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Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories
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Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories

observatories, Australia
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Article History

Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, pair of astronomical observatories in southeast Australia that are operated by the Australian National University and that together constitute the most important facilities for such observation in the Southern Hemisphere.

Mount Stromlo Observatory is situated at an elevation of 768 metres (2,520 feet) on Mount Stromlo, 10 km (6 miles) west of Canberra. It was founded in 1924 as a centre for solar studies but shifted its emphasis in the 1940s to stellar astronomy. Its main telescope is a 1.9-metre (74-inch) reflector. The Mount Stromlo Observatory’s viewing capability was threatened in the 1950s by the lights of the growing city of Canberra, and so a new site was established at an elevation of 1,165 metres (3,822 feet) on Siding Spring Mountain, about 31 km (19 miles) from Coonabarabran, New South Wales. On Jan. 18, 2003, a bushfire destroyed all five telescopes at Mount Stromlo. Rebuilding of some of the facilities began shortly thereafter.

The Siding Spring Observatory was originally a field station for the Mount Stromlo site, but it has become in itself one of the most important optical observatories in the world. Its main telescope is the Anglo-Australian Telescope, which was jointly built by Australia and Great Britain and has been operated by them since 1975. The instrument is a 3.9-metre (153-inch) reflector that has notably distortion-free optics and an extremely precise computer-controlled system for pinpointing and tracking celestial objects. The telescope is most useful for viewing distant cosmic objects of extremely faint luminosity. The Siding Spring Observatory also has the 2.3-metre (91-inch) Advanced Technology Telescope, which was built in 1984 and was designed to use new telescope technology. There are six other telescopes at Siding Spring, including the 1.2-metre (48-inch) Schmidt telescope, which is owned and operated by the United Kingdom Science Research Council. It has been used to extend the sky survey conducted by its sister instrument, the 1.2-metre (48-inch) Schmidt telescope at the Palomar Observatory, to the southern skies.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.