Mount Stromlo Observatory

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Dome construction of the 1.88 meter mirror telescope

The Mount Stromlo Observatory (MSO; Mount Stromlo Observatory ) is one of the most traditional astronomical observatories in the southern hemisphere . It is operated by the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University and is located on the 770 meter high Mount Stromlo , about eleven kilometers west of the center of the Australian capital Canberra .

history

In 1924 the observatory was founded under the name The Commonwealth Solar Observatory (CSO). The area on the summit of Mount Stromlo had already been used for observations for over a decade after Pietro Baracchi established a small makeshift observatory there in 1911 with the Oddie telescope. The dome built for the Oddie Telescope was the federal government's first new building in the newly founded Australian Capital Territory . Also in 1911 a delegation who wanted to set up a solar observatory in Australia traveled to London , where they asked the British government for financial support. When Canberra was first discussed as a possible capital, surveying work had already started to check the suitability of the location. Home Secretary Hugh Mahon has supported the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science in this effort since 1909.

Destroyed dome structure after the bush fires of 2003
Burnt out administration building

Up until the Second World War , the observatory specialized in observing the sun and the atmosphere. During the war, the workshops contributed to the war effort by making gun sights and other optical devices. After the war, the observatory shifted to stellar and galactic astronomy and was renamed The Commonwealth Observatory . Dr. R. Wooley, the director of the observatory, sought support for a larger reflector , arguing that the southern hemisphere should try to rival the effectiveness of American telescopes. After the founding of the Australian National University (ANU) in 1946, employees and students did research here. From 1957 the Mount Stromlo Observatory was part of the astronomical department of the Research School of Physical Sciences of the ANU. Due to the increasing light pollution due to the proximity to Canberra , the Siding Spring Observatory was established in 1965 as a branch of the MSO. Finally, in 1986, the ANU's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics was founded .

On January 18, 2003, devastating bush fires largely destroyed the MSO. Five telescopes, the workshops, seven residential buildings and the listed administration building were destroyed by flames. The only telescope that survived the fire was the 15 cm Farnham Telescope from 1886. Relics from the fire are kept in the collection of the National Museum of Australia . This includes a melted telescope mirror and a piece of melted optical glass. Reconstruction began in 2004. While several buildings had to be demolished, the historic administration building of the MSO could be preserved. After twelve years of work, the reconstruction was completed and the observatory has been open to the public again since January 2015.

Research programs

In 1993, as part of the MACHO project, researchers discovered the first example of the gravitational lensing effect of a star through another, the so-called microlensing effect (Alcock et al. 1993; Paczynski 1996). This discovery was made through repeated recordings of the Magellanic Clouds with the renovated Great Melbourne Telescope , which has a diameter of 1.2 meters and was equipped with a mosaic of eight CCD sensors , each 2048 × 2048 pixels.

Brian Schmidt organized an international collaboration, known as High-Z Supernova Search Team , the change rate of cosmic expansion based on supernovae of type Ia investigate. In 1998, the team concluded that, contrary to expectations, cosmic expansion is accelerating. This universal acceleration implies the existence of dark energy and has been named the most important scientific breakthrough of the year by Science magazine . In 2011, Schmidt shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for observations that provide evidence of the accelerating universe.

literature

  • Tom Frame, Don Faulkner: Stromlo - An Australian Observatory . Allen and Unwin, London 1993, ISBN 1-86508-659-2 .

Web links

Commons : Mount Stromlo Observatory  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ JL Perdrix: Baracchi, Pietro Paolo Giovanni Ernesto (1851-1926) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Volume 7. Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1979, ISBN 0-522-84108-2 , pp. 166-167 (English).
  2. ^ Solar Observatory Commonwealth Aid Sought. The Age, June 21, 1911, p. 7 , accessed February 26, 2020 .
  3. ^ Commonwealth Solar Observatory. The Sydney Morning Herald , March 31, 1909, p. 11 , accessed February 26, 2020 .
  4. ^ Big Telescope Sought for Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald, August 22, 1947, p. 4 , accessed February 26, 2020 .
  5. ^ Departments of the Research School: Astronomy. (PDF, 90 kB) Australian National University , pp. 58–60 , accessed on March 4, 2011 (English).
  6. ^ A Changing School. (PDF, 303 kB) Australian National University, pp. 33–43 , archived from the original on March 4, 2011 ; accessed on February 26, 2020 (English).
  7. ↑ Kelly Beatty: Aussie Fires Destroy Mount Stromlo Observatory. Sky & Telescope, January 23, 2003, accessed February 26, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Farmham Telescope. Australian National University, accessed February 26, 2020 .
  9. ^ Mount Stromlo ruin rises from the ashes. Australian National University, January 30, 2015, accessed February 26, 2020 .
  10. ^ History. Great Melbourne Telescope, accessed February 26, 2020 .
  11. ↑ James Glanz: Breakthrough of the Year: Astronomy: Cosmic Motion Revealed. Science , December 18, 1998, accessed February 26, 2020 .
  12. ^ A look at the winners of the 2011 Nobel Prizes. Associated Press , July 10, 2011, accessed February 26, 2020 .

Coordinates: 35 ° 19 ′ 13 ″  S , 149 ° 0 ′ 25 ″  E