chair of Oceanography at the Universität Hamburg, was a geographer and oceanographer and the most internationally renowned marine researcher of his time. In addition to selected works on oceanography, the collection also includes expedition reports and a special print collection with around 1,000 copies.