Mount Stromlo Observatory

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Mount Stromlo Observatory
Mt Stromlo Obs2.jpg
Remains of the old administration building with the dome of the Farnham telescope
Alternative namesmso OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Observatory code 414   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Location Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, AUS
Coordinates 35°19′13″S149°00′25″E / 35.320277777778°S 149.00694444444°E / -35.320277777778; 149.00694444444
Altitude770 m (2,530 ft) OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Established1924  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website rsaa.anu.edu.au/observatories/mount-stromlo-observatory OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Telescopes
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Location of Mount Stromlo Observatory
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[ edit on Wikidata]

Mount Stromlo Observatory located just outside Canberra, Australia, is part of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU). Australia's oldest telescope and several others at the observatory were destroyed by bushfire in 2003.

Contents

History

The observatory was established in 1924 as The Commonwealth Solar Observatory. The Mount Stromlo site had already been used for observations in the previous decade, a small observatory being established there by Pietro Baracchi using the Oddie telescope located there in 1911. [1] The dome built to house the Oddie telescope was the first Commonwealth building constructed in the newly established Australian Capital Territory. In 1911 a delegation for an Australian Solar Observatory went to London seeking Commonwealth assistance. The League of the Empire sought subscriptions to assist raising funds. [2] Survey work to determine the site's suitability had begun as soon as the idea of a new Capital was established. By 1909 the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science was assisted in this effort by Hugh Mahon (Minister for Home Affairs). [3] Until World War II, the observatory specialised in solar and atmospheric observations. During the war the workshops contributed to the war effort by producing gun sights, and other optical equipment. After the war, the observatory shifted direction to stellar and galactic astronomy and was renamed The Commonwealth Observatory. Dr R. Wooley Director of the Observatory, worked to gain support for a larger reflector, arguing that the southern hemisphere should attempt to compete with the effectiveness of American telescopes. [4] The ANU was established in 1946 in nearby Canberra and joint staff appointments and graduate studies were almost immediately undertaken. A formal amalgamation took place in 1957, with Mount Stromlo Observatory becoming part of the Department of Astronomy [5] in the Research School of Physical Sciences at ANU, leading eventually to the formation of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1986. [6]

Remains of the dome of the 1.3 metres (50 in) Great Melbourne telescope Mt Stromlo Obs1.jpg
Remains of the dome of the 1.3 metres (50 in) Great Melbourne telescope
Statue of an astronomer and the concept of the cosmic distance ladder, created by scientist and artist Tim Wetherell, made from the azimuth ring and other parts of the Yale-Columbia Refractor (telescope) (c 1925) wrecked by the 2003 Canberra bushfires which burned out the Mount Stromlo Observatory; at Questacon, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The Astonomer.jpg
Statue of an astronomer and the concept of the cosmic distance ladder, created by scientist and artist Tim Wetherell, made from the azimuth ring and other parts of the Yale-Columbia Refractor (telescope) (c 1925) wrecked by the 2003 Canberra bushfires which burned out the Mount Stromlo Observatory; at Questacon, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
Mount Stromlo Locality Map Stromlo ACT locality-MJC01.png
Mount Stromlo Locality Map

On 18 January 2003, the devastating Canberra firestorm hit Mount Stromlo (which was surrounded by a plantation pine forest), destroying five telescopes, workshops, seven homes, and the heritage-listed administration building. [7] The only telescope to escape the fires was the 1886 15-centimetre Farnham telescope. Relics from the fire are preserved in the collection of the National Museum of Australia. They include a melted telescope mirror and a piece of melted optical glass (flint). The latter has pieces of charcoal and wire fused into it from the fierce heat of the fire. [8]

Redevelopment is completed and the Observatory is now a major partner in the construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope. [9] The current observatory director is Matthew Colless. [10]

The director's residence, destroyed in the 2003 fire, was rebuilt and opened to the public as a memorial in 2015. [11]

In 2023, the Quantum Optical Ground Station was launched. It allows for terabit-per-second communication using adaptive optics and lasers. [12]

Research

The MACHO project detected the first instance of the gravitational lensing of one star by another, known as gravitational microlensing, in 1993 (Alcock et al. 1993; Paczynski 1996). [13] This discovery was made by repeated imaging of the Magellanic Clouds with the refurbished 50-inch Great Melbourne Telescope which was equipped with a mosaic of eight 2048 by 2048 pixel CCDs. [14] The camera was constructed by the Centre for Particle Astrophysics in California (CFPA), and at the time was the largest digital camera ever built (Frame & Faulkner 2003). Observations began in July 1992 and the project concluded in December 1999. In total, the MACHO project made over 200 billion stellar measurements, with the data processed both at the observatory and at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Brian Schmidt organised an international collaboration, known as the High-z Supernova Search Team, to study the rate of change of the Cosmic Expansion using type Ia supernovae. In 1998, the team reach the conclusion that the cosmic expansion was accelerating, contrary to expectations. This universal acceleration implies the existence of dark energy and was named the top science breakthrough of 1998 by Science magazine. [15] In 2011, Brian P. Schmidt shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for such observations which provided evidence for the accelerating Universe. [16]

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, co-led by Matthew Colless, undertook the largest galaxy redshift survey of its time, and was conducted at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) with the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope between 1997 and 11 April 2002. [17] In total, the survey measured more than 245,000 galaxies, providing, along with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the definitive measurements of large scale structure in the low-redshift Universe.

Advanced instrumentation

The instrumentation group at Mount Stromlo Observatory has built two instruments for the Gemini Telescope. [18] This includes the near infrared integral field spectrometer, NIFS, deployed on Gemini-North, and the adaptive optics imager for Gemini-South, GSAOI. NIFS, when nearly completed, was destroyed in the bushfires of 18 January 2003, and rebuilt.

A new rapid survey telescope, SkyMapper, was completed in 2014. [19] SkyMapper resides at the ANU's other observatory (Siding Spring) and can be operated remotely from Mount Stromlo. [20]

Mount Stromlo hosts a DORIS (geodesy) earth station installed by France's CNES. [21]

Location

Mount Stromlo Observatory is located at an altitude of 770 metres above sea level on Mount Stromlo. Situated west of the centre of Canberra, near the district of Weston Creek. Canberra's main water supply treatment plant is located nearby. [22]

Engineering heritage award

The observatory received an Engineering Heritage International Marker from Engineers Australia as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program. [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gemini Observatory</span> Astronomical observatory

The Gemini Observatory comprises two 8.1-metre (26.6 ft) telescopes, Gemini North and Gemini South, situated in Hawaii and Chile, respectively. These twin telescopes offer extensive coverage of the northern and southern skies and rank among the most advanced optical/infrared telescopes available to astronomers. (See List of largest optical reflecting telescopes).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Astronomical Observatory</span> Observatory

The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, was an optical and near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in North Ryde in suburban Sydney, Australia. Originally funded jointly by the United Kingdom and Australian governments, it was managed wholly by Australia's Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. The AAO operated the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and 1.2-metre UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) at Siding Spring Observatory, located near the town of Coonabarabran, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siding Spring Observatory</span> Astronomic observatory in New South Wales, Australia

Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a collection of other telescopes owned by the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, and other institutions. The observatory is situated 1,165 metres (3,822 ft) above sea level in the Warrumbungle National Park on Mount Woorat, also known as Siding Spring Mountain. Siding Spring Observatory is owned by the Australian National University (ANU) and is part of the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories research school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2003 Canberra bushfires</span> 2003 Bushfires Near Canberra Australia

The 2003 Canberra bushfires caused severe damage to the suburbs and outer areas of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, during 18–22 January 2003. Almost 70% of the Australian Capital Territory's (ACT) pastures, pine plantations, and nature parks were severely damaged, and most of the Mount Stromlo Observatory was destroyed. After burning for a week around the edges of the ACT, the fires entered the suburbs of Canberra on 18 January 2003. Over the next ten hours, four people died, over 490 were injured, and 470 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, requiring a significant relief and reconstruction effort.

The UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) is a 1.24 metre Schmidt telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory ; it is located adjacent to the 3.9 metre Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. It is very similar to the Samuel Oschin telescope in California. The telescope can detect objects down to magnitude 21 after an hour of exposure on photographic plates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siding Spring 2.3 m Telescope</span>

The 2.3 metre telescope at Siding Spring Observatory is operated by the Australian National University. The Advanced Technology Telescope was constructed during the early 1980s and featured, at the time, radical features: an unusually thin mirror, an alt-az mount and co-rotating dome. The optical telescope has Altazimuth mount and a primary mirror with a focal length of f/2.05. It is housed in a box-shaped building which rotates as the telescope tracks objects.

The Automated Patrol Telescope (APT) was a wide-field CCD imaging telescope, operated by the University of New South Wales at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronomical survey</span> General map or image of a region of the sky with no specific observational target

An astronomical survey is a general map or image of a region of the sky that lacks a specific observational target. Alternatively, an astronomical survey may comprise a set of images, spectra, or other observations of objects that share a common type or feature. Surveys are often restricted to one band of the electromagnetic spectrum due to instrumental limitations, although multiwavelength surveys can be made by using multiple detectors, each sensitive to a different bandwidth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Stromlo</span> Mountain in the Australian Capital Territory

Mount Stromlo is a mountain with an elevation of 770 metres (2,530 ft) AHD  that is situated in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The mountain is most notable as the location of the Mount Stromlo Observatory. The mountain forms part of the catchment area of the Cotter River which in turn is the primary water supply for part of ACT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SkyMapper</span>

SkyMapper is a fully automated 1.35 m (4.4 ft) wide-angle optical telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the telescopes of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University (ANU). The telescope has a compact modified Cassegrain design with a large 0.69 m secondary mirror, which gives it a very wide field of view: its single, dedicated instrument, a 268-million pixel imaging camera, can photograph 5.7 square degrees of sky. The camera has six light filters which span from ultraviolet to near infrared wavelengths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melbourne Observatory</span> Observatory

Melbourne Observatory is an observatory located on a hill adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. The observatory commenced operations in 1862 and was decommissioned from official Government work in 1945. The observatory has since continued as an astronomical observatory and remains open to the public. Melbourne Observatory is also permanently on the Australian National Heritage List under 'Melbourne's Domain Parkland and Memorial Precinct' since early 2018.

The Uppsala Schmidt Telescope is a Schmidt telescope located in Australia. It was moved to Siding Spring Observatory from Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1982. The instrument has been used to study the galaxy, asteroids and comets. It was last dedicated to the Siding Spring Survey. The telescope had a field of view of just over 6° through the use of a correcting plate, making its field three times as large as that of the Anglo-Australian Telescope. It used a spherical rather than a parabolic mirror with 0.6 m correcting plate to achieve this. Photographic plates and film were used as detectors.

Penny Diane Sackett is an American-born Australian astronomer and former director of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU). Professor Sackett was the Chief Scientist of Australia from November 2008 until March 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Computational Infrastructure</span> HPC facility in Canberra, Australia

The National Computational Infrastructure is a high-performance computing and data services facility, located at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The NCI is supported by the Australian Government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), with operational funding provided through a formal collaboration incorporating CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian National University, Geoscience Australia, the Australian Research Council, and a number of research intensive universities and medical research institutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Melbourne Telescope</span>

The Great Melbourne Telescope was built by the Grubb Telescope Company in Dublin, Ireland in 1868, and installed at the Melbourne Observatory in Melbourne, Australia in 1869. In 1945 that Observatory closed and the telescope was sold and moved to the Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra. It was rebuilt in the late 1950s. In 2003 the telescope, still in use as an observatory, was severely damaged in a bushfire. About 70% of the components were salvageable; a project to restore the telescope to working condition started in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Gascoigne</span> New Zealand–Australian astronomer (1915–2010)

Sidney Charles Bartholemew "Ben" Gascoigne was a New Zealand-born optical astronomer and expert in photometry who played a leading role in the design and commissioning of Australia's largest optical telescope, the Anglo-Australian Telescope, which for a time was one of the world's most important astronomical facilities. Born in Napier, New Zealand, Gascoigne trained in Auckland and at the University of Bristol, before moving to Australia during World War II to work at the Commonwealth Solar Observatory at Mount Stromlo in Canberra. He became skillful in the design and manufacture of optical devices such as telescope elements.

In astronomy, the MACHO Project was an observational search during 1992-1999 for dark matter around our Milky Way galaxy in the form of hypothetical Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs), using the method of gravitational microlensing. It was one of three first-generation microlensing searches started in the early 1990s, the others being the independent EROS and OGLE projects. The MACHO project was carried out by a team of US and Australian astronomers; observations used the 1.27-metre (50-inch) telescope at the Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra, which was dedicated to the project full-time from 1992 until 1999. The project did not solve the dark matter problem, but placed important upper limits on the fraction of dark matter in MACHOs across a wide range of masses, and achieved several notable discoveries in the field of microlensing, and new results on several classes of variable stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronomical Society of Victoria</span> Amateur astronomy club in the state of Victoria, Australia

The Astronomical Society of Victoria (ASV) is an amateur astronomy club in the state of Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1922, making it one of the oldest such clubs in the country, and with some 1500 members it claims to be one of the largest amateur astronomy organisations in the southern hemisphere. Membership is open to all with an interest in astronomy, and the society caters for people with a wide range of ages, backgrounds, abilities and interests.

Stromlo is a district in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. It is situated adjacent to Weston Creek and the Molonglo Valley. The district was the location of the Stromlo Forest pine plantation until its destruction by the 2001 and 2003 Canberra bushfires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warrick Couch</span> Australian astronomer

Warrick John Couch is an Australian professional astronomer. He is currently a professor at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. He was previously the Director of Australia's largest optical observatory, the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO). He was also the president of the Australian Institute of Physics (2015–2017), and a non-executive director on the Board of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization. He was a founding non-executive director of Astronomy Australia Limited.

References

  1. ↑ J. L. Perdrix (1979). "Baracchi, Pietro Paolo Giovanni Ernesto (1851 - 1926)". Australian Dictionary of Biography . Vol. 7. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. pp. 166–167. ISSN   1833-7538.
  2. ↑ "Solar Observatory Commonwealth Aid Sought". The Age. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "Commonwealth Solar Observatory". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1909.
  4. ↑ "Big Telescope Sought for Australia". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 August 1947.
  5. ↑ https://physics.anu.edu.au/fire_in_the_belly/Fire_in_the_Belly07.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  6. ↑ https://physics.anu.edu.au/fire_in_the_belly/Fire_in_the_Belly04.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  7. ↑ "Mt Stomlo observatory severely damaged in fires". ABC News. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  8. ↑ "NMA Collections Search - Piece of clear optical glass (flint), a relic from the 2003 bush fire that destroyed the Mount Stromlo Observatory". Nma.gov.au. 18 January 2003. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  9. ↑ "Giant Magellan Telescope - RSAA - ANU". Rsaa.anu.edu.au. 25 June 2012. Archived from the original on 14 April 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  10. ↑ "Contacts".
  11. ↑ Louise Maher (30 January 2015). "Mount Stromlo Director's Residence opens to public after being destroyed in 2003 Canberra bushfires". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  12. ↑ Groves, Emmy (6 December 2023). "New Quantum Optical Ground Station allows Canberra to play starring role in space communications". ABC News. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  13. ↑ "MACHO project, a search for evidence of dark matter". The Great Melbourne Telescope [GMT]. 20 December 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  14. ↑ "History". Great Melbourne Telescope Org. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  15. ↑ James Glanz (18 December 1998). "Breakthrough of the Year: Astronomy: Cosmic Motion Revealed". Science. 282 (5397): 2156–2157. Bibcode:1998Sci...282.2156G. doi:10.1126/science.282.5397.2156a. S2CID   117807831.
  16. ↑ "A look at the winners of the 2011 Nobel Prizes". Associated Press. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  17. ↑ Final Status of Survey Observations Archived 4 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ "North Plains Systems Announces TeleScope Gemini". Information Today Inc. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  19. ↑ "About SkyMapper" . Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  20. ↑ "Siding Spring Observatory". RSAA-ANU. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  21. ↑ Australia, c\=AU\;o\=Australia Government\;ou\=Geoscience (15 May 2014). "Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite". ga.gov.au.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ↑ "ACT Water Supply". ACTEW Corporation Ltd. Archived from the original on 3 May 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  23. ↑ "Mount Stromlo Observatory 1924-". Engineers Australia. Retrieved 3 May 2020.

Further reading

R. Bhathal, R. Sutherland, & H. Butcher (2013), Mt Stromlo Observatory, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne VIC, ISBN   9781486300754

Bibliography

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